Ted Honderich 

Actual Consciousness: A Lecture -- Database, Theory, Physicalities, Criteria                handout or Powerpoint, 11/2/15

 

NEED FOR AN ADEQUATE INITIAL CLARIFICATION OF CONSCIOUSNESS   Questions re perceptual, cognitive, affective consciousness, and re all consciousness. Commonsense definition. Our holds on our consciousnesses. Pessimisms of Chomsky, Nagel, Chalmers, McGinn. Disagreement about consciousness mainly owed to lack of adequate initial clarification of subject?

 

5 LEADING IDEAS   Qualia -- a conflicted consensus; only part of consciousness, only qualities of. Something it's like for a thing to be that thing -- circularity, want of reality. Subjectivity -- metaphysical self or subject, circularity, obscurity. Intentionality or aboutness -- ambiguity etc re objects, only part of consciousness. Phenomenality -- miscellany, obscurity, Block mongrel concept, Chalmers bundle. But real thoughts, impulses in all 5 ideas despite no adequate initial clarification.

 

DATABASE   Your being conscious now in the primary ordinary or core sense is:

the having of something, something being had,

hence something being held, possessed or owned,

your seeing, thinking, wanting in the ordinary active sense of the verbs,

the experience in the sense of the experiencing of something,

something being in contact, met with, encountered, undergone,

awareness of something, unattentive

something being directly or immediately in touch,

something being apparent,

something not deduced, inferred, posited, constructed, or got from something else,

something somehow existing,,

something being for something,

something being to something,

something being in view, on view, in a point of view,

something being open, provided, supplied,

something to which there is some privileged access,

in the case of perception, there being the world as it is for something,

what involves or is an object or content,

an object or content's coming to us straight-off,

something being given,

hence something existing and known,

something being present,

something being presented,

something being shown, revealed or manifest, 

here and now,

something  transparent in the sense of being unconveyed by anything else,

something clear straight-off,

something being open,

something being close,

an occurrent or event, not a disposition to such events,

something real,

something being vividly naked,

something being right there,

in the case of perception, the openness of a world.

 

CONSCIOUSNESS AS SOMETHING BEING ACTUAL  Figurative encapsulation of the above database.

 

ABSTRACT FUNCTIONALISM = MIND-BODY DUALISM; VARIOUS OTHER UNIFORM THEORIES: General Physicalism, Aboutness, Mentalism, Panpsychism, etc.

 

CRITERIA OF AN ADEQUATE THEORY/ANALYSIS OF CONSCIOUSNESS

answer to What is actual?

answer to Being actual is what?

the reality of this consciousness

the difference in kind of consciousness from all else

its true subjectivity, including a credible or persuasive unity

its three parts, sides or kinds of elements

naturalism - consciousness being a natural fact, in and of science

its relations to behaviour and to a brain or other basis and also other relations

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

        PHYSICALITY

                                                                   /                    \

                                                                 /                        \

    SUBJECTIVE                     PHYSICALITY                    

                                                           /                                   /                                   \

                                                            /                                   /                                       \                                        

 

OBJECTIVE PHYSICAL WORLD

SUBJECTIVE  PHYSICAL WORLDS: Perceptual Consciousness

SUBJECTIVE  PHYSICAL  REPRESENTATIONS: Cognitive and Affective Consciousness

 

 

 

 

 

ITS PHYSICALITY

THEIR PHYSICALITY

THEIR PHYSICALITY

1

in the inventory of science

in the inventory of science

in the inventory of science

2

open to the scientific method

open to the scientific method

open to the scientific method

3

in space and time

in space and time

in space and time

4

in particular lawful connections

in particular lawful connections

in particular lawful connections

5

in categorial lawful connections

in categorial lawful connections, including those with the objective physical world and the conscious thing

in categorial lawful connections, including those with the objective physical world and the conscious thing

6

macroworld perception, microworld deduction

constitutive of macroworld perception

not perceived, but dependent on macroworld perception

7

more than one point of view with macroworld

more than one point of view with perception

no point of view

8

different from different points of view

different from different points of view

no differences from points of view

9

primary and secondary properties

primary and secondary properties

no primary and secondary properties

 

 

 

 

 

ITS OBJECTIVITY

THEIR SUBJECTIVITY

THEIR SUBJECTIVITY

10

separate from consciousness

not separate from consciousness

not separate from consciousness

11

public

private

private

12

common access

privileged access

privileged access

13

truth and logic, more subject to?

truth and logic, less subject to?

truth and logic, less subject to?

14

open to the scientific method

open to the scientific method despite doubt

open to the scientific method, despite doubt

15

includes no self or unity or other such inner fact of subjectivity inconsistent with the above properties of the  objective physical world

each subjective physical world is an element in an individuality that is a unique and large unity of lawful and conceptual dependencies including much else

each representation is an element in an individuality that is a unique and large unity of lawful and conceptual dependencies including much else

16

hesitation about whether objective physicality includes consciousness

no significant hesitation about taking the above subjective physicality as being that of actual perceptual consciousness

no significant hesitation about taking this subjective physicality as being the nature of actual cognitive and affective consciousness

 

ACTUALISM THEORY OF CONSCIOUSNESS: CRITERIA, RELATIONS, ETC. Concordant likenesses and differences of two subjective physicalities v. objective physicality, as in table. Theory certainly not naive realism – not unexplained direct access to objective physical things. Adequate eubjectivity/individuality role. Relations, ‘e.g. ‘mind-brain’, ordinary and  clear. Pessimisms, e.g. Chomsky, escaped. No ‘hard problem’ at all, e.g. Chalmers.  Zombie objection like diabetes illusion. Reassurance and invitation to consciousness science. Free Will problem spin-off in subjective physical worlds. Consensus question in philosophy and science. Actual consciousness the right subject? Most right. Inescapability of conclusions given prior acceptance of at least reasonable premises? Little-Copernicus grandiosity?