Predictive Processing (PP) offers a useful framework for understanding the peculiarities of dreaming but cannot fully explain how phenomenal consciousness arises during sleep. The authors propose that Integrated Information Theory (IIT) is better suited to address the emergence of consciousness and shows points of contact with PP. PP aligns with contemporary research on the adaptive function of sleep, and IIT can account for dreaming in evolutionary terms. Future research should examine bodily predictions in sleeping brain activity and the roles of REM and NREM sleep stages in refining the predictive machinery.
This article critically compares Toshihiko Izutsu's reconstruction of Zen metaphysics with Descartes' philosophy grounded in "cogito ergo sum." It examines Izutsu's argument based on the subject-object distinction and places his terminological choices in the context of Zen Buddhism. The analysis proceeds step by step from the perspective of Descartes' Meditations, focusing on prima facie similarities in meditative and reflective methodologies. It highlights unequivocal differences: for Descartes, the subject serves as an indubitable foundation for epistemological access to objective reality; for Zen, the subject involves introspective apprehension of the egoless void or absolute reality.