The Vegetative State and the Science of Consciousness

Dados Bibliográficos

ID8397281
AutoresNicholas Shea (0000-0002-2032-5705, University of Oxford), Tim Bayne (0000-0001-8591-7907, University of Oxford)
Ano2010
Volume61
Fascículo3
Páginas459-484
Data de publicação2010-09-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoThe British Journal for the Philosophy of Science (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0007-0882 • E-ISSN: 1464-3537
EditoraOxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1093/bjps/axp046
PMID22654125
PMCIDPMC3361721
OpenAlexW2106826983
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas22
Referências citadas58

Consciousness in experimental subjects is typically inferred from reports and other forms of voluntary behaviour. A wealth of everyday experience confirms that healthy subjects do not ordinarily behave in these ways unless they are conscious. Investigation of consciousness in vegetative state patients has been based on the search for neural evidence that such broad functional capacities are preserved in some vegetative state patients. We call this the standard approach. To date, the results of the standard approach have suggested that some vegetative state patients might indeed be conscious, although they fall short of being demonstrative. The fact that some vegetative state patients show evidence of consciousness according to the standard approach is remarkable, for the standard approach to consciousness is rather conservative, and leaves open the pressing question of how to ascertain whether patients who fail such tests are conscious or not. We argue for a cluster-based 'natural kind' methodology that is adequate to that task, both as a replacement for the approach that currently informs research into the presence or absence of consciousness in vegetative state patients and as a methodology for the science of consciousness more generally.

Cognitive psychology · Consciousness · Demonstrative · Developmental psychology · Epistemology · Level of consciousness · Linguistics · Minimally conscious state · Natural (archaeology) · Persistent vegetative state · State (computer science) · Computer Science · Functional Brain Connectivity Studies · History · Neuroscience · Philosophy · Psychology · Psychosomatic Disorders and Their Treatments · Traumatic Brain Injury Research