Are group agents conscious

CFS Talk with Christian List, Professor of Philosophy at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Münche

The existence of group agents is relatively widely accepted. Examples are corporations, courts, NGOs, and even entire states. As argued in the previous talk, such entities might even have free will. But should we also accept that there is such a thing as group consciousness? I give an overview of some of the critical issues in this debate and sketch a tentative argument for the view that group agents lack phenomenal consciousness (pace Schwitzgebel 2015). In developing my argument, I draw on integrated information theory, a recently popular theory of consciousness. I conclude by pointing out an implication of my argument for the normative status of group agents.