"Are Infant Conscious?" Are infants conscious? What is infants’ conscious experience like? These questions raise epistemological problems that are closely related to the traditional problem of other minds. I argue that newborn babies are conscious at birth and that it is possible to know something about what infants’ experiences are like. I propose a methodology for investigating infant consciousness, and I present two approaches to determining whether infants are conscious. First, I consider behavioral and neurobiological markers of consciousness. Second, I discuss what the leading theories of consciousness, including both philosophical and scientific theories, predict about infant consciousness. Finally, I discuss the phenomenal structure of infant consciousness.
When
Wed Aug 15, 2018 3am – 4:30am Coordinated Universal Time