If Materialism Is True, the United States Is Probably Conscious

Philosophical Studies (2015) 172, 1697-1721

Abstract: If you’re a materialist, you probably think that rabbits are conscious. And you ought to think that. After all, rabbits are a lot like us, biologically and neurophysiologically. If you’re a materialist, you probably also think that conscious experience would be present in a wide range of alien beings behaviorally very similar to us even if they are physiologically very different. And you ought to think that. After all, to deny it seems insupportable Earthly chauvinism. But a materialist who accepts consciousness in weirdly formed aliens ought also to accept consciousness in spatially distributed group entities. If she then also accepts rabbit consciousness, she ought to accept the possibility of consciousness even in rather dumb group entities. Finally, the United States would seem to be a rather dumb group entity of the relevant sort. If we set aside our morphological prejudices against spatially distributed group entities, we can see that the United States has all the types of properties that materialists tend to regard as characteristic of conscious beings.

Official published version on the Philosophical Studies website.

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Manuscript version as PDF: If Materialism Is True, the United States Is Probably Conscious (July 21, 2014). 

Manuscript version as HTM: If Materialism Is True, the United States Is Probably Conscious (July 21, 2014).

There are a few videos of abbreviated versions of this essay:

• 51-minute presentation for NeuPhi: http://vimeo.com/groups/neuphi/videos/50178451 (September 14, 2012).
• 34-minute presentation on for the Online Consciousness Conference: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gAKFJ3aHjc (February 7, 2013).

Or email eschwitz at domain: ucr.edu for a copy of this paper.

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