A construct-first approach to consciousness science.
Peter Fazekas, A. Cleeremans, Morten Overgaard
Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews November 1, 2023 DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2023.105480 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Key points | Argues that consciousness science should move from comparing complete theories to a construct-first approach: deconstruct theories, keep their central assumptions, and study the main constructs those assumptions rely on (such as global workspace, recurrent processing, and metarepresentation). Proposes that linking these constructs to lower-level neural constructs can enable empirical progress and new theoretical syntheses. |
Abstract
We propose a new approach to consciousness science that instead of comparing complex theoretical positions deconstructs existing theories, takes their central assumptions while disregarding their auxiliary hypotheses, and focuses its investigations on the main constructs that these central assumptions rely on (like global workspace, recurrent processing, metarepresentation). Studying how these main constructs are anchored in lower-level constructs characterizing underlying neural processing will not just offer an alternative to theory comparisons but will also take us one step closer to empirical resolutions. Moreover, exploring the compatibility and possible combinations of the lower-level constructs will allow for new theoretical syntheses. This construct-first approach will improve our ability to understand the commitments of existing theories and pave the way for moving beyond them.