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qualitative consciousness
Also known as: qualitative component of consciousness, qualitative conscious experience, qualitative aspect of consciousness
Facts (14)
Sources
Consciousness (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy/Fall 2025 ... plato.stanford.edu Jun 18, 2004 10 facts
referenceArguments alleging that certain forms of consciousness lack causal status have been raised by Thomas Huxley (1874), Frank Jackson (1982), and David Chalmers (1996) regarding qualia and qualitative consciousness, and by Max Velmans (1991) regarding meta-mental consciousness.
claimThe 'zombie' argument posits that beings whose behavior, functional organization, and physical structure are identical to normal human agents but who lack qualia or qualitative consciousness are logically possible.
claimPeter Carruthers (2000) suggests that the relationship between qualitative and phenomenal consciousness and unified, densely integrated representations might be intimate and constitutive, rather than contingent.
claimTheories using proto-psychic properties to solve the Hard Problem face a dilemma: if these properties have qualitative phenomenal feel, their ubiquity is difficult to explain; if they lack qualitative feel, they fail to explain qualitative consciousness.
claimThe properties of access consciousness may differ significantly from those of qualitative or phenomenal consciousness, and both may differ from reflexive or narrative consciousness.
claimThird-person empirical data gathered by external observers is required for studying functional types of consciousness like access consciousness, as well as phenomenal and qualitative consciousness.
claimArmstrong (1981) and Tye (1985) argue that meta-mental, phenomenal, and qualitative forms of consciousness are linked to increases in the availability of information.
claimThe knowledge argument and zombie arguments aim to reach an anti-physicalist conclusion about consciousness by highlighting the apparent limits of understanding qualitative conscious experience through third-person physical accounts of brain processes.
perspectiveSome philosophers, such as Nagel (1974) and Chalmers (1996), argue that qualitative consciousness—the 'what it is like' aspect—is philosophically and scientifically central, and that organisms lacking such qualia may only be conscious in a loose or non-literal sense.
claimQualitative consciousness is defined as the property attributed when the adjective 'conscious' is applied in the qualitative sense to mental states.
Hard Problem of Consciousness | Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy iep.utm.edu 2 facts
claimIndescribability is a feature of the qualitative component of consciousness where no amount of description can adequately convey the nature of an experience to someone who has not experienced it.
claimUriah Kriegel defines the 'qualitative component of consciousness' as the experienced character of consciousness, such as the 'redness of red' or the 'painfulness of pain,' which is often termed 'qualia' or 'phenomenal character' in philosophical literature.
Panpsychism - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy plato.stanford.edu Jul 18, 2017 1 fact
claimPanqualityism is considered a middle ground between panpsychism and physicalism because it posits that the qualitative aspect of consciousness is fundamental while maintaining a reductive view of subjectivity.
Dualism, Physicalism, and Philosophy of Mind - Capturing Christianity capturingchristianity.com Dec 11, 2019 1 fact
quoteJaegwon Kim stated: "When philosophers discuss the nature of the intrinsic good, or what is worthy of our desire and volition for its own sake, the most prominently mentioned candidates are things like pleasure, absence of pain, enjoyment, and happiness—states that are either states of conscious experience or states that presuppose a capacity for conscious experience. Our attitude toward sentient creatures, with a capacity for pain and pleasure, is crucially different in moral terms from our attitude toward insentient objects. To most of us, a fulfilling life, a life worth living, is one that is rich and full in qualitative consciousness."