A model for the development of the problem of consciousness: searching for “axial” authors

Abstract

The purpose of the study is to construct a model for the development of the problem of consciousness as the most concise and substantive transition between the texts of “axial” authors. In this article, drawing on philosophical anthropology as a field of knowledge that compares various discourses on the human being and their key properties, an attempt is made to study the development of the problem of consciousness by analogy with the problem space theory from the psychology of thinking. Thus, the initial stage of constructing the model involves defining the initial and target states of the problem, as well as the sequential steps taken to transition between these states. After representing the texts of specific authors as such steps, a list of “axial” authors and their works – articles and monographs representing the shortest route from R. Descartes’ “Meditations on First Philosophy” (1641) to D. Chalmers’ “The Conscious Mind” (1996) as the initial and target states, respectively – was proposed. These include: Ch. von Wolff’s “Empirical Psychology” (1732), W. Wundt’s “Principles of Physiological Psychology” (1874), E. Titchener’s “An Outline of Psychology” (1896), J. Watson’s “Psychology as the Behaviorist Views It” (1913), G. Ryle’s “The Concept of Mind” (1949), and D. Dennett’s “Consciousness Explained” (1991). The scientific novelty of the research lies in the combination, within a philosophical-anthropological framework, of citation metrics for the analyzed texts with the problem space theory from cognitive psychology, which resulted in identifying a sequence of authors – philosophers, psychologists, and neuroscientists – whose approaches correspond to the main stages of the development of the problem of consciousness. The results obtained make it possible to outline a conditional primary route for the evolution of the problem of consciousness and to identify its branches, including those that did not receive direct development in the 20th and 21st centuries.