ULB - Free University of Brussels
Région de Bruxelles-Capitale/Brussels Hoofdstedelijk Gewest (BE1) · Belgium
ERC Advanced Grant · 2021
Are you experienced? An exploration into the functions and value of consciousness
Why would we do anything at all if the doing was not doing something to us? In other words: What is consciousness good for? Here, reversing classical views according to which subjective experience is a mere epiphenomenon that affords no functional advantage, I propose that the core function of phenomenal experience is to enable subject-level valuation: “What it feels like” is endowed with intrinsic value. Thus, I argue that it is only in virtue of the fact that conscious agents experience things and care about those experiences that they are motivated to act in certain ways and that they prefer some states of affairs vs. others. Conscious experience functions as a mental currency of sorts…
From the public funding record at EU CORDIS. Describes the funded project, not the reviews below.