The Evolutionary Function of Consciousness and Fregean Representationalism

There is an intuition of contingency which causes philosophers of mind to often mischaracterize the nature of phenomenal consciousness. The aim of this paper is to define phenomenal consciousness not as a separate, distinct, and contingent entity, but as a process which is necessary in aiding our non-phenomenal cognitive functions. A constitutive relationship between phenomenal and non-phenomenal functioning explains how: phenomenality can afford evolutionary benefits to its possessors; how it can overcome some very persuasive thought experiments against physicalism and functionalism; and how its Fregean representational structure can indeed aid non-phenomenal cognitive processing. Ultimately, what is defended and preserved is an eliminative, physicalist, functionalist account of phenomenal consciousness.