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Explanatory Optimism about the Hard Problem of Consciousness argues
that despite the worries of explanatory pessimists, consciousness
can be fully explained in “easy” scientific terms. The
widespread intuition that consciousness poses a hard problem is
plausibly based on how consciousness appears to us in first-person
access. The book offers a debunking argument to undercut the
justificatory link between the first-person appearances and our
hard problem intuitions. The key step in the debunking argument
involves the development and defense of an empirical model of
first-person access: Automated Compression Theory (ACT). ACT holds
that first-person access to consciousness is accomplished by
automated accessing of compressed sensory information. Because of
the distorting nature of this compressed access, it seems to
subjects that consciousness possesses “exceptional”
properties—properties leading to the hard problem—even though
no such properties are present. If there are no exceptional
properties to explain, then an explanation in easy terms can fully
account for conscious experience. The book presents a range of
empirical evidence for ACT and concludes that the burden of proof
is now on the pessimists to show why we shouldn’t be optimistic
about explaining consciousness.
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.
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