The Function of Conscious Experience: “If we accept the modern materialist view of mind as the operation of the physical brain, then the epistemological question is not open; there is only one reasonable interpretation of the ontology of conscious experience, i.e. that consciousness is in fact an internal replica of the external world rather than the world itself. This in turn validates a phenomenological approach to the study of conscious experience, i.e. to examine the world around us not as a scientist examining an objective external world, but as a perceptual scientist examining a rich and complex internal representation. I will show how the phenomenological approach can be employed to examine both the structure of conscious experience, and also the detailed workings of the computational strategy or algorithm that guides behavior. This approach to the study of conscious experience clearly demonstrates that consciousness is not an epiphenomenon, but serves an essential functional role, which is to provide an analogical representation of the external world, that operates in conjunction with an analogical computational strategy that guides behavior. In other words perception and behavior are intimately coupled through the agency of conscious experience, and careful examination of the properties of that experience offers insights into the nature of both perception and of behavior.
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