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ABSTRACT - a bit of pedantry

Posted by Colin_Hales on 29 Oct 2013 at 06:44 GMT

""Whether unique to humans or not, consciousness is a central aspect of our experience of the world. .....""

I had trouble with this sentence. To me, consciousness is not a "central aspect of our experience of the world". This sentence risks promulgating/reinforcing a subtle misunderstanding. Consciousness is a (variously)unified set of experiences (phenomenal consciousnesses) and nothing else. The opening sentence implies that there is something else when there is not, and the empirical work that follows assumes that this is clear when it is not. 'Experience' and 'phenomenal consciousness' are formal "identities". As a result, to me, the empirical work and its relationship to each of (a) "phenomenal consciousness" and (b) "states/creature consciousness (awakeness/alertness)" is not clear, to me, anyway. As the paper then nicely reveals, different forms of anesthetic differently disrupt the unity of the collection pf phenomenal consciousnesses, which then can be claimed to be visible in alteration of the apparent "states/creature consciousness (awakeness/alertness)" of the hosting creature.

It is possible, at least in principle, that all the different kinds of phenomenal consciousness (experiences) could be delivered by the host's regional brain activity, yet because they are not 'unified', the creature as a whole cannot perform in a way consistent with full alertness/awakeness. It's a subtlety, but an important one. The authors may have this kind of appreciation of the subject material, but that understanding is, to me, not evident in the material. When speaking of consciousness are the authors speaking of (a) or (b) or both or something else? I can't tell.

Am I being unreasonable? I suspect others might have the same issue. I thought the science had reached a point of terminological agreement and stability in which this sort potential confusion could/should be avoided.

No competing interests declared.