Consciousness

Assignment 6

Due Wednesday, October 24th

Block’s “overflow” argument in ”Consciousness, Accessibility and the Mesh between Psychology and Neuroscience, depends on the distinction between specific and generic phenomenology. In the Landman experiment, the relevant generic phenomenology would be the phenomenal presentation that there is a circle of rectangles. The relevant specific phenomenology would be a phenomenal presentation that specifies for each of the rectangles (or anyway, most of them) whether they are horizontal or vertical. For the Sperling experiment, the relevant generic/specific difference would be that between a phenomenal presentation that there is an array of alphanumeric characters and a phenomenal presentation of specific shapes of all or most items in the array. Block argued that in the Sperling, Landman and Sligte experiments, there was specific phenomenology involving all or almost all of the items as well as generic phenomenology.  How does Block’s argument depend on the distinction between specific and generic phenomenology? Pick either the critique by Papineau or the critique by Byrne, Hilbert and Siegel. (If you do not have the url, you can get it by emailing Professor Block or Gina Rini or Mihailis Diamantis. Do you agree with the critique that you chose? What do you think of Block’s replies? (Professor Block will not be grading this question.)