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What Neuropsychology Tells us About Consciousness

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 2022

Ran Lahav
Ran Lahav*
Affiliation:
Philosophy Department, Southern Methodist University
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Abstract

I argue that, contrary to some critics, the notion of conscious experience is a good candidate for denoting a distinct and scientifically interesting phenomenon in the brain. I base this claim mainly on an analysis of neuropsychological data concerning deficits resulting from various types of brain damage as well as some additional supporting empirical evidence. These data strongly point to the hypothesis that conscious experience expresses information that is available for global, integrated, and flexible behavior.

Type
Research Article
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 60 , Issue 1 , March 1993 , pp. 67 - 85
Copyright
Copyright © Philosophy of Science Association 1993

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Footnotes

†

I am grateful to Bruno Laeng, Douglas Ehring, and Charles Butter for their time and helpful comments.

‡

Send reprint requests to the author, Philosophy Department, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX 75275, USA.

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