Author ORCID Identifier
https://orcid.org/0009-0008-8616-7093
Date of Award
5-1-2024
Degree Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts (MA)
Department
Philosophy
First Advisor
Neil Van Leeuwen
Second Advisor
Juan Piñeros Glasscock
Abstract
I draw on work by John Perry to argue that the standard predictive processing theory of attention (SPPA) has the surprising consequence that any agent endowed with a predictive architecture and the capacity for attention can explicitly represent itself qua agent. I argue that this consequence presents us with a hard choice among four competing theoretical options: (1) preserve our intuitions about the self-representational capacities of non-human organisms and reject SPPA, (2) abandon our intuitions and preserve SPPA, (3) preserve our intuitions and preserve SPPA, but reject Perry’s theory of self-knowledge, or (4) preserve our intuitions, preserve SPPA, and preserve Perry’s theory, but qualify predictive processing such that not all adaptive self-organizing systems are PP agents.
DOI
https://doi.org/10.57709/36973077
Recommended Citation
Wotton, Frank, "The Philosopher and the Beetle: Attention, Self-Representation, and the Fate of Predictive Processing." Thesis, Georgia State University, 2024.
doi: https://doi.org/10.57709/36973077
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