Perceptual Consciousness

Abstract

Abstract Chapter 7 discusses three forms of consciousness that perceptual experience is said to possess—introspective consciousness, access consciousness, and phenomenal consciousness. Introspective consciousness is the form of consciousness that mental states possess when they are objects of introspective awareness. Access consciousness is the form that mental states possess when they are available for use by high-level cognitive faculties that are responsible for tasks planning and evaluating. It is widely acknowledged that perceptual experiences possess these two forms of consciousness, but the nature of phenomenal consciousness and its relation to perceptual experience is controversial. One of the main themes of the chapter is that there is perceptual phenomenology that is too “faint” to support either introspective consciousness or access consciousness. Another is that phenomenal consciousness is best seen as an especially “robust” form of phenomenology—robust enough to serve as a categorical base for the other two forms of consciousness.