Is our phenomenal experience unified? Philosopher of mind Tim Bayne investigates this tricky question in conversation with Nigel Warburton for this episode of the Philosophy Bites podcast.
Listen to Tim Bayne on the Unity of Consciousness
Philosophy Bites is made in association with the Institute of Philosophy.
It would be interesting to ask dr. Bayne how his idea of the consciousnes being structured and his critique of the the theory of experiences corresponding to neurophysiological events in the brain can be compared to Maurice Merealu-Pontys arguments in Phenomenology of Perception.
Posted by: Ivana | November 13, 2012 at 10:28 AM
Excellent interview! Yes, that whole Merleau-Ponty Chiasm thing of simultaneously touching and being touched - we as "flesh" are both subject and object, which is a kind of Cartesian disunity of our consciousness.
It made me think too of M-Ps concept of obtaining "maximal grip" of the world through our perceptions - our consciousness functionally operating as a unifying process. So, each cortical system attempts to get maximal grip of the incoming sense data, which is increasingly integrated by the higher centres to reveal the significance to the organism of the whole, as a single unified understanding (which can then flip figure-ground as in the "duck-rabbit" of the Philosophy Bites logo).
I wondered about DID cases, where multiple conscious part personalities are in the same body, often unaware of each other. It seems that memory and personality is compartmentalised. Is there some anatomical correlate in the brain, or is it like two "operating systems" running in parallel?
Posted by: Jim Vaughan | November 24, 2012 at 12:15 PM