Perceptual justification outside of consciousness
pp. 137-145
in: Richard S. BROWN (ed), Consciousness inside and out, Berlin, Springer, 2014Abstract
It is often assumed that rationality and consciousness share some sort of essential connection. Thus some theorists build rationality into their accounts of consciousness. Ned Block, for example, famously claims that a mental state exhibits what he calls access consciousness if it "is poised for free use in reasoning and for direct "rational" control of action and speech" (2007, p. 168). In his (2011) paper "There It Is' and his (2014, this volume) précis "It's Still There!" Benj Hellie develops a complex account of how perceptions justify beliefs—an account which effectively builds consciousness into rationality. As Hellie puts it, he "advances a picture of the nature of rationality and rational explanation in which consciousness plays a central role" (2011, p. 110).
