The Epistemic Role of Consciousness

NOTE EDITORE

What is the role of consciousness in our mental lives? Declan Smithies argues here that consciousness is essential to explaining how we can acquire knowledge and justified belief about ourselves and the world around us. On this view, unconscious beings cannot form justified beliefs and so they cannot know anything at all. Consciousness is the ultimate basis of all knowledge and epistemic justification. Smithies builds a sustained argument for the epistemic role of phenomenal consciousness which draws on a range of considerations in epistemology and the philosophy of mind. His position combines two key claims. The first is phenomenal mentalism, which says that epistemic justification is determined by the phenomenally individuated facts about your mental states. The second is accessibilism, which says that epistemic justification is luminously accessible in the sense that you're always in a position to know which beliefs you have epistemic justification to hold. Smithies integrates these two claims into a unified theory of epistemic justification, which he calls phenomenal accessibilism. The book is divided into two parts, which converge on this theory of epistemic justification from opposite directions. Part 1 argues from the bottom up by drawing on considerations in the philosophy of mind about the role of consciousness in mental representation, perception, cognition, and introspection. Part 2 argues from the top down by arguing from general principles in epistemology about the nature of epistemic justification. These mutually reinforcing arguments form the basis for a unified theory of the epistemic role of phenomenal consciousness, one that bridges the gap between epistemology and philosophy of mind.

SOMMARIO

0.0 - Introduction 0.2 - The Significance of Consciousness0.4 - Putting Consciousness First0.5 - An Overview of this Book0.6 - Chapter Summaries 1 - Representation 1.1 - Representationalism1.2 - Unconscious Mental Representation1.4 - Grounding Thought in Consciousness1.5 - Grounding Epistemic Justification in Consciousness 2 - Perception 2.1 - Blindsight2.2 - Concepts of Consciousness2.3 - Presentational Force2.4 - Skeptical Scenarios2.6 - Conclusions 3 - Cognition 3.1 - The Epistemic Role of Belief3.3 - Inferential Integration3.4 - Conscious Accessibility3.5 - The Cognitive Experience of Judgment3.6 - Conclusions 4 - Introspection 4.1 - The Simple Theory of Introspection4.2 - The Reliability Challenge4.3 - Rationality and Self-Knowledge4.4 - The Scope Question4.5 - The Role of Conscious Judgment4.6 - Conclusions 5 - Mentalism 5.1 - Evidentialism5.2 - Mentalism5.3 - Phenomenal Mentalism5.4 - The Phenomenal Conception of Evidence5.5 - The Explanatory Challenge 6 - Accessibilism 6.1 - What is Accessibilism?6.2 - Explaining Accessibilism6.3 - Clairvoyance and Super-Blindsight6.4 - The New Evil Demon Problem6.5 - Answering the Explanatory Challenge 7 - Reflection 7.1 - Justification and Reflection7.2 - An Argument from Reflection7.3 - The Over-Intellectualization Problem7.4 - The Regress Problem7.5 - The Empirical Problem7.6 - The Value Problem7.7 - Conclusions 8 - Epistemic Akrasia 8.1 - What is Epistemic Akrasia?8.2 - An Argument from Epistemic Akrasia8.3 - Moore's Paradox8.4 - Knowledge as the Aim of Belief8.5 - Justification and Reflection 9 - Higher-Order Evidence 9.1 - A Puzzle About Epistemic Akrasia9.2 - Solving the Puzzle9.3 - The Certainty Argument9.4 - Ideally Rational Agents9.5 - Rational Dilemmas9.6 - Epistemic Idealization 10 - Luminosity 10.1 - Luminosity Defined10.2 - The Problem of the Speckled Hen10.3 - The Anti-Luminosity Argument10.4 - Epistemic Iteration Principles10.5 - The Puzzle of the Unmarked Clock10.6 - What's at Stake? 11 - Conclusion 11.1 - Phenomenal Conservatism11.2 - Seemings11.3 - Problems about Evidence11.4 - Problems about Evidential Support11.5 - Phenomenal Accessibilism11.6 - Conclusions

AUTORE

Declan Smithies is Professor of Philosophy at the Ohio State University. He works primarily on issues at the intersection between epistemology and the philosophy of mind. He is co-editor of Introspection and Consciousness (OUP 2012) and Attention: Philosophical and Psychological Essays (OUP 2011).

ALTRE INFORMAZIONI

• Condizione: Nuovo
• ISBN: 9780197680001
• Collana: PHILOSOPHY OF MIND SERIES
• Dimensioni: 152 x 26.9 x 237 mm Ø 644 gr
• Formato: Brossura
• Pagine Arabe: 456