Why Sensory Consciousness Can’t be Essentially Representational
David Papineau (KCL/CUNY)
25 September 2020, 16:00 | The talk will be given via the virtual platform Zoom
Abstract: Representationalism about sensory experience might be intuitive, but it faces the metaphysical challenge of explaining why conscious character (what-it’s-likeness) and representational content (correctness conditions) should be metaphysically intertwined. I shall argue that representationalism lacks the resources to do this. Attempts to defend representationalism by appealing to “transparency” only deepen the difficulties. In truth, representational content is metaphysically incommensurate with conscious character.