Experiences as phenomenal states

1. Experiences as phenomenal states

2. The world acts on the mind, yielding: A state of experience. One’s intentional state Interprets this as evidence, and changes itself via rules, yielding: an action. Which, in turn: changes the world.

3. p&q want! The intentional state: Sometimes thought of as a “belief-desire” or “credence-value” complex Rules by which it updates itself can be thought of as “logic” The experience: Its intrinsic nature is loosely connected to the rest of the machine The sole seat of consciousness The world: Can include one’s body Action changes the world by moving one’s body

4. One’s life can be understood as a stack or “spiral” of such sequences (A spiral because action feeds back into the world)

5. The role of consciousness in this causal spiral is exhausted by its role as a sort of “causal nexus” between the world and one’s intentional states Action, in particular, is not itself part of consciousness

6. Experiences as parts of life

7. A different picture of how experiences relate to actions. Experiences are conscious as are actions. The actions are the experiences.

8. One’s maximal and most basic action/experience is one’s life It has all one’s actions/experiences as parts These actions/experiences are long-lived occurrences which overlap one another They in turn have other actions/experiences as parts Which have other actions/experiences as parts … And so forth.

9. Actions are essentially dynamic, or spread out in time. They are the sole locus of consciousness. Phenomenal states are not spread out in time hence cannot be experiences.

10. Phenomenal states fragment into sensory states and sensory actions. Sensory actions are conscious. Sensory states are not conscious , but partly constitute sensory actions.

11. ? K(Sf)MAKE(PAST(Sf))? 010100 101000 Intentional states and computations on these states are not conscious Thinking and reasoning are conscious activities

12. What of the causal spiral, from world to input, to intentional state, to computation, to causation of behavior? Should we deny its existence?

13. What of the causal spiral, from world to input, to intentional state, to computation, to causation of behavior? Should we deny its existence? No need to do so: While no part is conscious, the whole is an efficient-causal basis of conscious life.