In all my discussions about consciousness, the position I have always most intuitively dismissed is illusionism. This is a view of consciousness defended by the late Daniel Dennett, and more recently by today’s guest, Keith Frankish.
On the face of it, the idea that consciousness is an illusion seems preposterous. Illusions, after all, arise in consciousness. The position seems to imply a complete misunderstanding of what we are even talking about. Galen Strawson has called illusionism “the silliest claim ever made”, and it’s easy to understand why.
But illusionism is not what it might seem. Illusionists do not think that consciousness is itself an illusion, but rather that the way we introspect about consciousness—the belief that we have some special, private, inner world of experience—is an illusion. I still find the position difficult to wrap my head around, and decided it would be useful to speak to one of the current leading thinkers in illusionism to help clear up my understanding.
Keith Frankish is that person, and so he joins me in today’s episode.
TIMESTAMPS:
0:00 - Is Consciousness An Illusion?
4:02 - Do We Have a Private World?
10:00 - The Nature of Visual Experience
18:46 - Is Awareness Behavioural?
26:50 - Isn’t Introspection Itself a Private Experience?
31:37 - Philosophical Zombies
41:38 - What Motivates Illusionism?
48:35 - Psychedelics and the Dissolution of the Self
57:56 - Why Are Philosophers Always Categorising?
01:09:04 - Does Alex’s Triangle Exist?
01:20:13 - Is Pain Just a Reaction to Stimulus?
01:47:38 - Is Pain an Emergent Phenomenon?
01:54:25 - What Illusion Is Actually Happening?
01:57:40 - Can AI Be Conscious?
