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The Multiple Drafts Model is a specific theoretical framework proposed by Daniel Dennett to explain the nature of consciousness [1], [2]. It functions as an account of how conscious contents are processed and unified [3], [4], while simultaneously challenging traditional realist views of consciousness [5], [6].
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Consciousness (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy/Fall 2025 ... plato.stanford.edu 11 facts
perspectiveThe Multiple Drafts Model (MDM) is representationalist because it analyzes consciousness in terms of content relations, and it rejects the existence of qualia as a means to distinguish conscious from nonconscious states.
claimThe Multiple Drafts Model (MDM) claims that different probes, such as varying questions or behavioral contexts, may elicit different answers regarding a person's conscious state.
claimDaniel Dennett combines his qualified denials of certain features of consciousness with a positive theory of the aspects he considers real, such as the Multiple Drafts Model.
claimDaniel Dennett's Multiple Drafts Model (MDM) has faced criticism from Block (1994), Dretske (1994), and Levine (1994) for being insufficiently realist in its view of consciousness and incomplete in its goal to fully explain consciousness.
claimThe Multiple Drafts Model (MDM) account of consciousness posits that conscious contents are unified and coherent at the level of content, which creates the experience of a single virtual self, rather than contents being unified because they are observed by a single self.
claimDaniel Dennett advanced the Multiple Drafts Model (MDM) of consciousness in 1991, which combines elements of representationalism and higher-order theory to provide an interpretational, less strongly realist view of consciousness.
perspectiveThe Multiple Drafts Model (MDM) of consciousness denies that conscious contents occur in a privileged spatial or functional location known as the 'Cartesian Theater,' or in a special mode or format.
claimThe Multiple Drafts Model (MDM) shares elements with higher-order theories of consciousness because the contents composing the serial narrative are implicitly those of an ongoing virtual self, which are the contents most likely to be expressed in reports of conscious states.
perspectiveThe Multiple Drafts Model (MDM) posits that there may be no probe-independent fact regarding a person's actual conscious state.
perspectiveCritics including Rosenthal (1994), Van Gulick (1994), and Akins (1996) acknowledge the insight and value of the Multiple Drafts Model (MDM) but deny that there are no real facts of consciousness other than those captured by the model.
claimThe Multiple Drafts Model (MDM) of consciousness is named for the fact that content fixations of many sorts occur throughout the brain at any given moment.