What is it Like to Have an Unconscious Mental State?

Author: Stone J.

Source: Philosophical Studies, Volume 104, Number 2, May 2001 , pp. 197-202(6)

Publisher: Springer

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Abstract:

HOST is the theory that to be conscious of a mental state is to target it with a higher-order state (a `HOS'), either an inner perception or a higher-order thought. Some champions of HOST maintain that the phenomenological character of a sensory state is induced in it by representing it with a HOS. I argue that this thesis is vulnerable to overwhelming objections that flow largely from HOST itself. In the process I answer two questions: `What is a plausible sufficient condition for a quale's belonging to a particular mental state?' and `What is the propositional content of HOSs that target sensory states?'

Language: English

Document Type: Regular paper

Affiliations: 1: University of New Orleans, E-mail: jstone@uno.edu

Publication date: 2001-05-01