paavo abstract tsc 2013
TRANSCRIPT
Does the quantum theory make room for the causal powers of consciousness?Paavo Pylkkanen
Department of Cognitive Neuroscience and Philosophy, University of Skovde,
Sweden and Department of Philosophy, University of Helsinki, Finland.
e-mail: [email protected]
Does consciousness have causal powers? More specifically, does it make a difference
to the effects of information processing, whether or not the system is conscious of thatinformation? There is a growing body of evidence suggesting that astonishingly
much of our most sophisticated brain functions work totally independent fromconsciousness (see e.g. Walla ed. 2012). These results call into question the
assumption that the conscious self plays a crucial causal role in complex human
cognitive and emotion-related information processing, and in the way this information
guides behavior. Indeed, since Libet’s 1985 work on the neuroscience of free will, the
notion that the conscious will is not the original determinant of action has won
increasing support among neuroscientists – Wegner being a prominent contemporary
example. Yet there are those who hold that consciousness has a genuine and
indispensable causal role to play. For example, as pointed out by Robert Van Gulick in his useful review, it has been suggested that consciousness provides an organism
with more flexible control, better social coordination, more integrated representations, better informational access, genuine freedom of will and intrinsic motivation. I will
consider these suggestions, drawing attention to especially how the putative causal
role of consciousness connects with information. With this link between
consciousness and information in mind, I will then consider Bohm and Hiley’s notion
of active information that is extended all the way to fundamental physics at the
quantum level. In this broader context I will finally consider how we might
understand the role that consciousness seems to play in information processing. Quite
often philosophers appeal to the causal closure of the physical domain as a reasonwhy mental properties cannot possibly influence physical processes. However, if
information plays a key causal role at the quantum level, and if we can develop a plausible and coherent view of how consciousness might influence that information,
the way is open to understanding how consciousness could influence physical
processes in the brain in a very fundamental and subtle way.
Keywords: function of consciousness; mental causation; epiphenomenalism; active
information; Bohm; Hiley
References
Bohm, D. and Hiley, B.J. The Undivided Universe. An Ontological Interpretation of Quantum Theory. Routledge: London,1993.
Hiley, B.J. and Pylkkanen, P. Can mind affect matter via active information? Mind
and Matter 2005, 3, 2, 7-26. URL =
<http://www.mindmatter.de/resources/pdf/hileywww.pdf>
Pylkkanen, P. Mind, Matter and the Implicate Order. Springer Frontiers Collection:
Heidelberg and New York, 2007.
Walla, P. (ed.) 2012 The Brain Knows More than It Admits: The Control of Cognition
and Emotion by Non-Conscious Processes. A special issue of the journal Brain
Sciences (ISSN 2076-3425).
Van Gulick, R., Consciousness. In The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
(Summer 2011 Edition), Edward N. Zalta Ed., URL =
<http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/ sum2011/entries/consciousness/>.