Unitary and Dual Models of Phenomenal Consciousness

0481000 - FLÚ 2018 RIV US eng J - Journal Article
Marvan, Tomáš - Polák, M.
Unitary and Dual Models of Phenomenal Consciousness.
Consciousness and Cognition. -, č. 56 (2017), s. 1-12. ISSN 1053-8100. E-ISSN 1090-2376
Institutional support: RVO:67985955
Keywords : phenomenal consciousness * David Rosenthal * what it is like * unconscious mind * theories fo consciousness
OECD category: Philosophy, History and Philosophy of science and technology
Impact factor: 2.272, year: 2017

There is almost unanimous consensus among the theorists of consciousness that the phenomenal character of a mental state cannot exist without consciousness. We argue for a reappraisal of this consensus. We distinguish two models of phenomenal consciousness: unitary and dual. Unitary model takes the production of a phenomenal quality and it’s becoming conscious to be one and the same thing. The dual model, which we advocate in this paper, distinguishes the process in which the phenomenal quality is formed from the process that makes this quality conscious. We put forward a conceptual, methodological, neuropsychological and neural argument for the dual model. These arguments are independent but provide mutual support to each other. Together, they strongly support the dual model of phenomenal consciousness and the concomitant idea of unconscious mental qualities. The dual view is thus, we submit, a hypothesis worthy of further probing and development.
Permanent Link: http://hdl.handle.net/11104/0276654