Daniel Stoljar (ANU): Evans on Transparency: A Rationalist Approach
Gareth Evans famously observed that he can answer the question ‘Do you think there is going to be a third world war?’ by attending to ‘precisely the same outward phenomena as I would attend to if I were answering the question “Will there be a third world war?”’ (1982, p. 225). This paper suggests that this observation follows from two independently plausible theses: first, the thesis that, in rational agents, being in a state which is conscious, and believing that one is in that state, go together; second, a thesis about what it is for a mental state to be conscious. The paper contrasts this suggestion with others that have been made in the literature regarding the nature and significance of Evan’s observation.
Location
Coombs Seminar Room C