The epistemic role of consciousness / Declan Smithies.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Smithies, Declan, author.

Series:

Philosophy of mind series

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Consciousness.

Akrasia.

Epistemics.

Physical Description:

xiv, 442 pages ; 25 cm.

Place of Publication:

New York, NY : Oxford University Press, [2019]

Summary:

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.0Smithies 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 a0position 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.0The 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 a0unified theory of the epistemic role of phenomenal consciousness, one that bridges the gap between epistemology and philosophy of mind.

Contents:

Part I Philosophy of Mind

1 Consciousness p. 3

1.1 What Is Consciousness? p. 4

1.2 The Significance of Consciousness p. 6

1.3 The Hard Problem of Consciousness p. 10

1.4 Putting Consciousness First p. 15

1.5 An Overview of This Book p. 23

2 Representation p. 34

2.1 Representationalism p. 36

2.2 Unconscious Mental Representation p. 46

2.3 Grounding Representation in Consciousness p. 58

2.4 Grounding Thought in Consciousness p. 63

2.5 Grounding Epistemic Justification in Consciousness p. 72

3 Perception p. 74

3.1 Blindsight p. 76

3.2 Concepts of Consciousness p. 82

3.3 Presentational Force p. 90

3.4 Skeptical Scenarios p. 97

3.5 Duplication Scenarios p. 103

4 Cognition p. 113

4.1 The Epistemic Role of Belief p. 114

4.2 Beliefs and Subdoxastic States p. 120

4.3 Inferential Integration p. 124

4.4 Conscious Accessibility p. 130

4.5 Cognitive Experience p. 138

5 Introspection p. 153

5.1 The Simple Theory of Introspection p. 154

5.2 The Reliability Challenge p. 159

5.3 Rationality and Self-Knowledge p. 165

5.4 The Scope Question p. 170

5.5 The Role of Conscious Judgment p. 180

6 Mentalism p. 192

6.1 Evidentialism p. 193

6.2 Mentalism p. 197

6.3 Phenomenal Mentalism p. 201

6.4 The Phenomenal Conception of Evidence p. 209

6.5 The Explanatory Challenge p. 217

Part II Epistemology

7 Accessibilism p. 223

7.1 What Is Accessibilism? p. 224

7.2 Explaining Accessibilism p. 230

7.3 Clairvoyance and Super-Blindsight p. 241

7.4 The New Evil Demon Problem p. 247

7.5 Answering the Explanatory Challenge p. 252

8.1 Justification and Reflection p. 256

8.2 An Argument from Reflection p. 261

8.3 The Overintellectualization Problem p. 264

8.4 The Regress Problem p. 268

8.5 The Empirical Problem p. 275

8.6 The Value Problem p. 279

9 Epistemic Akrasia p. 284

9.1 What Is Epistemic Akrasia? p. 284

9.2 An Argument from Epistemic Akrasia p. 291

9.3 Moore's Paradox p. 297

9.4 Knowledge as the Aim of Belief p. 302

9.5 Justification and Reflection p. 307

10 Higher-Order Evidence p. 312

10.1 A Puzzle about Epistemic Akrasia p. 313

10.2 Solving the Puzzle p. 317

10.3 The Certainty Argument p. 327

10.4 Ideally Rational Agents p. 333

10.5 Rational Dilemmas p. 337

10.6 Epistemic Idealization p. 341

11 Luminosity p. 345

11.1 Luminosity Defined p. 346

11.2 The Problem of the Speckled Hen p. 349

11.3 The Anti-Luminosity Argument p. 360

11.4 Epistemic Iteration Principles p. 367

11.5 The Puzzle of the Unmarked Clock p. 372

11.6 What's at Stake? p. 375

12 Seemings p. 380

12.1 Phenomenal Conservatism p. 381

12.2 What Are Seemings? p. 385

12.3 Problems about Evidence p. 389

12.4 Problems about Evidential Support p. 397

12.5 Phenomenal Accessibilism p. 409.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Other Format:

Online version: Smithies, Declan, author. Epistemic role of consciousness

ISBN:

9780199917662

0199917663

OCLC:

1098231691