Subjective experience can be objectively explained in physical terms by moving beyond cognitive functions and understanding how experience is structured. Integrated information theory provides a framework to account for both the essential properties of every experience and the specific properties that make particular experiences feel the way they do, avoiding the fallacy that only objective properties should be explained by science.
Integrated information theory (IIT) begins with phenomenology and predicts that only select physical substrates can support consciousness. The theory's account of experience—a cause-effect structure quantified by integrated information—has nothing to do with information transfer. This commentary outlines IIT's axioms and postulates, correcting major misconceptions from a target article that misrepresents the theory's foundations and ignores essential publications.