2024/11/29 by Henry Taylor · 2 voices
Arts and Humanities · Neuroscience · Psychology · #Embodied and Extended Cognition #Philosophy and History of Science #Philosophy and Theoretical Science
paper · pdf · doi:10.1080/09515089.2024.2433526
openalex publication_date 2024/11/29 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/14
Dennett’s work has had a profound impact on philosophical and scientific understanding of consciousness. However, interpreting Dennett’s work on consciousness is notoriously challenging. Some have even suggested that his ideas are contradictory. This paper develops and defends an interpretation of Dennett’s views, on which consciousness is a real pattern. I argue that this interpretation can make sense of some initially puzzling features of the view, including: multiple drafts, global workspace theory, qualia eliminativism, consciousness as a user-illusion, and the claim that our reports about consciousness have a special kind of authority. Far from being a tangle of contradictory ideas, this interpretation of Dennett consists of a consistent and robust theory of conscious experience.