Abstract

A question that should be answered by any theory of consciousness is: What makes a mental state a conscious mental state? The focus of this chapter is on “representational theories of consciousness,” which attempt to reduce consciousness to “mental representations” instead of directly to neural states. Examples of representational theories include first-order representationalism (FOR), which attempts to explain conscious experience primarily in terms of world-directed (or first-order) intentional states, and higher-order representationalism (HOR), which holds that what makes a mental state M conscious is that a HOR is directed at M. A related view, often called “self-representationalism,” is also critically discussed in this chapter.