Richard Brown and Pete Mandik

Richard Brown (left) and Pete Mandik (right) on higher-order theories of consciousness.

The higher-order approach aims to explain consciousness in terms of some relation between a conscious state and a representation of that state. Fans of this approach hope that it can pave the way to an account of consciousness that is both informative and amenable to naturalism. Yet higher-order theories face a wide range of interesting problems. In this conversation, Brown and Mandik discuss some of these problems and look for solutions to them.

Related works

by Brown:

“The Higher-Order Approach to Consciousness: The Hot Ticket or In Hot Water?” (draft)

“Deprioritizing the A Priori Arguments Against Physicalism” (2010)

“What Is A Brain State?” (2006)

Blog: Philosophy Sucks!

by Mandik:

Key Terms in Philosophy of Mind (2010)

“Beware of the Unicorn: Consciousness as Being Represented and Other Things that Don’t Exist” (2009)

with Josh Weisberg: “Type-Q Materialism” (2008)

“The Neurophilosophy of Consciousness” (2006)

Blog: Brain Hammer

See also:

Austen Clark, “Phenomenal consciousness so-called” (2001)

More video:

Richard Brown’s virtual presentations

Pete Mandik on color-consciousness conceptualism

The Online Consciousness Conference

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Production note: Attentive viewers will notice a mishap at 1:11:02. We have not edited it, with Richard’s and Pete’s gracious consent, in order to avoid a posting delay.