SelfAwarePatternsManifest and fundamental consciousness
I think the problem of consciousness is primarily one of definition. The word “consciousness” can refer to a range of concepts. Some of the concepts are scientifically tractable, while others, once we clarify them, are metaphysical assumptions that we can either choose to hold or dismiss. This is one of the reasons I find exploring and delineating these different concepts productive.
One distinction that’s been around for a few decades is Ned Block’s between phenomenal consciousness and access consciousness. Access consciousness is use of information for cognitive purposes, such as memory, attention, discrimination, self report, etc. Phenomenal consciousness is described as “raw experience”, the “what it’s like” aspect of consciousness, the character of the experience.
Access consciousness is the scientifically tractable version. But what about phenomenal consciousness? One of my concerns with the concept is it is itself ambiguous. In my view, “phenomenal consciousness” can refer to one of at least two concepts.
One is what I would call “manifest consciousness”, consciousness as it seems to us from the inside. Manifest consciousness seems irreducible, ineffable, and private. Indeed, strictly from a subjective perspective, it is irreducible. I can’t, from the inside, break down my experience of redness into any components. It’s just there. Describing it seems difficult. And it seems private to me. Yet I myself seem to have unfettered access to it.
Manifest consciousness is the seeming before any theoretical commitments. I think manifest consciousness is what Eric Schwitzgebel was aiming for when he developed his “innocent” definition of phenomenal consciousness. I do know it’s what I meant by the term on older posts prior to deciding that, without clarification, it’s a misleading use of it.
The problem is that most philosophers, both illusionists and phenomenal realists, seem to have a stronger meaning in mind. There are many theories about consciousness. One of the most straightforward is that the reality implied by the appearance is true, that manifest consciousness is a fundamental reality. Let’s call this “fundamental consciousness”.
Fundamental consciousness is the theory that consciousness not only seems irreducible, but is. That it’s not only difficult to describe, but impossible. That it’s not only difficult to observe from the outside, but fundamentally impossible. Which means that our first person access to it is privileged in some metaphysical manner.
I think manifest consciousness is what illusionists say is the illusion of fundamental consciousness. When they deny phenomenal consciousness, they aren’t denying manifest consciousness, but fundamental consciousness. But for weak phenomenal realists, phenomenal consciousness just is manifest consciousness.
On the other hand, strong phenomenal realists deny that there is any distinction between manifest and fundamental consciousness. For them, they are one and the same. So any denial of fundamental consciousness they take to be a denial of manifest consciousness, which seems incoherent.
This distinction can also be applied to synonymous concepts like qualia. When I argued for the existence of qualia some years ago, I was arguing for the manifest version, not the fundamental one. When I largely stopped using terms like “qualia” and “phenomenal” (except in replying to others using them), it was to avoid the confusion between these different versions.
Of course, as a reductionist, I think there are better theories than the fundamental one. In particular, we can see the concept of access consciousness itself as a meta-theory to explain manifest consciousness.
In any case, it seems like a lot of arguing past each other could be avoided if we acknowledged these distinct concepts. Most of the debate is about different theories of consciousness, not whether the manifest version exists.
But maybe I’m missing something? Are manifest and fundamental consciousness more difficult to separate than I’m thinking? Or are there additional distinctions we could use to further delineate the concept of phenomenal consciousness?
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Emerald Disquietude