Vol 10 (2004)
Table of Contents
Articles
| Colors, Arousal, Functionalism, and Individual Differences |
| William S. Robinson |
| Beyond the Fringe Summary Full Text |
| Jon Opie |
| Mangan makes a useful contribution to our understanding of the structure and function of the non-sensory fringe of consciousness. I offer a few friendly amendments and criticisms. In particular, I argue that the fringe/focus structure of experience is considerably more complex than Mangan allows, and that his account of the function of fringe experience doesn't do justice to the emergent nature of the cognitive subject. |
| Perception, Affect, and Epiphenominalism: Commentary on Mangan's "Sensation's Ghost" Summary Full Text |
| William S. Robinson |
| This commentary begins by explaining how Mangan's important work leads to a question about the relation between non-sensory experiences and perception. Reflection on affect then suggests an addition to Mangan's view that may be helpful on this and perhaps some other questions. Finally, it is argued that acceptance of non-sensory experiences is fully compatible with epiphenomenalism. |
| An Information Processing View of Fringe Consciousness Summary Full Text |
| Jon May |
| In posing the sense of 'Rightness' as a quality-of-processing measure, Mangan runs the risk of a homuncular argument, since some process needs to observe Rightness, as well as the sensory qualia. Interacting Cognitive Subsystems (ICS) is an information processing account of cognitive activity that is concordant with Mangan's arguments, but which avoids the need for any supervisory system or central executive. The approach models thought as the flow of information between nine different levels of mental representation, and includes a distinction between an unselective diffuse awareness of all active levels of representation, and a selective focal awareness of a single topic of processing. A distinction is introduced between two non-sensory representations: propositional and implicational meaning. While the propositional representations can be easily verbalised, the sensory and implicational representations can only be verbalised via propositional representations. All representations are accessible, although implications and sensory representations are harder to express verbally. As a principled model, ICS can be mapped into anatomical and neural models, supporting argumentation about physical pathways in the brain and functional pathways in the mind. |
| Precis: Stream of Consciousness Summary Full Text |
| Barry Dainton |
| That our ordinary everyday experience exhibits both unity and continuity is uncontroversial, and on the face of it utterly unmysterious. At any moment we have some conscious awareness of both the world about us, as revealed through our perceptual experiences, and our own inner states – our bodily sensations, thoughts, mental images and so on. Since once wakened we tend to stay awake for several hours, tracing out continuous routes through whatever environment we happen to find ourselves in, it is hardly surprising that our experience itself is continuous rather than discontinuous. |
| More than Meets the Eye: Commentary on Bruce Mangan's "Sensations Ghost" Summary Full Text |
| Dan Lloyd |
| “Sensation’s Ghost” identifies one type of non-sensory experience, the quasi-feelings that attend perception, inflecting them vaguely and globally. Following Husserl, I suggest that non-sensory awareness includes much more than the fringe elements Mangan discusses. Every perceptual property can be either sensed, or apprehended in a non-sensory manner. Non-sensory apprehensions are nonetheless part of the occurrent conscious awareness of objects and scenes. |
| Colors, Arousal, Functionalism, and Individual Differences Summary Full Text |
| William S. Robinson |
| Some philosophers have regarded the connection between hues and certain arousal or affective qualities as so intimate as to make them inseparable, and this “necessary concomitance view” has been invoked to defend functionalism against arguments based on inverted spectra. Support for the necessary concomitance view has sometimes been thought to accrue from experiments in psychology. This paper examines three experiments, two of which apparently offer support for the view. It argues that careful consideration of these experiments undermines this appearance of support. General lessons are drawn concerning (a) the problem that individual differences present for functionalism, and (b) the difficulty of supporting strong conclusions about concomitance by using the methods of experimental psychology. |