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What is wrong with appendage theory of consciousness

Thomas Natsoulas

Philosophical Psychology 1993 DOI: 10.1080/09515089308573084 (opens in new tab)

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Characteristics Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed
Citations 70
Key points Argues that three accounts of direct reflective awareness—mental-eye theory, self-intimational theory, and appendage theory—explain the same phenomenon in fundamentally different ways. Contends that appendage theory must solve how a direct reflective awareness succeeds in being awareness of the particular mental-occurrence instance that is its object, and proposes that psychologists studying consciousness are most likely to be attracted to appendage theory.

Abstract

The present article distinguishes three kinds of accounts of direct (reflective) awareness (i.e. awareness of one's mental occurrences causally unmediated by any other mental occurrence): mental‐eye theory, self‐intimational theory and appendage theory. These aim to explain the same phenomenon, though each proposes that direct (reflective) awareness occurs in a fundamentally different way. Also, I address a crucial problem that appendage theory must solve: how does a direct (reflective) awareness succeed in being awareness specifically of the particular mental‐occurrence instance that is its object? Appendage theory is singled out for this attention because psychologists, as they embark on their renewed study of consciousness, are most likely to be attracted by appendage theory for their explanation of direct (reflective) awareness.

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