Consciousness Deniers?

The idea that consciousness is an illusion may be a familiar one. Thinkers like Daniel Dennett, Brian Farrell, and Richard Rorty espouse this basic notion. But is it, as philosopher Galen Strawson calls it, “the silliest claim ever made”?

The idea that consciousness is an illusion may be a familiar one. Thinkers like Daniel Dennett, Brian Farrell, and Richard Rorty espouse this basic notion: That conscious experience, as a result of collective physical processes in the brain, does not itself exist.

But philosopher Galen Strawson, calling this idea “the Denial,” argues that the denial of consciousness in philosophy is “the silliest claim ever made.” He first explains the eminence of “the Denial” as a “mistaken interpretation of behaviorism” and later reasons why their claim is contradictory. Having consciousness is knowing what consciousness is like, he argues; there is no difference between what is and what seems. 

Read on for Strawson’s full argument:

http://www.nybooks.com/daily/2018/03/13/the-consciousness-deniers/