Higher-order Representationalism

Higher-order representationalism: The idea that what makes a mental state conscious is that it is the object of some kind of higher-order representation (HOR).

The readings I found on this topic (see: http://www.iep.utm.edu/consciou/#SSH4b.ii)) were quite complex, and to be honest, I didn’t really follow them. Probably not an essential component of the topic statement though.

From: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1747-9991.2006.00008.x/full “According to Higher-Order Representationalism, mental states are not conscious in virtue of representing, but in virtue of being represented. In other words, they are conscious because they are themselves the representational contents of higher-order representations. For example, a conscious feeling of a tickle behind one’s ear involves one’s awareness of one’s tickling feeling, and that awareness is a matter of the tickling feeling being targeted by a higher-order representation.”