Abstract

Typically, materialists assume that the physical machinery of phenomenal consciousness is the brain. The extended consciousness thesis offers a materialist alternative to this position, claiming that the physical basis of phenomenal consciousness would include, at least in some cases, not only brains, but also objects outside an agent’s biological body and particular environmental interactions. Here we briefly review the arguments for this position, concluding that they do not offer sufficiently cogent reasons for accepting the extended consciousness thesis.