# Contested concept: illusion (of consciousness)

_**What you are reading**: one contested-concept page in Deliberus's deliberation graph. Deliberus maps human reasoning — including claims that are contested, mistaken, or extreme — so that disagreement can be examined precisely. A claim's presence here is not an endorsement: the graph records that someone argued it, how it connects to other reasoning, and how far scrutiny has gotten. The metadata on this page describes the state of that scrutiny, not the truth of the claim._

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- **Contestedness**: criterion
- **Diagnosis**: The dispute is about what is being denied and whether certainty of direct acquaintance outranks theoretical commitments.
- **Canonical**: `/concept/illusion (of consciousness)` (data: `/concept/illusion (of consciousness).json`)

## Senses in use
- **Consciousness is known by direct acquaintance and is more certain than any theory** — used in 4 claim(s)
- **Phenomenality is an introspective misrepresentation to be explained** — used in 4 claim(s)
- **Illusionism denies only the theoretical components of qualia, not their existence** — used in 3 claim(s)

## Claims using this term
- [If qualia are conceived of as theoretical, then illusionists are simply denying the theoretical components of qualia but not the mere fact …](/claim/claim_1923c503a3d7.md) _(sense: Illusionism denies only the theoretical components of qualia, not their existence)_
- [If qualia are conceived of as observational, then [qualia] realists cannot claim that illusionists are leaving anything out of their theori…](/claim/claim_19ebf74f2162.md) _(sense: Illusionism denies only the theoretical components of qualia, not their existence)_
- [Consciousness can be known directly, so the reality of consciousness is more certain than any philosophical or scientific theory that says …](/claim/claim_428c9d487359.md) _(sense: Consciousness is known by direct acquaintance and is more certain than any theory)_
- [Consciousness need not be what it seems to be based on introspection.](/claim/claim_50ab283d9a26.md) _(sense: Phenomenality is an introspective misrepresentation to be explained)_
- [Descartes argued that even if he was maximally deceived (because, for example, an evil demon was manipulating all his senses) he would stil…](/claim/claim_5d64c6bf50b2.md) _(sense: Consciousness is known by direct acquaintance and is more certain than any theory)_
- [We have direct "acquaintance" with consciousness](/claim/claim_a0d2c96dded8.md) _(sense: Consciousness is known by direct acquaintance and is more certain than any theory)_
- [There is, however, another approach [to theories of consciousness that accept phenomenal consciousness as real], which holds that phenomena…](/claim/claim_a297138e597c.md) _(sense: Phenomenality is an introspective misrepresentation to be explained)_
- [[According to attention schema theory,] our perception of being conscious is merely an error in perception.](/claim/claim_b3c6b182041b.md) _(sense: Phenomenality is an introspective misrepresentation to be explained)_
- [Illusionism replaces the hard problem with the illusion problem, the problem of explaining how the illusion of phenomenality arises and why…](/claim/claim_b4a5822f57bd.md) _(sense: Phenomenality is an introspective misrepresentation to be explained)_
- [The mere fact that qualia exist is what illusionists are attempting to explain in the first place.](/claim/claim_bec33d3b095b.md) _(sense: Illusionism denies only the theoretical components of qualia, not their existence)_
- [The reality of consciousness is more certain than any theoretical commitments (to, for example, physicalism) that may be motivating the ill…](/claim/claim_d196967a0a95.md) _(sense: Consciousness is known by direct acquaintance and is more certain than any theory)_