Animal consciousness and phenomenal concepts
Philosophical Psychology May 3, 2022 J. Hung
The essay argues that phenomenal concept theorists—who hold that concepts of conscious experience are acquired only through firsthand experience—cannot determine which non-human animal species are phenomenally conscious. Because these theorists prohibit any a priori link between phenomenal and non-phenomenal concepts, standard methods such as neuro-identity theory, behaviorism, functionalism, inference to the best explanation, analogical inference, similarity inference, and inference by prototype all fail to establish animal consciousness. The author contends that the very framework of phenomenal concepts makes cross-species attribution of consciousness impossible.