The Value of Consciousness
Analysis July 1, 2019 DOI: 10.1093/analys/anz045 (opens in new tab) via Semantic Scholar
Summary
AI-generated from the abstractConsciousness may have value, but researchers in different fields—epistemology, well-being, animal and medical ethics, philosophy of consciousness, and philosophy of science—have been discussing this question in isolation. This paper reviews those disconnected discussions and proposes a unified theoretical framework to make the contributions from each area more visible to the others, arguing that they all address a single underlying question: what is the value of consciousness?
Study at a glance
| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Keywords | Psychology Philosophy |
| Citations | 62 |
| Key finding | Argues that disconnected discussions across epistemology, ethics, philosophy of mind, and philosophy of science address a single underlying question about the value of consciousness, and proposes a unified theoretical framework to connect them. |
Abstract
Recent work within such disparate research areas as the epistemology of perception, theories of well-being, animal and medical ethics, the philosophy of consciousness, and theories of understanding in philosophy of science and epistemology has featured disconnected discussions of what is arguably a single underlying question: What is the value of consciousness? The purpose of this paper is to review some of this work and place it within a unified theoretical framework that makes contributions (and contributors) from these disparate areas more visible to each other.