Methodological problems do not, by themselves, imply that a debate between competing theories was misconceived.

Once the problematic assumption about linearity has been made precise, however, we see that it cannot be satisfactory to credit the entire collapse of the early/late debate to this assumption. The falsity of the assumption about the linearity of the processes supporting personal-level awareness does not undermine the very idea that the early/late debate is a meaningful one. The problems that it creates are largely methodological. The falsity of that assumption means that one cannot make an infer