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Agency as a Marker of Consciousness in the Gray Zone| old_uid | 19589 |
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| title | Agency as a Marker of Consciousness in the Gray Zone |
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| start_date | 2021/12/10 |
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| schedule | 11h |
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| online | no |
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| summary | Studies of consciousness often treat verbal report as the “gold standard” for attributions of conscious mental states to another individual. But there are cases where this strategy is not available, for instance, in non-human animals and infants. In response, some have suggested that non-verbal behaviour, i.e., certain forms of agency, can be used as evidence of conscious awareness in such cases (e.g., Bayne 2012).
In this talk, I propose to explore the viability of such a view in the context of patients that have been diagnosed as having unresponsiveness wakefulness syndrome (UWS), and who exhibit no overt purposive responses to their environment, but nonetheless retain the ability to covertly follow certain commands, as evidenced by neuroimaging techniques. I first confront a set of skeptical challenges in the literature, which aim to cast doubt on the claim that the covert responses these individuals produce amount to intentional actions. Next, I argue that though their responses are genuinely intentional, we still do not have strong reasons to suppose that the relevant mental states that enable these individuals to produce them are conscious states. I end by addressing a primary motivation for determining whether UWS individuals are consciously aware, which is an assumed link between consciousness and moral status. I argue that this link is weaker than it seems |
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| responsibles | Lesguillons |
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