A Paradox of Consciousness

Abstract

There are strong reasons to hold that phenomenal consciousness (experience) cannot be sharp (on/off) and equally strong reasons to hold that phenomenal consciousness cannot be vague (admitting borderline cases). In the former case, the reasons have to do with understanding the emergence of consciousness in the physical world. In the latter case, the reasons have to do with the fact that when we try to describe a borderline case of consciousness, we always end up describing a case in which there is indeterminacy in what is experienced as opposed to in experience or consciousness itself. A paradox thus arises in our thinking about consciousness. This chapter is devoted to laying out the paradox in detail.