Confidence Tracks Consciousness*
Cambridge University Press eBooks September 30, 2022 DOI: 10.1017/9781108768085.007 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Qualitative Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Citations | 7 |
| Key points | The collection presents and examines David Rosenthal's two-part framework for explaining qualitative consciousness: the higher-order thought theory of mental state consciousness and the quality-space theory of sensory quality. The editors propose that splitting the explanatory problem into these two parts makes it more tractable, and the essays develop, criticize, and extend themes from Rosenthal's work. |
Abstract
Qualitative consciousness is conscious experience marked by the presence of sensory qualities, like the experienced painfulness of having a piano dropped on your foot or the consciousness of seeing the brilliant reds and oranges of a sunset. Over his career, philosopher David Rosenthal has defended an influential theoretical approach to explaining qualitative consciousness. This approach involves the development of two theories – the higher-order thought theory of mental state consciousness and the quality-space theory of sensory quality. If the problem of explaining qualitative consciousness is divided into two more manageable pieces, the door opens to a satisfying explanation of what is seen by some to be an intractable explanatory puzzle. This interdisciplinary collection develops, criticizes, and expands upon themes inspired by Rosenthal’s work. The result is an exciting collection of new essays by philosophers and scientists, which will be of interest to all those engaged in consciousness studies.
Citations in the library
Cited by 5
- Confidence reports during perceptual decision making dissociate from changes in subjective experience. Communications Psychology May 21, 2025
- From Confound to Clinical Tool: Mindfulness and the Observer Effect in Research and Therapy. Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging April 1, 2025
- The act of detecting a stimulus contaminates measures of conscious experience with decision biases. Nature Communications May 8, 2026
- Metacognition in Aphantasia: Taking the "conscious" view seriously. Neuropsychologia January 30, 2026
- Towards characterizing the canonical computations generating phenomenal experience. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews November 1, 2022
Cites 16
- The Function of Consciousness Noûs September 1, 1996
- Type 2 blindsight and the nature of visual experience. Consciousness and Cognition March 1, 2015
- In Consciousness we Trust February 10, 2022
- Consciousness and confidence. Neuropsychologia May 2019
- Inflation versus filling-in: why we feel we see more than we actually do in peripheral vision. Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences September 19, 2018
and 11 more in the library