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A Doctoral Thesis about Consciousness

Bertrand Russell - Wikipedia

 Someone named Tom McClelland, back in 2012, completed a doctoral thesis (0f 242 pages) about the problem of consciousness, in pursuit of a Ph.D. from the University of Sussex.

 The thesis "aims to provide a compelling and distinctive response to the Problem of Consciousness. This is achieved by offering a bipartite analysis of the epistemic gap at the heart of that problem, and by building upon the hypothesis that the apparent problem is symptomatic of our limited conception of the physical."

 https://www.academia.edu/3522302/DOCTORAL_THESIS_-_Self-representationalism_and_the_Russellian_ignorance_hypothesis_a_hybrid_response_to_the_problem_of_consciousness?email_work_card=minimal-title

 In McClelland's view, the heart of the "problem of consciousness" s the "epistemic gap" between the physical and the phenomenal. Between everything we do and can know about light waves, their neurological effects in eye and brain, on the one hand, and knowledge of what it is like to see the color blue on the other.

 He does NOT believe that the further progress of empirical science will eliminate the gap. The gap is a conceptual one, and needs conceptual bridging, which he proceeds to offer.

 What it is: I can't now tell. That would require more intensive study than I have given the thesis. If any of my readers want to follow the above link and get back to me in order to illuminate my Stygian ignorance ... please feel free.  

 In the meantime: it has something to do with Bertrand Russell, so I've included an old photo of him. 
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