David M. Rosenthal

David M. Rosenthal is Professor of Philosophy and Linguistics and Coordinator of the Cognitive Science Concentration at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York (CUNY). He is the originator and principal developer of the Higher-Order Thought (HOT) theory of consciousness.

In Consciousness and Mind (Oxford University Press, 2005) and extensive foundational papers, Rosenthal argued that a mental state becomes conscious through the occurrence of a concurrent, non-inferential higher-order thought asserting that one is in that state. Rosenthal established the critical distinction between creature consciousness (being awake vs. asleep), transitive consciousness (being conscious of an object), and state consciousness (a mental state being conscious).

Rosenthal’s HOT theory is purely functionalist and representational, providing a direct computational blueprint for AI. Artificial consciousness requires implementing metacognitive representational states that represent the system’s own lower-level cognitive states in a suitable asserted format.

Known for. Higher-Order Thought (HOT) actualist theory of consciousness, Consciousness and Mind (Oxford University Press, 2005), intransitive vs. transitive consciousness

Coverage on this site

• Introspection Without Biology. Higher-Order Thought Theory in AI Architectures July 2026

Elsewhere

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Every researcher covered on this site is indexed in the directory of consciousness researchers, grouped by the position their published work defends. The positions themselves are set out in the index of consciousness theories.