What is the unity of consciousness?
Abstract
This chapter addresses the three questions on the unity of consciousness: What is the unity of consciousness? Is consciousness necessarily unified? How can the unity of consciousness be explained? The central project is to isolate a notion of unity on which the unity thesis is both substantive and plausible — this chapter aims to find a more precise version of the unity thesis that is neither trivially true nor obviously false. It looks at certain arguments that have been made against the unity of consciousness, to determine whether they are good arguments against the unity thesis. And finally, after fleshing out the unity thesis further, the chapter applies the thesis to certain currently popular philosophical theories of consciousness, arguing that the thesis is incompatible with these theories: if the unity thesis is true, then these theories are false.
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Crick, F., & Koch, C. (2003) · Nature Neuroscience · doi:10.1038/nn0203-119 · Cited by 1,492 · see citing works
Seth, A. K., & Bayne, T. (2022) · Nature Reviews Neuroscience · doi:10.1038/s41583-022-00587-4 · Cited by 880 · see citing works
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- Authors
- Bayne, T., & Chalmers, D. J.
- Affiliations
- Macquarie University (AU)
- University of Arizona (US)
- Venue
- The Unity of ConsciousnessBinding, Integration, and Dissociation
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press
- Published
- 2003-06-12
- Pages
- 23-58
- OpenAlex
- W1866552835
- Cited by
- 247
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 4 · 2025: 7 · 2024: 8 · 2023: 33 · 2022: 10 · 2021: 14 · 2020: 3 · 2019: 36 · 2018: 16 · 2017: 10 · 2016: 15 · 2015: 7 · 2014: 14 · 2013: 6 · 2012: 10
- FWCI
- 13.03
- Type
- book chapter
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Oxford University Press eBooks (publishedVersion)
- ANU Open Research (Australian National University) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Philosophy and Theoretical Science
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Philosophy › Epistemology, Ethics, and Metaphysics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Free Will and Agency
- Keywords
- unity of consciousness, phenomenal unity, phenomenal experience, theory of consciousness
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