The Universality of Experiential Consciousness

Phenomenal consciousness (basic awareness and experience) applies to all living things, while access consciousness (a conceptual, verbal form used for reasoning and rational decision-making) is uniquely human. This contradicts Block's view that access consciousness also exists in some non-human organisms. The argument relies on Logan's claim that only humans possess verbal language and therefore the ability to conceptualize, which enables reasoning and rationality. Human consciousness thus combines percept-based phenomenal consciousness with concept-based access consciousness.

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Abstract

It is argued that of Block’s (On a confusion about a function of consciousness, 1995; The Nature of Consciousness: Philosophical Debates, 1997) two types of consciousness, namely phenomenal consciousness (p-consciousness) and access consciousness (a-consciousness), that p-consciousness applies to all living things but that a-consciousness is uniquely human. This differs from Block’s assertion that a-consciousness also applies to some non-human organisms. It is suggested that p-consciousness, awareness, experience and perception are basically equivalent and that human consciousness has in addition to percept-based p-consciousness, concept-based a-consciousness, a verbal and conceptual form of consciousness that can be utilized to coordinate, organize and plan activities for rational decision-making. This argument is based on Logan’s (The Extended Mind: The Emergence of Language, The Human Mind and Culture, 1997) assertion that humans are uniquely capable of reasoning and rationality because they are uniquely capable of verbal language and hence the ability to conceptualize.