Global Workspace Theory and Animal Consciousness

Peter Carruthers has recently argued for a surprising conditional: if a global workspace theory of phenomenal consciousness is both correct and fully reductive, then there are no substantive facts to discover about phenomenal consciousness in nonhuman animals. I present two problems for this conditional. First, it rests on an odd double-standard about the ordinary concept of phenomenal consciousness: its intuitive non-gradability is taken to be unchallengeable by future scientific developments, whereas its intuitive determinacy is predicted to fall by the wayside. Second, it relies on dismissing, prematurely, the live empirical possibility that phenomenal consciousness may be linked to a core global broadcast mechanism that is (determinately) shared by a wide range of animals. Future developments in the science of consciousness may lead us to reconsider the non-gradability of phenomenal consciousness, but they are unlikely to lead us to accept that there are no facts to discover outside the paradigm case of a healthy adult human.

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Consciousness in animals

Human and Animal Minds ◽

10.1093/oso/9780198843702.003.0007 ◽

2019 ◽

pp. 140-164

Author(s):

Peter Carruthers

Keyword(s):

Phenomenal Consciousness ◽

Mental States ◽

Human Mind ◽

First Person ◽

Nonhuman Animals ◽

Global Workspace ◽

Asking Questions ◽

Global Workspace Theory

This chapter argues that if a global workspace theory of phenomenal consciousness is correct, and is fully reductive in nature, then we should stop asking questions about consciousness in nonhuman animals. But this is not because those questions are too hard to answer, but because there are no substantive facts to discover. The argument in support of this conclusion turns on the idea that while global broadcasting is all-or-nothing in the human mind, it is framed in terms that imply gradations across species. Yet our concept of phenomenal consciousness doesn’t permit mental states to be to some degree conscious. Moreover, the first-person concepts that give rise to the problem of consciousness cannot intelligibly be projected into minds significantly different from our own.

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Explaining the “hard” problem

Human and Animal Minds ◽

10.1093/oso/9780198843702.003.0006 ◽

2019 ◽

pp. 116-139

Author(s):

Peter Carruthers

Keyword(s):

Phenomenal Consciousness ◽

Higher Order ◽

Hard Problem ◽

Explanatory Gap ◽

Phenomenal Concepts ◽

Reductive Explanation ◽

David Chalmers ◽

Global Workspace ◽

The Hard Problem ◽

Global Workspace Theory

This chapter shows that global-workspace theory can be developed into a satisfying, fully reductive explanation of phenomenal consciousness. It shows how globally broadcast nonconceptual content enables higher-order thoughts about that content, where those thoughts can lack conceptual connections with physical, functional, or representational facts. As a result, zombies are conceivable and an (epistemic) explanatory gap is opened up. But the thoughts in question can themselves be given a fully naturalistic explanation. Hence all of the facts involved in consciousness can be fully explained. The chapter defends the reality of the phenomenal concepts needed to make this account work, and replies to a dilemma for the account proposed by David Chalmers.

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Stop Caring about Consciousness

Philosophical Topics ◽

10.5840/philtopics20204811 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 48 (1) ◽

pp. 1-20

Author(s):

Peter Carruthers ◽

Keyword(s):

Grounded Theory ◽

Representational Content ◽

Phenomenal Consciousness ◽

Phenomenal Concept ◽

Similarity Space ◽

Global Workspace ◽

Phenomenal Concept Strategy ◽

Mental Paint ◽

Global Workspace Theory

The best empirically grounded theory of first-personal phenomenal consciousness is global workspace theory. This, combined with the success of the phenomenal-concept strategy, means that consciousness can be fully reductively explained in terms of globally broadcast representational content. So there are no qualia (and there is no mental paint). As a result, the question of which other creatures besides ourselves are phenomenally conscious is of no importance, and doesn’t admit of a factual answer in most cases. What is real, and what does matter, is a multidimensional similarity space of functionally organized minds.

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Adoption of Social Media by Online Retailers

Modern Entrepreneurship and E-Business Innovations ◽

10.4018/978-1-4666-2946-2.ch004 ◽

2013 ◽

pp. 41-60

Author(s):

Farhod P. Karimov ◽

Malaika Brengman

Keyword(s):

Social Media ◽

Social Presence ◽

Online Environment ◽

Video Streams ◽

Future Developments ◽

Online Retailers ◽

Wide Range ◽

Symbolic Value ◽

Recommendation Agents

In the online environment, the absence of social presence may prevent consumers from purchasing online, while it can enhance their trust, loyalty and enjoyment toward the e-retailer. Thus, today many online retailers try to create social presence by adopting media-rich technologies. In this paper, the authors assess to what degree social media cues are currently adopted by thriving web-vendors and on that basis speculate about future developments. To this purpose, 210 top B2C e-commerce websites have been content analyzed to identify how they differ in the deployment of diverse social media cues. While a wide range of social media cues are adopted by a majority of top e-retailers, a number of more advanced social media features like avatars, recommendation agents, and video-streams are in their infancy where adoption is concerned. The paper demonstrates that the utilization of social media features differs according to the monetary and symbolic value of products sold by the e-commerce vendors.

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A Global Workspace Theory of Conscious Experience

Consciousness in Philosophy and Cognitive Neuroscience ◽

10.4324/9780203773659-16 ◽

2013 ◽

pp. 161-184

Keyword(s):

Conscious Experience ◽

Global Workspace ◽

Global Workspace Theory

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Official publications and the art librarian

Art Libraries Journal ◽

10.1017/s0307472200002789 ◽

1982 ◽

Vol 7 (1) ◽

pp. 17-26

Author(s):

Valerie J. Bradfield

Keyword(s):

British Government ◽

Future Developments ◽

Wide Range ◽

The Many ◽

Many Sources

There is a wide range of publications available from the British Government which may be of interest to art librarians, and this article provides an outline, and a guide to the many sources for tracing and obtaining them. It goes on to indicate recent changes in the patterns of official publishing, and likely future developments in the eighties.

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