ABSTRACT

Many writers on this theme flounder a bit since, as has been remarked previously, no one actually knows for certain what consciousness does or what it is for. A commonly used strategy is to propose some favourite theory about its functions and centre discussion around that. The plan here is a variation on this method. Some of the approaches used by others will be mentioned and examined in the context of the PM paradigm to see what, if any, light it throws on them. Perhaps PM theory will prove a sufficiently sturdy prop to prevent too much floundering.