Rationality, consciousness and cognition
Rationality, consciousness and cognition

Summary/Abstract: How do consciousness and cognition relate? Smithies (2012) has offered an argument for thinking that cognitive states (beliefs) should be individuated relative to conscious states. Beliefs can be appraised for rationality, the argument goes, only if they are introspectively accessible. I think Smithies is largely correct about the relation between consciousness and cognition. However, I argue that he is wrong about thinking that we should support introspective accessibility by rational evaluation – where that evaluation is construed as amenability to reflective scrutiny. Instead, I argue that we should support the introspective availability of our beliefs to ourselves by appealing to the cognitive responsibility we hold for our believings.

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