David M. Rosenthal (philosopher) - Relation To Other Theories of Consciousness

Relation To Other Theories of Consciousness

Rosenthal's HOT theory of consciousness resembles in some ways the traditional inner-sense theory, on which we are aware of conscious states by perceiving them. This theory has also come to be known as higher-order perception. Rosenthal's theory also resembles somewhat the theory of Franz Brentano, on which our awareness of our own mental states is intrinsic to those states.

But the HOT theory avoids various difficulties that face the inner-sense theory, e.g., explaining what sensory modality the higher-order sensing could have (2004). And because the HOTs Rosenthal posits, unlike Brentano's intrinsic awareness, are external to the mental states they make one conscious of, the theory avoids difficulties Brentano's theory encounters about the individuation of mental states, as well as neuropsychological evidence (e.g., Libet) that mental states occur measurably before they are available for awareness (2004; 2005, ch. 2).

Global-workspace theories (Stanislas Dehaene, Bernard Baars) posit that mental states are conscious in virtue of the wide availability of their content to various processing areas in the brain. The HOT theory has an advantage over such theories that it can explain the occurrence of conscious state whose content is not thus available, such as relatively peripheral perceptions and thoughts, and unconscious states whose content is widely available, such as repressed psychological states.

First-order theories, such as Dretske's and Ned Block's, deny that a mental state's being conscious consists in some awareness of that state, and so have no easy way to explain the difference between conscious states and mental states that are not conscious. Rosenthal's HOT theory provides an intuitively natural way to do so.