ABSTRACT
Two conceptions of subjective experience
Edouard Machery
University of Pittsburgh
Do philosophers and ordinary people conceive of subjective experience in the same way? The received view is that they do: the philosophical concept of phenomenal consciousness coincides with the folk conception. In this article, we argue that the received view is mistaken. We offer experimental support for the hypothesis that philosophers and ordinary people conceive of subjective experience in markedly different ways. We then explore experimentally the folk conception, proposing that for the folk, subjective experience is closely linked to affectivity. We conclude by considering the implications of our findings for a central issue in the philosophy of mind, the hard problem of consciousness.