Toward a Mature Science of Consciousness.
Frontiers in Psychology 2018 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00693 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Topics | Philosophy of mind |
| Keywords | Consciousness Integrated information theory Naturalized phenomenology Neurophenomenology Predictive processing |
| Citations | 29 |
| Key points | Argues that a unifying theory of different features of consciousness is required to reach a mature science of consciousness, as the method of interdisciplinary constraint satisfaction alone has not yet achieved this. |
Abstract
In Being No One, Metzinger (2004[2003]) introduces an approach to the scientific study of consciousness that draws on theories and results from different disciplines, targeted at multiple levels of analysis. Descriptions and assumptions formulated at, for instance, the phenomenological, representationalist, and neurobiological levels of analysis provide different perspectives on the same phenomenon, which can ultimately yield necessary and sufficient conditions for applying the concept of phenomenal representation. In this way, the "method of interdisciplinary constraint satisfaction (MICS)" (as it has been called by Weisberg, 2005) promotes our understanding of consciousness. However, even more than a decade after the first publication of Being No One, we still lack a mature science of consciousness. This paper makes the following meta-theoretical contribution: It analyzes the hurdles an approach such as MICS has yet to overcome and discusses to what extent existing approaches solve the problems left open by MICS. Furthermore, it argues that a unifying theory of different features of consciousness is required to reach a mature science of consciousness.
Comparable studies
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| Psychosis as a state of aberrant salience: a framework linking biology, phenomenology, and pharmacology in schizophrenia. | 2003 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| From dopamine to salience to psychosis--linking biology, pharmacology and phenomenology of psychosis. | 2005 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
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| The phenomenology of deep brain stimulation-induced changes in OCD: an enactive affordance-based model. | 2013 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Looking for the Self: Phenomenology, Neurophysiology and Philosophical Significance of Drug-induced Ego Dissolution | 2017 | Theoretical or philosophical paper |
Citations in the library
Cited by 15
- Predictive processing as a systematic basis for identifying the neural correlates of consciousness Philosophy and the Mind Sciences December 30, 2020
- Editorial: Predictive Processing and Consciousness Review of Philosophy and Psychology December 1, 2022
- Robodiment, Self and Temporality:Phenomenological Insights for Cognitive Architectures in Robotics Minds and Machines November 11, 2025
- Subjects and methods of empirical studies of consciousness Philosophy Journal May 1, 2024
- Explanatory power by vagueness. Challenges to the strong prior hypothesis on hallucinations exemplified by the Charles-Bonnet-Syndrome. Consciousness and Cognition 2024
and 10 more in the library
Cites 24
- No-Report Paradigms: Extracting the True Neural Correlates of Consciousness Trends in Cognitive Sciences November 13, 2015
- Are There Levels of Consciousness? Trends in Cognitive Sciences April 22, 2016
- Integrated information theory of consciousness: an updated account. December 1, 2012
- A predictive processing theory of sensorimotor contingencies: Explaining the puzzle of perceptual presence and its absence in synesthesia Cognitive Neuroscience January 21, 2014
- Minimal self-models and the free energy principle. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience September 12, 2013
and 19 more in the library