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Consciousness (Leiden University) - Summary
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WEEK 1CHAPTER 1
● Chalmer: finding a definition for consciousness is unlikely since consciousness itself needs to be
explained VS Churchland: once our framework for the understanding of consciousness has
evolved, defining consciousness will be easy
Consciousness in philosophy
● Monism: Mind and Body are the same VS Dualism: Mind and Body are different
● Descartes: if you question your reality, you can never be sure of anything (scepticism) other than
the fact that you are thinking and therefore you just exist Cartesian dualism: physical brain
works by the flow of animal spirits though the cavities & the mind can influence the body via the
pineal gland
○ Extended stuff (body)
○ Unextended stuff (mind)
● Different forms of dualism:
○ Substance Dualism (Descartes): thinking is non-material and separate from the physical
body. The mind interacts with the body when the two are made of different substances.
Bidirectional interaction.
○ Property Dualism / Dual aspect theory (e.g,. Davidson): world is composed of only
physical substance, but can be described using mental terms. One description cannot be
reduced to the other.The mind is realized in the brain, but nevertheless has properties that
cannot be reduced to brain states.
E.g. pain can be described in physical & mental terms (neurons firings & how it feels)
● Reductionism: mental states can ultimately be reduced to physical properties
● Supervention: mental states supervene on physical properties
Other philosophical positions:
○ Gilbert Ryle: mental states are dispositions to behave (tried to find a middle way between dualism
and behaviorism). Terms such as ‘in the mind’ should nor be used, because they are categorical
mistakes (give material properties to non-material things)
○ Alva Noë: consciousness is something we do
DUALIST
○ Dualist interactionism (Popper & Eccles): Critical processes in the synapses can be influenced
by non-physical thinking → the self can control the brain
, Libet: The non-physical conscious mental field is responsible for unity & continuity of subjective
experience and free will. This experience emerges from brain activity, but it can communicate
within the cerebral cortex without using neural pathways.
○ Naturalistic Dualism (David Chalmers): new ‘bridging principle’ (psychophysical laws) are
needed to explain how experiences arise from physical processes = property dualism (information
takes phenomenal and physical forms)
○ MONIST
○ Berkley: only sensations exist
○ Dennett: Cartesian Theatre/ Cartesian materialism: pretending to be a materialist but relying on
dualist concepts: idea that there is a time and place where everything comes together in the brain
and ‘consciousness’ happens. Consciousness cannot be reduced to physical properties but
depends on physical properties.
Any changes in consciousness must be accompanied by a change in the brain, but the reverse is
not ture (supervenience), which ties to epiphenomenalism
○ Epiphenomenalism (Frank Jackson): physical events give rise to mental events, but
mental events do not affect physical events BUT then we would never know or be
able to speak about it
○ Functionalism (e.g., Putnam): mental states are identified by their functional role, not by their
phenomenal quality → we can attribute states to computer, robots, animals
brain state = mental state
○ Panpsychism (Chalmers, Strawson, Tononi): All material things have an awareness or mental
properties. “Everything is consciousness and nothing is consciousness”- therefore not very
helpful.
○ Materialism (e.g., Patricia Churchland): takes away subjective experience & ignores
the questions of how mind and brain are related
Relationship between functionalism and epiphenomenalism
● Epiphenomenalism: physical events cause mental events, but mental events have no effect on
physical events → non-interactionist property duality
= ‘conscious inessentialism’
○ consciousness is an unnecessary by-product of the physical processes in the brain, which
does not have any causal effect ( = zombies could exist)
○ Huxley: consciousness experiences are a byproduct (epiphenomenon) of evolution and
the relationship between body and mind is not important according to epinphenalism
, ● Functionalism: Mental states must be characterized by their function, the causal role they play.
Answers the question from which they derive their identity without answering the question from
which they are built up
○ Question is not so much whether consciousness is causal or not, but that a system, which
consists of the same functions that the brain carries out, will necessarily become
conscious (= zombies could not exist)
○ Mental states stand in causal relation to other mental states (are functions of them?) &
Consciousness is just the consequence of having a brain that is able to run these different
kinds of functions/ cognitive processes
○ Problem:
- No evidence for consciousness and cannot explain the difference between
conscious and subconscious actions
- Qualia is a problem for functionalism because it is very difficult to describe as
separate mental states that play a causal role in our behavior
Consciousness in Psychology
● William James: psychology = ‘the science of mental life, both of its phenomena and their
conditions’
- Denied dualist concept of there being ‘mind-stuff’ since consciousness can be altered by
brain injuries/drugs
- Brain physiology & consciousness on psychology
- Stream of consciousness: ever-changing flow of thoughts, ideas, images and feelings
● Psychophysics: studies the relationship between physical stimuli and reportable experiences
- Weber-Fechner Law: relates sensation to the intensity of a stimulus
- Helmholtz: first to measure the conduction speed of nerve signals (velocity of thought).
He argued consciousness and the interaction of physical and mental processes occur in
the brain.
● Phenomenology (philosophy+psychology): based on putting subjective experience first
→ Husserl: proposed a systematic inquiry into immediate conscious experience by suspending
scientific and logical inferences about the world = phenomenological reduction / epoché.
Husserl believed that subjective experience is an act of reference (conscious experience is about
objects/events, but the objects/events are not about anything). Questionable weatherall
experiences are about something. Brings up question whether having pure consciousness
(consciousness without being conscious of anything( is possible
, ● Introspection /self-observation (Wundt): 2 types of physical elements: sensory elements (e.g.
heat) & affective elements (e.g. sensory pleasure). Every conscious experience depends on the
union of both elements. No objective measure to ensure the descriptions are accurate.
● Watson abolished introspection & consciousness. Instead psychology based on prediction and
control of behavior = behaviorism. Based on classical conditioning (pavlov) and operant
conditioning (Skinner)
● Cognitive psychology: consciousness became acceptable again in psychology. This change
happened due to growing interest in an experience beyond every day life and the individual.
James developed the philosophy of radical empiricism = experience must be at the heart of
philosophical inquiry & experience must be understood beyond physical data
1st generation cognitive science: thought of the mind in terms of abstract representation and
dependent on analogies with computers, led to thinking in terms of interconnected networks that
change over time
2nd generation cognitive science: brains are always found in bodies and bodies are always found
in environments. Cognition = ‘4E’ (Embodied, Enactive, Embedded, Extended) → combines
brain-body feedback and the environment with a basis in brain functioning, we
can think of the brain as a prediction machine , that tries to match sensory inputs
with their predictions (guesses, hypotheses about the environment)
Explanatory gap (Levine): metaphysical gap between physical phenomena and
conscious experience
→ Dennett ‘human consciousness is just about the last surviving mystery’
→ Chalmers: Gap exist because of the difference between easy and hard problems
Consciousness in context
● Freud: Unconscious and conscious interacted to create personality and
motivation
→ Unconscious consisted of the impulses of the id, the defence mechanisms and neurotic
processes of the ego, the unacceptaböe material repressed by superego
● Replaced by cognitive unconscious → capable of subliminal perception and forms of thinking,
learning and memory that does not involve awareness
● Replaced by new unconscious → emphasizes unconscious emotions, motivation and control
CHAPTER 2
● Phenomenality / Phenomenal consciousness: that what makes a state phenomenally conscious is
that one can describe what ‘it is like’ to be in that state VS
Access consciousness: used in reasoning and rationally guiding speech and thought
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