Introspection and Consciousness

The topic of introspection stands at the interface between questions in epistemology about the nature of self-knowledge and questions in the philosophy of mind about the nature of consciousness. What is the nature of introspection such that it provides us with a distinctive way of knowing about our own conscious mental states? And what is the nature of consciousness such that we can know about our own conscious mental states by introspection? How should we understand the relationship between consciousness and introspective self-knowledge? Should we explain consciousness in terms of introspective self-knowledge or vice versa?

Until recently, questions in epistemology and the philosophy of mind were pursued largely in isolation from one another. This volume aims to integrate these two lines of research by bringing together fourteen new essays and one reprinted essay on the relationship between introspection, self-knowledge, and consciousness.

Declan Smithies is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the Ohio State University and was until recently Postdoctoral Fellow in Philosophy at the Australian National University. He received his BA in Philosophy and Theology from the University of Oxford and his PhD in Philosophy from New York University. He works on a range of issues in epistemology and the philosophy of mind, including consciousness, intentionality, concepts, perception, introspection, attention, belief, justification, and knowledge.

Daniel Stoljar is Professor of Philosophy at the Australian National University. He received his BA from the University of Sydney and his PhD from MIT. He works on a range of issues in philosophy of mind, metaethics, epistemology and metaphysics.