• Log In

The Partially Examined Life Philosophy Podcast

A Philosophy Podcast and Philosophy Blog

Subscribe on Android Spotify Google Podcasts audible patreon
  • Home
  • Podcast
    • PEL Network Episodes
    • Publicly Available PEL Episodes
    • Paywalled and Ad-Free Episodes
    • PEL Episodes by Topic
    • Nightcap
    • (sub)Text
    • Pretty Much Pop
    • Nakedly Examined Music
    • Phi Fic Podcast
    • Combat & Classics
    • Constellary Tales
  • Blog
  • About
    • PEL FAQ
    • Meet PEL
    • About Pretty Much Pop
    • Nakedly Examined Music
    • Meet Phi Fic
    • Listener Feedback
    • Links
  • Join
    • Become a Citizen
    • Join Our Mailing List
    • Log In
  • Donate
  • Store
    • Episodes
    • Swag
    • Everything Else
    • Cart
    • Checkout
    • My Account
  • Contact
  • Mailing List

Mind Video #6: Ned Block

June 22, 2010 by Mark Linsenmayer 1 Comment

Ned Block (or is it Bill Maher?) gives us a good statement of the fundamental problems of consciousness and talks about some of the most commonly cited neuroscientific findings and what they mean about consciousness, and specifically what he takes to be Dennett's position that consciousness is an illusion:

"The hard problem:" how is it that the neural basis of an experience is the neural basis of that experience and not of another experience? Patricia Churchland, in the article I linked to, responds to this:

What is an example where a science — any subfield of science — explains why X = Y? Not how we know or why we believe that X = Y, but why X is identical to Y, rather than to Z. Using the examples already at hand, the corresponding questions would be these: why is temperature mean molecular kinetic energy, rather than, say, caloric fluid or something else entirely? Why is visible light actually electromagnetic radiation rather than, say, something else entirely, say, ‘‘intrinsic photonicness’’? By and large science does not offer explanations for fundamental identities. Rather, the discovery is that two descriptions refer to one and the same thing — or that two different measuring instruments are in fact measuring one and the same thing. Why is that thing, the thing it is? It just is.

Block's substantial point here is distinguishing between access consciousness, defined as "information globally available in the cognitive system for the purposes of reasoning, speech and high-level action control," and phenomenal consciousness, which is consciousness as we experience it.

Interestingly, Block uses many of the same neuropsychological cases cited by Dennett (like blind sight, where someone claims not to be able to see something but yet can identify it if forced to guess), but whereas Dennett uses these cases to say "look, you think you know what you're conscious of, but you're really not," Block says this shows that what Dennett (or any functionalist) calls consciousness doesn't correspond to what we experience, and it is still a legitimate challenge to the theorist to explain this experienced world that the functionalist in effect ignores.

It is confusing, however, when Block sums up his point by saying (at 3:38): "what we need to do is distinguish the cognitive aspects of consciousness from the basic biological phenomenal aspects." This sums up a methodological difference: Presumably Block wants to find the biological underpinnings of phenomenal consciousness. Dennett and Churchland both argue that because our self-reports are unreliable, we need to somehow pin them down in third-person verifiable (i.e. scientific) language before we can then look for the neural correlate. For instance, in the "inverted spectrum" case, Block claims that its conceivable that you and I could have switched colors: my experience of yellow is your experience of green, but yet we use our words the same, so this difference is undetectable (we both point at grass and say "green"). The response is complicated, but amounts to a claim that any such switch in perception can be detected with enough testing due to the nature of color as a network of infinite interrelated shades; you can't just shift the whole spectrum towards one end without this showing itself up in effects in the person's ability to discriminate certain shades or make claims like "lighter" or "darker" accurately or whatever. So the full explanation of what's going on, for Dennett, has to involve getting behind the phenomenology to "what's really being seen" despite the person's self reports, and from there you can figure out the neural correlate.

Since both Block and Dennett in effect acknowledge both kinds of consciousness, and are certainly not going to shut down some line of research if it's actually achieving results, the dispute to me seems more a matter of emphasis and the use of language than anything else. This is a conflict among people trying essentially to do the same thing rather than some showdown over fundamental ontology.

Facebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedinmailby feather

Filed Under: Misc. Philosophical Musings, Things to Watch

Comments

  1. Peter J Halick says

    November 25, 2017 at 6:57 am

    Well done Mark. Nice summary of the difference between Block and Dennett. Another avenue might be to consider the general idea of “intrinsic” properties.

    Reply

Leave a Reply to Peter J Halick Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Citizenship has its Benefits

Become a PEL Citizen
Become a PEL Citizen, and get access to all paywalled episodes, early and ad-free, including exclusive Part 2's for episodes starting September 2020; our after-show Nightcap, where the guys respond to listener email and chat more causally; a community of fellow learners, and more.

Rate and Review

Nightcap

Listen to Nightcap
On Nightcap, listen to the guys respond to listener email and chat more casually about their lives, the making of the show, current events and politics, and anything else that happens to come up.

Subscribe to Email Updates

Check your inbox or spam folder to confirm your subscription.

Support PEL

Buy stuff through Amazon and send a few shekels our way at no extra cost to you.

Tweets by PartiallyExLife

Recent Comments

  • Frank Levi on Ep. 296: Heidegger Questions Being (Part One)
  • Evan on Episode 130: Aristotle’s “De Anima”: What Is Life?
  • Jelle on Ep. 296: Heidegger Questions Being (Part One)
  • Erick Mitsak on Episode 130: Aristotle’s “De Anima”: What Is Life?
  • Evan Hadkins on Ep. 296: Heidegger Questions Being (Part Two for Supporters)

About The Partially Examined Life

The Partially Examined Life is a philosophy podcast by some guys who were at one point set on doing philosophy for a living but then thought better of it. Each episode, we pick a text and chat about it with some balance between insight and flippancy. You don’t have to know any philosophy, or even to have read the text we’re talking about to (mostly) follow and (hopefully) enjoy the discussion

Become a PEL Citizen!

As a PEL Citizen, you’ll have access to a private social community of philosophers, thinkers, and other partial examiners where you can join or initiate discussion groups dedicated to particular readings, participate in lively forums, arrange online meet-ups for impromptu seminars, and more. PEL Citizens also have free access to podcast transcripts, guided readings, episode guides, PEL music, and other citizen-exclusive material. Click here to join.

Blog Post Categories

  • (sub)Text
  • Aftershow
  • Announcements
  • Audiobook
  • Book Excerpts
  • Citizen Content
  • Citizen Document
  • Citizen News
  • Close Reading
  • Combat and Classics
  • Constellary Tales
  • Exclude from Newsletter
  • Featured Article
  • General Announcements
  • Interview
  • Letter to the Editor
  • Misc. Philosophical Musings
  • Nakedly Examined Music Podcast
  • Nakedly Self-Examined Music
  • NEM Bonus
  • Not School Recording
  • Not School Report
  • Other (i.e. Lesser) Podcasts
  • PEL Music
  • PEL Nightcap
  • PEL's Notes
  • Personal Philosophies
  • Phi Fic Podcast
  • Philosophy vs. Improv
  • Podcast Episode (Citizen)
  • Podcast Episodes
  • Pretty Much Pop
  • Reviewage
  • Song Self-Exam
  • Things to Watch
  • Vintage Episode (Citizen)
  • Web Detritus

Follow:

Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | Apple Podcasts

Copyright © 2009 - 2022 · The Partially Examined Life, LLC. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy · Terms of Use · Copyright Policy

Copyright © 2022 · Magazine Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in