CoChat
Sign Up
Cited by 46Philosophy and Theoretical ScienceChild and Animal Learning DevelopmentEpistemology, Ethics, and Metaphysics

Are infants conscious?

Open access
Passos‐Ferreira, Claudia·2023·Philosophical Perspectives
DOI 10.1111/phpe.12192
Open this paper in CoChat — free accountOpen PDF

Abstract

I argue that newborn infants are conscious. I propose a methodology for investigating infant consciousness and I present two approaches for determining whether newborns are conscious. First, I consider behavioral and neurobiological markers of consciousness.Second, I investigate the major theories of consciousness, including both philosophical and scientific theories, and I discuss what they predict about infant consciousness.

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1111/phpe.12192

Cites

78 of 78 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • Beyond the consensus that healthy, awake, adult humans are conscious, there is significant disagreement about the distribution of consciousness.

    “Beyond that consensus, however, lies signi fi cant disagreement about the distribution of consciousness.”

    From Tests for consciousness in humans and beyond (2024) · cites this paper as [6]

  • There is debate about when consciousness first emerges in human development.

    “There is debate about when consciousness fi rst emerges in human development [1 -6]”

    From Tests for consciousness in humans and beyond (2024) · cites this paper as [6]

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Research works printed but not linked: 17

  1. Block, Ned (1995). On a confusion about a function of consciousness. Brain and Behavioral Sciences 18(2): 227--247.
  2. ______. (2002). The harder problem of consciousness. Journal of Philosophy 99(8): 391-425.
  3. ______. (2005). Consciousness, philosophical issues about. In L. Nadel (org), Encyclopedia of cognitive science. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
  4. Chalmers, D.J. (1996). The Conscious Mind. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  5. Dretske, F. (1995). Naturalizing the Mind. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
  6. Goff, P. (2017). Panpsychism. In Schneider, S. & Velmans, M. (Eds.) The Blackwell Companion to Consciousness, NJ: Wiley-Blackwell.
  7. Iannetti, G. D.; Mouraux, A. (2015). The "Pain Matrix": Myths and (Unpleasant) Truths. The Brain Adapting with Pain: Contribution of Neuroimaging Technology to Pain Mechanisms. A. V. Apkarian (ed). Philadelphia: Wolters Kluwer. International Association for the Study of Pain. Terminology https://www.iasp- pain.org/ resources/terminology/ (2011).
  8. Kriegel, U. (2002). PANIC theory and the prospects for a representational theory of phenomenal consciousness. Philosophical Psychology 15(1): 55-64.
  9. Kriegel & Kenneth Williford (eds.), Self-Representational Approaches to Consciousness. MIT Press. pp. 143--170.
  10. ______. (2015). The Varieties of Consciousness. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  11. ch11 · DOI
  12. Passos-Ferreira, C. (2017). The Development of Consciousness. Doctorate Thesis. ______. (2017) Varieties of Infant Experience. (Manuscript in preparation)
  13. Rochat, P. (2001). The Infant's World. New York: Harvard University Press.
  14. ______. (2011). What is it like to be a newborn? In S. Gallagher, ed. The Oxford Handbook of The Self. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  15. Rosenthal, D.M. (1997). A theory of consciousness. In: Block N, Flanagan O and Güzeldere G (eds) The Nature of Consciousness: Philosophical Debates. Cambridge: MA: MIT Press, 729-754.
  16. ______. (2011). Exaggerated Reports: Reply to Block, Analysis 71(3): 431-437.
  17. Trevarthen, C.; Reddy, V. (2007). Consciousness in infants. In Max Velmans & Susan Schneider (eds.), The Blackwell Companion to Consciousness. Blackwell.

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Related

Authors
Passos‐Ferreira, C.
Affiliations
Center for Bioethics New York University New York USA
Venue
Philosophical Perspectives
Publisher
Wiley
Published
2023-10-17
Volume
37
Issue
1
Pages
308-329
ISSN
1520-8583 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1111/phpe.12192
OpenAlex
W4387697038
Cited by
46
References
78
Citations by year
2026: 15 · 2025: 2 · 2024: 28 · 2023: 1
FWCI
11.87
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/termsAndConditions#vor (vor)
Locations
  • Philosophical Perspectives (publishedVersion)
  • PhilPapers (PhilPapers Foundation) (submittedVersion)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Philosophy and Theoretical Science
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Child and Animal Learning Development
  • Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Philosophy › Epistemology, Ethics, and Metaphysics
Keywords
neonates, theory of consciousness, philosophy of mind

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review