意識についての哲学的アプローチ

Abstract

Although the phenomenon of consciousness has been discussed at length in philosophy and psychology, and more recently in Artificial Intelligence and cognitive science, there appear to beno decisive conclusions about its nature. This paper propos a new approach to consciousness. According to the traditional view held since Descartes, consciousness is mind, the mental state is the conscious state, and the essence of consciousness or mind is thought. However, recent research in cognitive psychology has brought the unconscious mental act to light. If we assume the existence of these unconscious mental acts, then it will be necessary to explain the essence of consciousness separately from the essence of mind. The essence of consciousness can be thought of as "qualia", i.e.the phenomenal qualities of mental acts. But the "qualia" have been the subject of controversy. Thomas Nagel insists that we cannot scientifically explain them, and the absent qualia argument proposed by Ned Block and the knowledge argument by Frank Jackson both show that philosophical theories about the mind fail to explain qualia. In the new approach which I take here, consciousness is the output of a higher-order sensor which senses the sensory output. If we take this line, we can explain the existence of unconscious mental acts (unconscious perception) and the functional role of qualia (phenomenal qualities of mental acts).