What Does Consciousness Do?
What Does Consciousness Do?
On the basis of the global workspace account of consciousness developed in Chapter 3, an account of the difference that it makes to behavior is advanced. It is claimed that because consciousness integrates information from internal and external sources, it is needed for broadly flexible behavior. The behavior of agents suffering from pathologies of consciousness such as somnambulism is driven by a narrow range of the contents that make the agent the person she is, it is claimed. It is argued that the account explains the extraordinary feats of which such agents remain capable, but also the limitations of their behavior.
Keywords: Global workspace theory, integration, behavioral flexibility, somnambulism
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