What Makes Behavioral Measures of Consciousness Subjective and Direct?

Abstract

AbstractThis article addresses two issues: the distinction between objective and subjective measures and the directness of such measures. It is argued that the distinction is unambiguous only when based on a methodological criterion (i.e., the threshold utilized by the measures) rather than a semantic one (i.e., their referring either to the world or to the participant’s inner states). Different senses of directness are discussed: metaphysical (which seems to rest on a category error), methodological (the only unambiguously defined one, though relating “directly” to performance rather than awareness), semantic (which appears gradable), and causal.