Event Detail

Thu Feb 17, 2011
Howison Library
4:10–6 PM
Philosophy Colloquium
Jesse Prinz (CUNY)
Consciousness is Attention

Recent research in psychology and neuroscience points to an intimate relationship between consciousness and attention. A natural interpretation of this work would be the conjunction that the two are in one and the same: attention is the process that renders mental states conscious. In this talk I survey evidence for this conclusion, and then offer both a functional and neural account of attention, which helps shed light on various features of consciousness. I also address some empirical objections, which allege that consciousness and attention can be dissociated.