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Affording introspection : an alternative model of inner awareness

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McClelland, Tom (2015) Affording introspection : an alternative model of inner awareness. Philosophical Studies, 172 (9). pp. 2469-2492. doi:10.1007/s11098-014-0421-x ISSN 0031-8116.

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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11098-014-0421-x

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Abstract

The ubiquity of inner awareness thesis (UIA) states that all conscious states of normal adult humans are characterised by an inner awareness of that very state. UIA-Backers support this thesis while UIA-Skeptics reject it. At the heart of their dispute is a recalcitrant phenomenological disagreement. UIA-Backers claim that phenomenological investigation reveals ‘peripheral inner awareness’ (or ‘pre-reflective self-consciousness’) to be a constant presence in their non-introspective experiences. UIA-Skeptics deny that their non-introspective experiences are characterised by inner awareness, and maintain that inner awareness is only gained when they explicitly introspect. Each camp has put forward a range of arguments designed to resolve this dispute, but I argue that none of these arguments has genuine dialectical purchase. This leads me to develop a compromise position that trades on the contribution that affordances can make to our phenomenology. According to the Affordance Model of inner awareness, all conscious states of normal adult humans are characterised by an affordance of introspectability. In line with the UIA-Skeptic, non-introspective experiences are not characterised by inner awareness. But against the traditional UIASkeptic, non-introspective experiences are characterised by an awareness of the opportunity for introspection. On this view, our capacity to gain inner awareness of our current experience is a ubiquitous feature of our phenomenology. I show how the Affordance Model respects the driving phenomenological intuitions of both the UIA-Backers and the traditional UIA-Skeptics, and suggest that it is able to explain why neither camp achieves an accurate description of how inner awareness figures in their phenomenology.

Item Type: Journal Article
Subjects: B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > B Philosophy (General)
Divisions: Faculty of Social Sciences > Philosophy
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): Consciousness, Self-perception, Subjectivity, Phenomenology
Journal or Publication Title: Philosophical Studies
Publisher: Springer
ISSN: 0031-8116
Official Date: September 2015
Dates:
DateEvent
September 2015Published
20 December 2014Available
1 September 2014Accepted
Volume: 172
Number: 9
Number of Pages: 24
Page Range: pp. 2469-2492
DOI: 10.1007/s11098-014-0421-x
Status: Peer Reviewed
Publication Status: Published
Access rights to Published version: Open Access (Creative Commons)
Date of first compliant deposit: 9 September 2016
Date of first compliant Open Access: 9 September 2016
Funder: European Research Council (ERC)
Grant number: 313552 (ERC)
Open Access Version:
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