Consciousness and reflective consciousness

Author: Bickhard, Mark H.

Source: Philosophical Psychology, Volume 18, Number 2, April 2005 , pp. 205-218(14)

Publisher: Routledge, part of the Taylor & Francis Group

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Abstract:

An interactive process model of the nature of representation intrinsically accounts for multiple emergent properties of consciousness, such as being a contentful experiential flow, from a situated and embodied point of view. A crucial characteristic of this model is that content is an internally related property of interactive process, rather than an externally related property as in all other contemporary models. Externally related content requires an interpreter, yielding the familiar regress of interpreters, along with a host of additional fatal problems. Further properties of consciousness, such as differentiated qualities of experience, including qualia, emerge with conscious reflection. In particular, qualia are not constituents or direct properties of consciousness per se. Assuming that they are so is a common and ultimately disastrous misconstrual of the problems of consciousness.

Document Type: Research article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09515080500169306

Publication date: 2005-04-01

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