title: Consciousness and the "Causal Paradox"
creator: Velmans, Max
subject: Behavioral Neuroscience
subject: Cognitive Psychology
subject: Epistemology
subject: Philosophy of Mind
description: Viewed from a first-person perspective consciousness appears to be necessary for complex, novel human activity - but viewed from a third-person perspective consciousness appears to play no role in the activity of brains, producing a "causal paradox". To resolve this paradox one needs to distinguish consciousness of processing from consciousness accompanying processing or causing processing. Accounts of consciousness/brain causal interactions switch between first- and third-person perspectives. However, epistemically, the differences between first- and third-person access are fundamental. First- and third-person accounts are complementary and mutually irreducible.
publisher: Cambridge University Press
date: 1996
type: Journal (Paginated)
type: PeerReviewed
format: text/html
identifier: http://cogprints.org/596/1/199802006.html
identifier:   Velmans, Max  (1996) Consciousness and the "Causal Paradox".  [Journal (Paginated)]     
relation: http://cogprints.org/596/