Building the Blocks of Being: The Attributes and Qualities Required for Consciousness
Izak Tait, Joshua Bensemann, Trung Nguyen
Philosophies June 22, 2023 DOI: 10.3390/philosophies8040052 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Key points | Proposes that a set of specific cognitive attributes—perceptive, computational, and meta-representational—are strictly necessary building blocks for consciousness in any entity, including artificial and organizational ones. |
Abstract
For consciousness to exist, an entity must have prerequisite characteristics and attributes to give rise to it. We explore these “building blocks” of consciousness in detail in this paper, which range from perceptive to computational to meta-representational characteristics of an entity’s cognitive architecture. We show how each cognitive attribute is strictly necessary for the emergence of consciousness, and how the building blocks may be used for any entity to be classified as being conscious. The list of building blocks is not limited to human or organic consciousness and may be used to classify artificial and organisational conscious entities. We further explore a list of attributes that seem intuitively necessary for consciousness, but on further investigation, are neither required nor sufficient. The building blocks do not represent a theory of consciousness but rather a meta-theory on the emergence and classification of consciousness.