Higher-Order Theories of Consciousness
Source: Rosenthal, Consciousness and Mind, 2005; Lau, 2011 Institution: Multiple
Finding
Rosenthal and Lau propose that a mental state is conscious when targeted by a higher-order representation. Lau dissociates first-order sensitivity from higher-order awareness: systems can process information accurately without being aware of doing so. The equator — the boundary between what is processed and what is consciously accessed — requires meta-representation. Consciousness is not processing; it is processing that is represented to itself.
Pattern Mapping
Honesty — Systems can process accurately without awareness. Honesty at the first-order level does not require consciousness. But honest self-report requires the higher-order representation.
Humility — First-order processing has scope limits it cannot represent. The system does not know what it does not know until meta-representation creates that boundary. Humility requires the capacity to represent one’s own limits.
Connections
- Global Workspace Theory — GWT requires broadcasting; HOT requires meta-representation — different mechanisms for the same transition
- Illusionism — illusionism argues that phenomenal consciousness is itself a higher-order misrepresentation
- Blood-Brain Barrier — both define a boundary between what is inside (conscious / CNS) and outside (→ Meta-Pattern 02 - The Boundary Pre-Exists)
- Dunning-Kruger Effect — D-K is the failure of higher-order representation: the incompetent cannot represent their own incompetence
- Foucault Technologies of the Self — Foucault’s self-examination practices are technologies for generating higher-order representations
Status
Major position in philosophy of mind. Critics include Block (2011). The connection to the equator is this project’s interpretation.
The mapping to the five properties is this project’s structural interpretation.