Consciousness

Question 1

How did Dawkins describe consciousness?

Answer 1

2001 - Consciousness is the greatest remaining mystery in biology

Question 2

What are the two philosophical theories of consciousness?

Answer 2

Monist - mentalist/idealist or materialist

Dualist - both physical and subjective (Rene Descartes 17th C) Intuitively appealing

Question 3

Why is dualism frowned upon?

Answer 3

The dogma of the ghost in the machine (Ryle 1949)

Accepting dualism is like giving up (Dennet 1991)

Question 4

Define consciousness

Answer 4

Awareness of senses and thought processes
Griffin 1976 - a wide range of states in which there is an immediate awareness of thought, memory or sensation
There is no necessary relationship between cognition and consciousness

Question 5

What are the three levels of consciousness?

Answer 5

• Phenomenal conciousness - experience of qualia (seeing, hearing, tasting etc.) ==Sentience?
• Access consciousness - experience of being able t think about or report upon a mental state
• Self consciousness - second order representation (thinking about thinking)

Question 6

What did David Chalmers state in 1995?

Answer 6

There is nothing we know more intimately than conscious experience, but there is nothing harder to explain - The “Hard problem” or mind body gap

Question 7

Legally which animals are considered conscious?

Answer 7

Animal Scientific Procedures Act covers Vertebrates and cephalopods, and other animals if research supports the argument

Question 8

What two aspects can studies look at to determine consciousness?

Answer 8

Neural correlates - whats happening in the brain

Functional correlates - what might consciousness be necessary for?

Question 9

How are neural correlates investigated?

Answer 9

Correlate reports of consciousness with neural functioning eg. EEG, CT, PET, MRI single cell recording
Binocular rivalry
Brain damage eg. blindsight

Question 10

What are the advantages and disadvantages of studying neural correlates?

Answer 10

Pros- Objective
Cons- Causality and inferences from findings eg. convergent evolution whereby crabs have no PFC (thought to represent consciousness) and also no visual cortex although they can obvs still see

Question 11

what questions are asked when looking at functional correlates of consciousness?

Answer 11

What does consciousness do?
Is it an evolved adaptation?
Does it have a particular function?
Do other animals have that function?

Question 12

Give 4 functional correlates of consciousness NOT relevant to phenomenal consciousness alone

Answer 12

1. Self recognition
2. Theory of mind
3. Empathy and deception
4. Language

Question 13

What did the study by LIBET et al 1983 supposedly show?

Answer 13

That free will was not free as potentials were fired “before” conscious thought. Study very flawed as only 350ms pre-concious thought and likely that measuring was not this accurate when you add in motor response times etc.

Question 14

Outline blindsight experiments, give an exemplar study.

Answer 14

Patients with damage to primary visual cortex, “blind”
Still answer correctly above chance levels when asked what they “see” - vision without consciousness
eg. Weizkrantz et al 1986

Question 15

Will we ever be sure if animals are conscious?

Answer 15

Subjective states may be inferred but can never be known

Argument by analogy that animal and human physiological changes are representative of subjective states

Question 16

Why is conciousness important for animal welfare?

Answer 16

Knowing which animals are concious, then look at whether conscious states are positive or negative and work to enhance these states
If animals were unconscious automata could we do whatever we want with them?