Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dsjbd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-26T03:13:35.675Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Scrambler: An Argument Against Representationalism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2020

Stephen Biggs
Stephen Biggs*
Affiliation:
University of Toronto, Toronto, ONM5R 2M8, Canada
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Brentano (1874) famously claimed that two features demarcate the mental: consciousness and intentionality. Although he claimed that these features are intimately related, subsequent generations of philosophers rarely treated them together. Recently, however, the tide has turned. Many philosophers now accept that consciousness is intentional, where to be intentional is to have representational content, is to represent ‘things as being thus and so — where, for all that, things need not be that way’ (Travis, 2004, 58). In fact, weak representationalism, which holds that perceptual experiences have representational content, is ‘now fairly uncontroversial’ (Lycan, 2004).

Type
Research Article
Information
Canadian Journal of Philosophy , Volume 39 , Issue 2 , June 2009 , pp. 215 - 236
Copyright
Copyright © The Authors 2009

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Alston, W. ‘Perception and Representation.’ Philosophy and Phenomenological Reasearch 70 (2005) 253–89.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bealer, G. ‘Intuition and the Autonomy of Philosophy.’ In Rethinking Intuition, De-Paul, M.R. and Ramsey, W. eds. New York: Rowman & Littlefield 1998. 201–40.Google Scholar
Block, N. ‘Troubles with Functionalism.’ In Perception and Cognition, Savage, C.W. ed. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press 1978. Pages???Google Scholar
Block, N. ‘On a Confusion about a Function of Consciousness.’ Behavioral and Brain Sciences 18 (1995) 227–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Block, N. ‘Concepts of Consciousness.’ In Philosophy of Mind: Classical and Contemporary Readings. Chalmers, D. ed. Oxford and New York: Oxford UP 2002. 206–18.Google Scholar
Block, N. ‘Mental Paint.’ In Reflections and Replies: Essays on the Philosophy of Tyler Burge, ed. Hahn, M. and Ramberg, B. 165–200. Cambridge: MIT Press 2003.Google Scholar
Brentano, F. Psychology from Empirical Standpoint, Kraus, O. and McAlister, L.L. eds. Trans. Rancurello, A.C. Terrell, D.B. and McAlister, L.L.. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul 1874/1973.Google Scholar
Byrne, A. ‘Intentionalism Defended.’ Philosophical Review 110 (2001) 199–240.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carruthers, P. Phenomenal Consciousness. Cambridge: Cambridge UP 2000.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chalmers, D. The Conscious Mind. Oxford and New York: Oxford UP 1996.Google Scholar
Chalmers, D. ‘Consciousness and Its Place in Nature.’ In Philosophy of Mind: Classical and Contemporary Readings, Chalmers, D. ed. Oxford and New York: Oxford UP 2002. 247–72.Google Scholar
Chalmers, D. ‘Representationalism.’ In The Future for Philosophy, Leiter, B. ed. Oxford and New York: Oxford UP 2004. 153–81.Google Scholar
Clark, author initial?? and D. Chalmers. ‘The Extended Mind.’ Analysis 58 (1998) 7–19.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Crane, T. ‘The Intentional Structure of Consciousness.’ In Consciousness: New Philosophical Perspectives, Smith, Q. and Jokic, A. eds. Oxford and New York: Oxford UP 2003. 33–56.Google Scholar
Dretske, F. Explaining Behavior. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press/Bradford Books 1988.Google Scholar
Dretske, F. Naturalizing the Mind. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press/Bradford Books 1995.Google Scholar
Egan, A. ‘Appearance Properties?’ Nous 40 (2006) 495–521.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fisher, J. ‘Why Nothing Mental Is In the Head.’ Nous 41 (2007) 318–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fodor, J. Psychosemantics. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press 1987.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fodor, J. A Theory of Content and Other Essays. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press 1990.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goldman, A. ‘The Psychology of Folk-Psychology.’ Behavioral and Brain Sciences 16 (1993) 15–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Graham, G. and Horgan, T.. ‘Mary Mary, Quite Contrary.’ Philosophical Studies 99 (2000) 59–87.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gray, J. Consciousness: Creeping Up On the Hard Problem. Oxford and New York: Oxford UP 2004.Google Scholar
Harman, G. ‘The Intrinsic Quality of Experience.’ In The Nature of Consciousness: Philosophical Debates, Block, N.J. Flanagan, O. and Güzeldere, G. eds. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press/Bradford Books 1997. 663–76Google Scholar
