Abstract

The question of how a physical system gives rise to the phenomenal or experiential , is considered the most intractable of scientific and philosophical puzzles. Though this question has dominated the philosophy of mind over the last quarter century, it articulates a version of the age-old mind–body problem. The most famous response, Cartesian dualism, is on Daniel Dennett’s view still a corrosively residual and redundant feature of popular thinking on these matters. Fifteen years on from his anti-Cartesian theory of consciousness , Dennett’s frustration with this tradition is still palpable. This frustration is primarily aimed at philosophers. The “Sweet Dreams” of Dennett’s title are the rationalist thought experiments of wishful thinking philosophers who, neglectful or unaware of empirical evidence, generate premature conclusions “of unexamined presuppositions and circularly defined elaborations” . The nature of such presuppositions renders these thought experiments no more than “intuition pumps,” ostensibly succeeding in stale-mating or in some cases check-mating any moves in the direction of a unified science of consciousness. The extent to which Dennett believes these “pumps” have skewed theorising about consciousness is captured in his remark: “I had no idea philosophers still put so much faith in the authority of their homegrown intuitions. It is almost as if one thought one could prove that the Copernican theory was false by noting that it ‘seems just obvious’ that the Earth doesn’t move and the Sun does”