INTRODUCTION

As we observed in Chapter 1, there is a sense of the word “conscious” according to which, roughly speaking, a mental state counts as conscious just in case the relevant agent is introspectively aware of it. The present chapter is concerned with the form of consciousness that is signified by this sense of the word.

This form of consciousness, introspective consciousness, is a relational property, like the property of being married and the property of being illuminated. It is widely distributed across the realm of mental phenomena. Thoughts, volitions, and other occurrent mental states can be introspectively conscious, but so can beliefs, long term plans, and other enduring phenomena that are stored in memory. Introspective consciousness can also be possessed by a range of mental processes, including planning, deciding, evaluating, and inferring.

Introspective consciousness has been recognized and discussed for centuries. For example, the contrast between introspectively conscious motivation and its opposite is very much in view, without being explicitly mentioned, in Austen's Mansfield Park. One of the characters in that book, Mrs. Norris, constantly rebukes, marginalizes, and assigns demeaning tasks to the young heroine, Fanny Pryce. Mrs. Norris consciously sees herself as helping Fanny, who has in effect been brought to Mansfield Park as an act of charity by her aunt and uncle. In Mrs. Norris's opinion, Fanny must be constantly reminded of the inferiority and fragility of her position in the household if she is to appreciate the nature of her situation and adapt to it.