Research Group
in Analytic Philosophy

The Quest for a Consciousness Meter

Date: 20 September 2018

Time: 12:00

Place: Seminari de Filosofia

Abstract

At present the science of consciousness relies on pre-theoretical indicators of consciousness, such as the capacity for report. In order to fully mature, the science of consciousness must go beyond such markers and develop consciousness meters—mechanisms that would allow us to both supplement and correct our pretheoretical measures of consciousness. This paper considers a number of influential methods for validating a consciousness meter, and argues in favour of an approach that has been largely overlooked by consciousness science: the natural kind (NK) approach. It presents the conceptual foundations of the NK approach, and examines a number of crucial challenges that it faces