Attentional structuring, subjectivity, and the ubiquity of reflexive inner awareness

Datos Bibliográficos

ID21334883
AutoresAmit Chaturvedi (0000-0003-1774-9870, University of Hong Kong, autor de correspondencia)
Año2024
Volumen67
Número9
Páginas3240-3279
Fecha de publicación2024-10-20
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaInquiry (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0020-174X • E-ISSN: 1502-3923
EditorialInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/0020174x.2022.2032324
OpenAlexW4214858236
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas2
Referencias citadas25

Some have argued that a subject has an inner awareness of its conscious mental states by virtue of the non-introspective, reflexive awareness that any conscious state has of itself. But, what exactly is it like to have a ubiquitous and reflexive inner awareness of one’s conscious states, as distinct from one’s outer awareness of the apparent world? This essay derives a model of ubiquitous inner awareness (UIA) from Sebastian Watzl’s recent theory of attention as the activity of structuring consciousness into an experiential center and periphery. I develop Watzl’s theory into an account of UIA by suggesting that a subject is acquainted with its own conscious mental states through being reflexively aware of how these states are structured by attention into a unified subjective perspective. I favorably compare this Watzl-inspired account of UIA against other contemporary analytic and classical Buddhist accounts of reflexive awareness and subjective character, which variously ground the inner awareness of conscious states on their intrinsic phenomenal quality of ‘for-me-ness’, their affective/hedonic valence, or a subject’s disposition to introspect them. The Watzl-inspired account also accommodates possible counter-examples to Watzl’s theory posed by states of minimal phenomenal experience such as lucid dreamless sleep and non-dual meditative awareness

Cognition · Cognitive psychology · Cognitive science · Consciousness · Electromagnetic theories of consciousness · Emotional valence · Epistemology · Internal monologue · Introspection · Metaphysics · Philosophy of mind · Physicalism · Reflexivity · Self-awareness · Sociology · Subject (documents) · Subjectivity · Computer Science · Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy · Philosophy · Philosophy and Theoretical Science · Psychology · Social Psychology · Theology and Philosophy of Evil