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Full Idea
An organism only has conscious mental states if and only if there is something that it is like to be that organism.
Gist of Idea
An organism is conscious if and only if there is something it is like to be that organism
Source
Thomas Nagel (What is it like to be a bat? [1974], p.166)
Book Ref
Nagel,Thomas: 'Mortal Questions' [CUP 1981], p.166
A Reaction
It is hard to argue with this, but one should push on and ask what features of its consciousness make it such that there is a 'what it is like'. What is it like to have a subconscious mind, or be deeply asleep, or drive while daydreaming?
| 5014 | We can understand thinking occuring without imagination or sensation [Descartes] |
| 20741 | Consciousness is shaped dialectically, by opposing forces and concepts [Hegel, by Aho] |
| 22212 | Pure consciousness is a sealed off system of actual Being [Husserl] |
| 6151 | Sartre says consciousness is just directedness towards external objects [Sartre, by Rowlands] |
| 24016 | Consciousness always transcends itself [Sartre] |
| 7437 | Consciousness and experience of qualities are not the same [Armstrong] |
| 21890 | Heidegger showed that passing time is the key to consciousness [Derrida] |
| 3479 | The mind experiences space, but it is not experienced as spatial [Searle] |
| 3286 | An organism is conscious if and only if there is something it is like to be that organism [Nagel] |
| 9319 | Is consciousness a type of self-awareness, or is being self-aware a way of being conscious? [Gulick] |
| 2391 | Can we be aware but not conscious? [Chalmers] |
| 4931 | Consciousness is a process (of neural interactions), not a location, thing, property, connectivity, or activity [Edelman/Tononi] |