Consciousness: Phenomenal consciousness, access consciousness, and scientific practice

Abstract

This chapter investigates the relationship among the different aspects of consciousness, challenging the distinction between phenomenal consciousness and access consciousness by showing an intimate connection between them. The presuppositions of experimental studies of phenomena such as subliminal perception and blindsight are elucidated in the chapter, arguing that the investigation of access consciousness is a valuable way to investigate phenomenal consciousness. The fact that there are metaphysically possible circumstances in which phenomenal and access consciousness occur in the absence of one another does not tell against the thesis that a component of the former is the categorical basis of the latter. There is, thus, an intimate conceptual connection between the two even if it is not a metaphysically necessary connection. Self-consciousness involves the possession of the concept of the self and the ability to use this concept in thinking about oneself. It is argued in the chapter that when consciousness is approached from the angle of philosophy of -science, it appears that consciousness is fundamentally a matter of subjective character and not qualitative character.