Searching for evidence of phenomenal consciousness in ncc research
| Abstract | Recent scientific work aiming to give a neurobiological explanation of phenomenal consciousness has largely focused on finding neural correlates of consciousness (NCC). The hope is that by locating neural correlates of phenomenally conscious mental states, some light will be cast on how the brain is able to give rise to such states. In this paper I argue that NCC research is unable to produce evidence of such neural correlates. I do this by considering two alternative interpretations of NCC research—an eliminativist and a disjunctivist interpretation. I show that each of these interpretations is compatible with the scientific data and yet is more parsimonious than accounts involving the supposed phenomenon of phenomenal consciousness. | |||||||||
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Similar books and articlesValerie Gray Hardcastle (2000). How to Understand the N in NCC. In Thomas Metzinger (ed.), Neural Correlates of Consciousness. MIT Press.
Hakwan Lau (2008). Are We Studying Consciousness Yet? In Lawrence Weiskrantz & Martin Davies (eds.), Frontiers of Consciousness. Oxford University Press.
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Alva Noë & Evan Thompson (2004). Are There Neural Correlates of Consciousness? Journal of Consciousness Studies 11 (1):3-28.
Axel Cleeremans & John Haynes (1999). Correlating Consciousness: A Vew From Empirical Science. Revue Internationale de Philosophie 3 (209):387-420.
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