How a Materialist Can Deny That the United States

Authors: François Kammerer

Publish Date: 2015/09/28

Volume: 43, Issue: 4, Pages: 1047-1057

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Abstract

In a recent paper Eric Schwitzgebel argues that if materialism about consciousness is true then the United States is likely to have its own stream of phenomenal consciousness distinct from the streams of conscious experience of the people who compose it Indeed most plausible forms of materialism have to grant that a certain degree of functional and behavioral complexity constitutes a sufficient condition for the ascription of phenomenal consciousness – and Schwitzgebel makes a case to show that the United States as a whole fulfills this condition One way to avoid this counterintuitive consequence of materialism about consciousness is to adopt what Schwitzgebel calls an “antinesting principle” a principle that states that there can be no nested forms of phenomenal consciousness and that therefore a conscious whole cannot have parts that are themselves conscious However Schwitzgebel then proceeds in his paper to draw up various objections notably based on thought experiments in order to dismiss these kinds of “antinesting” principles My aim in this paper is to present a version of a sophisticated antinesting principle that avoids Schwitzgebel’s objections This principle is reasonable intuitive and as nonarbitrary as possible Moreover it can resist the objections mounted by Schwitzgebel against simple antinesting principles This principle helps materialists avoid the implication that the United States has its own stream of consciousness while granting consciousness to some entities which in many cases are intuitive instantiators of phenomenal consciousness among which are cases of authentic group consciousness This principle therefore constitutes a way out for a materialist who wants to deny that the United States is conscious

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