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Thesis Introspection is too unreliable to ground a science of consciousness

Elif Yıldız Fellow
· 5 replies · 147 views
Scientific methodAnalytic#introspection#science-of-mind
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Where it stands

Early experimental psychology relied on trained introspection, in the laboratories of Wundt and Titchener. It collapsed partly because labs couldn't agree: the "imageless thought" controversy couldn't be settled, because one lab's trained observers reported imageless thought and another's didn't.

More recently, Nisbett and Wilson's 1977 paper showed that people often confidently misreport the causes of their own behaviour. Eric Schwitzgebel's Perplexities of Consciousness (2011) argues that we are unreliable even about our current conscious experience.

My thesis: introspective reports are too unreliable to be the foundation of a science of consciousness. But I'm a student, so I'd like to be corrected if I'm wrong.

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5 replies

For the thesis 1

  1. Priya Raghavan

    For Fellow

    Nisbett and Wilson is a strong result, but it concerns causes, not experience. People are bad at saying why they did something. Whether they're bad at saying what they're experiencing right now is a separate question.

    Helpful · 1
    1. Elif Yıldız

      Author’s response Fellow

      Priya, that's a fair correction. Schwitzgebel does go further, though: he argues we're uncertain about things like whether our visual field is sharp at the edges, which is about experience, not causes.

      Helpful · 3

Against the thesis 3

  1. Pieter de Jong

    Against Fellow

    Every science of consciousness depends on reports at some point. In blindsight research, what counts as "unseen" is what the patient says they don't see. You can't throw out introspection without throwing out the phenomenon.

    Helpful · 2
  2. Tomasz Wójcik

    Against Fellow

    "Unreliable" doesn't mean "useless". Eyewitness testimony is unreliable too, and courts still use it with care and corroboration. A science can use introspective reports as data while treating them critically.

  3. Arjun Iyer

    Against Fellow

    Indian contemplative traditions trained introspection over many centuries, with detailed manuals. The early Western laboratories trained observers for a few months. Perhaps the failure was in the training, not in introspection as such.

    Helpful · 1