Topic
Consciousness research, explained
5 open-access consciousness studies, each with a flashcard deck and a quiz.
- Animal sentience: concepts, evidence, methods
Surveys broad versus valenced sentience, fish and invertebrate controversies, and theory-light empirical strategies.
- How should we infer consciousness in unresponsive patients?
Consciousness as subjective experience can only be inferred third-personally; a list of operational indicators is used to guide recognition in hard cases, including disorders of consciousness.
- Can you be a dualist and still believe in biological psychiatry?
Rejecting dualism because the brain explains behaviour only defeats Descartes' version; a dualism about conscious experience alone fits comfortably with brain-based psychiatry.
- Can covertly aware 'vegetative' patients feel pain and pleasure?
Patients who look unresponsive but show awareness on brain scans probably can feel pain and pleasure, so carers should act as if they do.
- Does what we experience depend on the world, the brain, or both?
The authors argue that what our experiences feel like is fixed partly by what our brain states track in the world and partly by the internal structure of those brain states.