Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-8ctnn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-22T14:40:13.907Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

What if consciousness has no function?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 November 2016

Susan Blackmore*
Affiliation:
School of Psychology, University of Plymouth, Portland Square, Plymouth PL4 8AA, United [email protected]

Abstract

An implicitly dualist or Cartesian materialist theory of consciousness is proposed without citing the many well-known problems with such theories. A function for consciousness is proposed with no reference to the possibility that “consciousness itself” has no function of its own. The theory builds on proposed “subset consensus” and “integration consensus” when in the literature there is no such consensus on these issues.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2016 

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

Baars, B. (1988) A cognitive theory of consciousness. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Bennett, M. R. & Hacker, P. M. S. (2003) Philosophical foundations of neuroscience. Blackwell.Google Scholar
Blackmore, S. (2011) Consciousness: An introduction. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Bleuler, E. (1924) Textbook of psychiatry, trans. Brill, A. A.. Macmillan.Google Scholar
Chalmers, D. (1995) Facing up to the problem of consciousness. Journal of Consciousness Studies 2(3):200–19.Google Scholar
Cleeremans, A. E. (2003) The unity of consciousness: Binding, integration, and dissociation. Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dehaene, S. (2009) Neuronal global workspace. In: The Oxford companion to consciousness, ed. Bayne, T., Cleeremans, A. & Wilken, P., pp. 466–70. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Dehaene, S. & Naccache, L. (2001) Towards a cognitive neuroscience of consciousness: Basic evidence and a workspace framework. Cognition 79 (1–2):137.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dennett, D. C. (1991) Consciousness explained. Little, Brown.Google Scholar
Dennett, D. C. (2005) Sweet dreams. MIT Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jackson, F. (1982) Epiphenomenal qualia. Philosophical Quarterly 32:127–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar