Elsevier

Consciousness and Cognition

Volume 94, September 2021, 103173
Consciousness and Cognition

Consciousness and inference to the best explanation: Compiling empirical evidence supporting the access-phenomenal distinction and the overflow hypothesis

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.concog.2021.103173Get rights and content
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Highlights

  • A model for inference to the best explanation in empirically minded consciousness research.

  • Compilation of empirical evidence for the overflow hypothesis.

  • Compilation of empirical evidence for the distinction between access consciousness and phenomenal consciousness.

  • Outlines an approach to a process of validating empirical support for theories of consciousness.

  • Shows a way forward regarding issues central to debates in consciousness studies.

  • Gives practical examples of validating empirical support for theories of consciousness.

Abstract

A tacit assumption in the field of consciousness studies is that the more empirical evidence a theory can explain, the better it fares when weighed against competitors. If one wants to take seriously the potential for empirical evidence to move forward debates in consciousness studies, there is a need to gather, organize, validate, and compare evidence. We present an inference to the best explanation (IBE) process on the basis of empirical support that is applicable in debates between competing theories of consciousness. Our proposed IBE process consists in four steps: Assimilate, Compile, Validate, and Compare. Until now, the vast majority of the work in the field has consisted in gathering empirical evidence for theories i.e., the assimilation step. To illustrate the feasibility of our proposed IBE process, and what it may look like when applied in practice, we deliver a complete collection (the compilation step) of empirical support for the distinction between A-Consciousness and P-Consciousness and the overflow hypothesis. Finally, we offer an example of the validation step, by scrutinizing the interpretation of aphantasics’ performance on retro-cue paradigms offered in the literature in support of the overflow hypothesis. The compilation we deliver here is the first effort in the IBE process, the end result of which — hopefully — will be the ability of the research community to carry out side-by-side comparisons of theories and the empirical phenomena they claim to explain, i.e., the comparison step.

Keywords

Theories of consciousness
Empirical evidence
Inference to the best explanation
IBE
Overflow
Access consciousness
Phenomenal consciousness

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