260055 Self-Consciousness, Self-Knowledge and Logic (S) (SoSe 2022)

Description: In this course we will investigate approaches to the logical representation and resolution of problems surrounding the notions of self-consciousness and self-knowledge. Particular attention will be paid to infinite regress arguments and the problems of explanatory and structural circularity that arise naturally from some proposed accounts of consciousness and self-consciousness. In addition, we will discuss a variety of positions on the nature, scope and limits of introspective self-knowledge, the logical representation of these positions, and the bearing these positions have on issues in the metaphysics of consciousness, in particular, on the modal intuitions underpinning some anti-physicalist arguments.

Topics covered may include, among others: The general structure of infinite regress arguments. Explanatory vs. structural circularity. Metamathematical self-reference and "diagonalization". Set-theoretical paradoxes. Nonwellfounded sets. Higher-Order Representation theories of consciousness. Self-representationalist theories of consciousness. Computationalist theories of consciousness (esp. Douglas Hofstadter's). Introspective Infallibilism, Illusionism, Introspective Representationalism, Self-Acquaintance theory, phenomenological undecidability, the "Revelation" thesis, "Mysterianism", the "Zombie argument", conceivability-to-possibility theses in the philosophy of mind and phenomenology, the "Grain Problem“