Reconstructing Dennett's Multiple Drafts Theory of Consciousness
0 Blackwell Publishers Ltd. 1996, 108 Cowley Road, Oxford, OX4 IJF, LIK and 238 Main Street, Cambridge, MA 02142, Mind b Language, ISSN: 0268-1064 Vol. 71. No. 1 March 1996, pp 1-43. Lost the Plot? Reconstructing Dennett’s Multiple Drafts Theory of Consciousness KATHLEEN AKINS Abstract: In Consciousness Explained, Daniel Dennett presents the Multiple Drafts Theory of consciousness, a very brief, largely empirical theory of brain function. From these premises, he draws a number of quite radical conclusions-for example, the conclusion that conscious events have no determinate time of occurrence. The prob- lem, as many readers have pointed out, is that there is little discernible route from the empirical premises to the philosophical conclusions. In this article, I try to reconstruct Dennett’s argument, providing both the philosophical views behind the empirical premises, and the hidden empirical arguments behind the derivation of the philo- sophical conclusions. 1. Introduction Since the publication of Consciousness Explained (Dennett, 1991) several years ago, there has been an enormous amount of confusion about Dennett’s the- ory of consciousness, the Multiple Drafts Model. For the neophyte, it has been a challenge simply to separate the central tenets of the model from the various conclusions Dennett wishes to draw from them-the starting point from the proverbial finish line, as Dennett would say. For the seasoned phil- osopher, the problem has been somewhat different. The theory itself seems to be a simple one. It has six central tenets, each one a largely empirical, speculative hypothesis about some aspect of neural function. These six tenets are as follows: T1.
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