Horgan, T. ‘Functionalism, Qualia, and the Inverted Spectrum.’ Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 44 (1984) 453–69.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Horgan, T. ‘Supervenient Qualia.’ Philosophical Review 96 (1987) 491–520.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Horgan, T. and Tienson, J.. ‘The Intentionality of Phenomenology and the Phenomenology of Intentionality.’ In Philosophy of Mind: Classical and Contemporary Readings, Chalmers, D. ed. Oxford and New York: Oxford UP 2002. 520–33.Google Scholar
Horgan, T. and Krigel, U.. ‘Phenomenal Intentionality Meets the Extended Mind.’ The Monist 91 (2008) 353–80.Google Scholar
Jackson, F. ‘Epiphenomenal Qualia.’ Philosophical Quarterly 32 (1982) 127–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kriegel, U. ‘Is Intentionality Dependent upon Consciousness?’ Philosophical Studies 116 (2003) 271–307.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kriegel, U. ‘The Concept of Consciousness in the Cognitive Sciences: Phenomenal Consciousness, Access Consciousness, and Scientific Practice.’ In Handbook of Philosophy of Psychology and Cognitive Science, Thagard, P. ed. Cambridge: Elsevier forthcoming.Google Scholar
Levine, J. Purple Haze. Oxford and New York: Oxford UP 2001.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Levine, J. ‘Experience and Representation.’ In Consciousness: New Philosophical Essays, Smith, Q. and Jokic, A. eds. Oxford and New York: Oxford UP 2003. 57–76.Google Scholar
Loar, B. ‘Phenomenal States.’ In The Nature of Consciousness: Philosophical Debates, Block, N.J. Flanagan, O. and Güzeldere, G. eds. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press/Bradford Books 1997. 597–616.Google Scholar
Loar, B. ‘Phenomenal Intentionality as the Basis of Mental Content.’ In Reflections and Replies: Essays on the Philosophy of Tyler Burge, Hahn, M. and Ramberg, B. eds. Cambridge: MIT Press 2003. 229–58.Google Scholar
Lycan, W. Consciousness and Experience. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press/Bradford Books 1996.Google Scholar
Lycan, W. ‘In Defense of the Representational Theory of Qualia (Replies to Neander, Rey and Tye).’ In Philosophical Perspectives 12: Language, Mind and Ontology, Tomberlin, J. ed. Atascadero: Ridgeview 1998. 479–88.Google Scholar
Lycan, W. 2004. ‘Representational Theories of Consciousness.’ In The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2005 Edition), Zalta, E.N. ed. <http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2005/entries/consciousness-representational/>>Google Scholar
McGinn, C. ‘Consciousness and Content.’ In The Nature of Consciousness: Philosophical Debates, Block, N.J. Flanagan, O. and Güzeldere, G. eds. Cambridge MA: MIT Press/ Bradford Books 1997. 295–308.Google Scholar
McGinn, C. The Problem of Consciousness. Oxford: Basil Blackwell 1991.Google Scholar
McDowell, J. Mind and World. Boston: Harvard UP 1994.Google Scholar
Millikan, R. ‘Biosemantics,’ Journal of Philosophy 86 (1989) Pages????CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Milner, D. and Goodale, M.. The Visual Brain in Action. Oxford and New York: Oxford UP 1995.Google Scholar
Nagel, T. ‘What Is It Like to Be a Bat?’ Philosophical Review 83 (1974) 435–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Noe, A. Action in Perception. Cambridge: MIT Press 2004.Google Scholar
Peacocke, C. Sense and Content. Oxford: Oxford UP 1983.Google Scholar
Pitt, D. ‘The Phenomenology of Cognition; Or What Is It Like to Think That P?’ Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 69 (2004) 1–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rey, G. ‘A Narrow Representationalist Account of Phenomenal Experience.’ Philosophical Perspectives 12: Language, Mind and Ontology. Tomberlin, J. ed. Atascadero: Ridgeview 1998. 435–57.Google Scholar
Rosenberg, G. A Place for Consciousness: Probing the Deep Structure of the Natural World. Oxford and New York: Oxford UP 2004.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rosenthal, D. ‘A Theory of Consciousness.’ In The Nature of Consciousness: Philosophical Debates, Block, N.J. Flanagan, O. and Guzeldere, G. eds. Cambridge MA: MIT Press/Bradford Books 1997. 729–54.Google Scholar
Sacks, O. Migraine: The Evolution of a Common Disorder. Berkeley, CA: Berkeley UP 1970.Google Scholar
Searle, J. ‘Consciousness, Explanatory Inversion, and Cognitive Science.’ Behavioral and Brain Sciences 13 (1990) 602–3.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Siewert, C. The Significance of Consciousness. Princeton, NJ: Princeton UP 1998.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Travis, C. ‘The Silence of the Senses.’ Mind 113 (2004) 57–94.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tye, M. Ten Problems of Consciousness. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press/Bradford Books 1995.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tye, M. Consciousness, Color, and Content. Cambridge MA: MIT Press/Bradford Books 2000.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tye, M. ‘Visual Qualia and Visual Content Revisited.’ In Philosophy of Mind: Classical and Contemporary Readings, Chalmers, D.J. ed. Oxford and New York: Oxford UP 2002. 447–56.Google Scholar