The theme of this book is Baars’ approach to the study of consciousness. The conclusions are as follows. First, from a metatheoretical perspective, Baars’ approach to the study of consciousness is essentially permeated by his cognitivism. Here, Baars’ cognitivism is fundamentally characterised by criteriological and methodological rigour, openness to theoretical constructs, the free use of mentalistic and teleological terms, and the application of models from artificial intelligence. Second, from a criteriological perspective, Baars places special emphasis on the operational definition of consciousness, while from a methodological perspective, he advocates for the method of contrastive analysis (contrastive phenomenology). Third, Baars’ approach to the study of consciousness is also explicitly based on three philosophical positions: from an epistemological perspective, on empiricism; from an ontological perspective, on dual-aspect physicalism; and regarding the philosophy of science, on Kuhnian postpositivism. Fourth, Baars’ postpositivistic philosophy of science also includes a clear element of metatheoretical pluralism.
