Unconscious Qualities as the Basis of Content

Sam Coleman (University of Hertfordshire)

ABSTRACT

I argue that (i) since there is unconscious mental content there must be unconscious qualia to carry that content, (ii) consciousness (i.e. subjective character, sheer awareness) has little or nothing do do with fixing content and (iii) unconscious non-mental qualities can be the basis also of natural intentionality. What emerges is a picture where proponents of phenomenal intentionality are right that qualia are key to content, but where traditional reductive naturalists are right that mental intentionality is just an offshoot of natural intentionality and that consciousness is a bystander.