Consciousness: A Two-by-Two Matrix

Recent work on consciousness, especially work by philosophers, displays a deep-running divide between representationalists (those who think that consciousness is a kind or aspect of a representation of some kind) and anti-representationists, and those who focus on individual conscious states or small groups of states (atomists) and those who focus on complete conscious systems (the systems approach). These distinction crosscut. This paper explores the resulting two-by-two matrix and ends with some reasons for favouring a representational systems approach.