Properties not necessary to consciousness.

A materialist view suggests a few non-requirements:rS9

  • Contiguousness: Presumably, components can communicate at a distance.
  • No conscious sub-components: There’s no reason part of the conscious system cannot have its own conscious properties.
  • Procreation: Nothing about the properties of consciousness require procreation to function.

Contrast with necessary properties.


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    Eric Schwitzgebel, “If Materialism Is True, the United States Is Probably Conscious,” Philosophical Studies, no. 172 (2015): 1697–1721. (See notes.)