creators_name: Velmans, Max type: journalp datestamp: 1998-02-12 lastmod: 2011-03-11 08:54:06 metadata_visibility: show title: Consciousness and the "Causal Paradox" ispublished: pub subjects: behav-neuro-sci subjects: cog-psy subjects: phil-epist subjects: phil-mind full_text_status: public keywords: psychological complementarity, causality, consciousness, first person, third person, causal paradox, mind, conscious process, perspectival switching, mixed perspective explanations abstract: Viewed from a first-person perspective consciousness appears to be necessary for complex, novel human activity - but viewed from a third-person perspective consciousness appears to play no role in the activity of brains, producing a "causal paradox". To resolve this paradox one needs to distinguish consciousness of processing from consciousness accompanying processing or causing processing. Accounts of consciousness/brain causal interactions switch between first- and third-person perspectives. However, epistemically, the differences between first- and third-person access are fundamental. First- and third-person accounts are complementary and mutually irreducible. date: 1996 date_type: published publication: Behavioral and Brain Sciences volume: 19 number: 3 publisher: Cambridge University Press pagerange: 538-542 refereed: TRUE citation: Velmans, Max (1996) Consciousness and the "Causal Paradox". [Journal (Paginated)] document_url: http://cogprints.org/596/1/199802006.html