How to study consciousness scientifically.
The neurosciences have advanced to the point that we can now treat consciousness as a scientific problem like any other. The problem is to explain how brain processes cause consciousness and how consciousness is realized in the brain. Progress is impeded by a number of philosophical mistakes, and the aim of this paper is to remove nine of those mistakes: (i) consciousness cannot be defined; (ii) consciousness is subjective but science is objective; (iii) brain processes cannot explain consciousness; (iv) the problem of 'qualia' should be set aside; (v) consciousness is epiphenomenal; (vi) consciousness has no evolutionary function; (vii) a causal account of consciousness is necessarily dualistic; (viii) science is reductionistic, so a scientific account of consciousness would show it reducible to something else; and (ix) an account of consciousness must be an information processing account.
Searle
J R
JR
Department of Philosophy, University of California, Berkeley 94720-2390, USA.
D005075:Biological Evolution; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D003243:Consciousness / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008959:Models, Neurological; D009488:Neurosciences; D010684:Philosophy