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    Carmelics

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    Home/Original/inverse
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    Inverse View

    It is not the case that Most vertebrates and invertebrates are conscious.

    ?Set your confidence on the premises below to see your aggregate.

    Reasons For

    2 perspectives
    Reason for 1 of 2
    ?
    • 1.The PANIC theory's criterion of 'evaluating sense data' conflates mere information processing with phenomenal experience, begging the question.
      ?

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    • 2.Reflexive stimulus-response systems in invertebrates (e.g., nematode C. elegans with 302 neurons) process sensory input without any plausible phenomenal character.
      ?

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    • 3.Ned Block's distinction between access consciousness and phenomenal consciousness shows that functional evaluation of sense data is insufficient to establish 'what it is like' experience.
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    Reason for 2 of 2
    ?
    • 1.Higher-order theories (Rosenthal, Lycan) require that a genuinely conscious state must be represented by a higher-order mental state directed at it.
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    • 2.Most invertebrates lack the neurological architecture necessary to generate higher-order representations of their own first-order mental states.
      ?

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    • 3.Without higher-order representation, sensory responsiveness in invertebrates constitutes mere sentience rather than full-blooded consciousness as philosophers standardly define it.
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    Reasons Against

    1 perspective
    Reason against
    ?
    • 1.On the PANIC theory of consciousness, an organism is conscious if it must evaluate its sense data in order to act.
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    • 2.Most vertebrates and invertebrates must evaluate their sense data in order to act.
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