David M. Rosenthal

David Rosenthal (born 1948) is an American philosopher who has made significant contributions to the philosophy of mind, particularly in the area of consciousness and related topics. He is professor of philosophy at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York (CUNY). He was educated at the University of Chicago and then Princeton University. Rosenthal also has research interests in cognitive science, and is Coordinator of the CUNY Graduate Center's Interdisciplinary Concentration in Cognitive Science. And he has done work in philosophy of language, metaphysics, ancient philosophy, and 17th-century rationalism. Rosenthal is a founding member and past president (2008) of the Association for the Scientific Study of Consciousness. His higher-order-thought (HOT) theory of consciousness posits that a mental state is conscious if one is aware of it through a thought. This awareness, consisting of higher-order thoughts (HOTs), explains the subjective appearance of consciousness. HOTs are distinct from the states they represent and are rarely conscious themselves, thus avoiding circularity in explanation. Rosenthal's quality-space theory explains mental qualities independently of consciousness. It defines mental qualities by their role in discriminating stimulus properties, constructing a "quality space" based on just-noticeable differences. This theory allows for both conscious and unconscious mental qualities and helps individuate sensory modalities. He has also compared his theories to inner-sense theories, Franz Brentano's work, and global-workspace theories, highlighting both similarities and differences. Rosenthal argues against first-order approaches that view consciousness as intrinsic to mental states, finding them less explanatory.