Knowing One’s Own Consciousness: The Epistemic Ontology of Consciousness and Its Implication for the Explanatory Gap Argument(s)

نوع مقاله : مقاله علمی پژوهشی

نویسنده

PhD Research Scholar, School of Liberal Arts, Indian Institute of Technology, Jodhpur, India.

چکیده

It is usually, and without much disagreement, regarded that ‘knowing one’s own consciousness’ is strikingly and fundamentally different from ‘knowing other things’. The peculiar way in which conscious subjects introspectively know their own consciousness in their immediate awareness is of immense importance with regard to the understanding of consciousness insofar as it has a direct bearing upon consciousness’ fundamental existence. However, when it comes to the understanding of consciousness, the role of consciousness’ introspective knowledge is rather downplayed or not given much importance with regard to its ontology. With this in the background, the whole purpose of this paper is, first, to make the rather obvious point that the very existence of consciousness in its most fundamental form is constituted by this introspective knowledge of it or its epistemic dimension, whereby its ontology gets its epistemological or epistemic nature. Second, it aims to strengthen the explanatory gap argument by appealing to our enhanced understanding of consciousness in terms of its epistemic ontology.

کلیدواژه‌ها

موضوعات

عنوان مقاله [English]

Knowing One's Own Consciousness: The Epistemic Ontology of Consciousness and Its Implication for the Explanatory Gap Argument(s)

نویسنده [English]

  • Biplab Karak
PhD Research Scholar, School of Liberal Arts, Indian Institute of Technology, Jodhpur, India.
چکیده [English]

It is usually, and without much disagreement, regarded that 'knowing one's own consciousness' is strikingly and fundamentally different from 'knowing other things.' The peculiar way in which conscious subjects introspectively know their own consciousness in their immediate awareness is of immense importance with regard to the understanding of consciousness insofar as it has a direct bearing upon consciousness’ fundamental existence. However, when it comes to the understanding of consciousness, the role of consciousness’ introspective knowledge is rather downplayed or not given much importance with regard to its ontology. With this in the background, the whole purpose of this paper is, first, to make the rather obvious point that the very existence of consciousness in its most fundamental form is constituted by this introspective knowledge of it or its epistemic dimension, whereby its ontology gets its epistemological or epistemic nature. Second, it aims to strengthen the explanatory gap argument by appealing to our enhanced understanding of consciousness in terms of its epistemic ontology.

کلیدواژه‌ها [English]

  • Consciousness
  • Knowing
  • Knowledge
  • SIK
  • Epistemic
  • Ontology
  • EO

مراجع

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Chalmers, D. J. (2010). The character of consciousness. Oxford University Press.
Churchland, P. M. (1988). Matter and consciousness: a contemporary introduction to the philosophy of mind (revised edition). The MIT Press.
Duncan, M. (2023). How you know you’re conscious: illusionism and knowledge of things. Review of Philosophy and Psychology, 14(1), 185–205.   
https://doi.org/10.1007/s13164-021-00590-1
Flanagan, O. J. (1992). Consciousness reconsidered (revised ed. edition). MIT Press.
Gallagher, S., & Zahavi, D. (2007). The phenomenological mind: an introduction to philosophy of mind and cognitive science (1st edition). Routledge.
Goff, P. (2019). Galileo’s error: foundations for a new science of consciousness. Pantheon.
Levine, J. (1983). Materialism and qualia: the explanatory gap. Pacific Philosophical Quarterly, 64(October), 354–361.
Levine, J. (1994). Out of the closet: a qualophile confronts qualophobia. Philosophical Topics, 22(1/2), 107–126.
Levine, J. (2001). Purple haze: the puzzle of consciousness. Oxford University Press.
Lewis, D. (1999). Papers in metaphysics and epistemology. Cambridge University Press.
Sartre, J. P. (2003). The philosophy of Jean-Paul Sartre (Vintage Books ed. edition). (R. D. Cumming, Trans.). Vintage.
Searle, J. R. (1997). The mystery of consciousness. New York Review Books.
Strawson, G. (2012). Real naturalism. Proceedings and Addresses of the American Philosophical Association, 86(2), 125–154.
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پژوهش‌های فلسفی -کلامی
دوره 26، شماره 1
فروردین 1403
صفحه 171-193

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