The Partially Examined Life Philosophy Podcast Ep. 223: Guest Ned Block on Consciousness (Part One)
Aug 12, 2019
Ned Block, NYU philosopher known for work on consciousness and access vs phenomenal consciousness. He clarifies distinctions like phenomenal, access, and self-consciousness. They debate whether androids like Data could be sentient and how levels of functional or neural isomorphism count as evidence. Discussions range from blindsight and no-report paradigms to evolutionary candidates for nonphenomenal minds.
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Three Types Of Consciousness
- Ned Block distinguishes phenomenal consciousness ('what it's like') from access consciousness (information availability) and self-consciousness (awareness of oneself).
- These distinctions shape debates about whether behavioral similarity implies real phenomenal experience.
Flow Suppresses Self-Circuits
- Ned Block cites Rafi Malek's experiments showing self-related neural circuits suppress during intense 'flow' like movie-watching.
- Subjects report vivid experience yet diminished neural markers of self-awareness.
Phenomenal Can Precede Access
- Block reports experiments (no-report paradigms) showing awareness can arise before global broadcasting, supporting phenomenal without access consciousness.
- This suggests phenomenal experience can exist without immediate reportability or reasoning access.
