concept

third-person empirical data

Also known as: objective third-person data, Third-person empirical data, third-person data

Facts (12)

Sources

The Problem of Hard and Easy Problems cambridge.org Cambridge University Press Mar 31, 2023 9 facts

claimThe author argues that the classification of consciousness problems into 'hard' (subjective) and 'easy' (objective) is noncategorical because some first-person data convey information about objective functioning, and some third-person data convey information about subjective experience.

claimThe assumption that third-person data can inform others about private first-person subjective experience is supported by self-experimentation studies (Head 1920; Piccinini 2009; Price and Aydede 2005; Price and Barrell 2012) in which researchers adopt both first- and third-person perspectives.

claimIf some third-person data are both about consciousness and mechanistically explainable objective functions, then at least some aspects of consciousness measured by third-person data can be explained mechanistically, regardless of whether first-person data are amenable to mechanistic explanation.

claimThird-person data can be explained by specifying the objective functioning of a system.

claimFirst-person data are characterized as informative of subjective experience and uninformative of mechanistically explainable functional relationships, while third-person data are characterized as conveying information about mechanistically explainable functional relationships.

claimIf adequately controlled verbal reports are accepted as legitimate third-person data about consciousness, then some third-person data are both about consciousness and about mechanistically explainable objective functions.

claimThe demarcation between 'hard' and 'easy' problems relies on the distinction between subjective first-person data and objective third-person data.

claimMechanistically explainable objective functioning can only explain objective third-person data, whereas consciousness is characterized by subjective first-person data.

claimThe classification of the problem of consciousness as 'easy' or 'hard' depends on the extent to which first-person and third-person data are shown to convey information about one another.

Consciousness (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy/Fall 2025 ... plato.stanford.edu Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy Jun 18, 2004 3 facts

claimThird-person data can reveal how experiences of acting and experiences of event-timing affect each other in ways that introspection cannot discern, as shown by Libet (1985) and Wegner (2002).

procedureThe procedure for gathering evidence about the structure of experience involves two steps: (1) becoming a phenomenologically sophisticated self-observer, and (2) complementing introspective results with third-person data available to external observers (citing Searle 1992, Varela 1995, Siewert 1998).

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.