American Philosophical Quarterly
July 1, 2026
J. Berger, Joseph Gottlieb
According to higher-order (“HO”) theories, consciousness consists in HO awareness of being in mental states. While many objections to such theories have been addressed elsewhere, the most well-known seems to remain: the problem of so-called “empty” HO states, which holds that HO theory cannot explain cases wherein one is aware of mental states that do not exist. This paper offers a novel...
Utilitas
June 11, 2026
Joseph Gottlieb, Jacob Berger, Bob Fischer
Abstract Many claim that there is an important relationship between consciousness and welfare. Call this general view phenomenalism . One way of fleshing out phenomenalism is to hold that consciousness is what makes one the type of entity that can be noninstrumentally better or worse off in the first place. Consciousness is at least a necessary condition on welfare subjecthood . A different...
Journal of Consciousness Studies
December 1, 2024
Joseph Gottlieb
Birch (2022a) proposes a theory-light methodology for studying whether invertebrates have the capacity for (phenomenal) consciousness. The success of any such methodology turns on the positive markers it proposes, and whether they are genuinely ecumenical. After providing an account of what it is for a marker to be ecumenical, it is argued that one of the more influential set of markers offered...
Australasian Journal of Philosophy
May 8, 2024
Joseph Gottlieb, B. Fischer
ABSTRACT The history of philosophy is a history of moral circle expansion. This history correlates with a history of expansionism about consciousness. Recently, expansionism about consciousness has exploded: to invertebrates, to plants, to logic gates, and to fundamental entities. The last of these expansions stems from a surge of interest in panpsychism. In an exploratory spirit, this paper...
Australasian Journal of Philosophy
February 2, 2021
Joseph Gottlieb
18 citations
ABSTRACT I begin by developing a challenge for the Higher-Order Thought variant of Higher-Order representational theories of consciousness. The challenge is to account for the distinctive phenomenal character of visual experience—its presentational character. After setting out the challenge, I articulate a novel form of Higher-Order theory that can account for presentational character—the Map...
Ergo, An Open Access Journal of Philosophy
February 16, 2018
Joseph Gottlieb
5 citations
The primary aim of a theory of consciousness is to articulate existence conditions for conscious states, i.e. the conditions under which a mental state is conscious rather than unconscious.There are two main broad approaches: The Higher-Order approach and the First-Order approach.Higher-Order theories claim that a mental state is conscious only if it is the object of a suitable state of...