Consciousness, complexity and testabilityMograbi, Gabriel J. C. (2007) Consciousness, complexity and testability. In: 11th annual meeting of the Association for the Scientific Study of Consciousness, 22-25 June 2007, Las Vegas. Full text available as:
AbstractThis poster consists of two parts: The first presents a philosophical argument about the nature of the mind;the second takes in consideration case studies that exemplify my thesis. The theoretical part is concerned with an approach to properties that will be an alternative option to eliminativist, identitary and dualist accounts. The division represented by the pair of words physical-mental is misleading and misguiding and impaires an effective interdisciplinary debate between philosophers and scientists. Thus, in place of accepting the pretense opposition of physical and mental properties we must put forward an ontology able to deal with different emergent levels within our purely physical world. I claim that systemic properties are responsible for determination but not causation (at least in the strict sense of the word) and that means emergent properties are subtractive conditions rather than triggering mechanisms. This is a substantial difference between the traditional view of emergence and the account is being forwarded here.The second part of this talk briefly discusses empirical evidences that exemplify emergence as defined in the first part. Experiments testing conscious/unconscious evaluation in perception as well as adptative behavior in computacional neuroethology will constitute my epistemic credentials. Comments/DiscussionA philosophical approach compatible with deterministic natural sciences. Proposes a theory of consciousness and shows how it is in embedded in the brain.
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