Studies in Neuroscience, Consciousness and Spirituality Volume 6 Series Editors Harald Walach, European University Viadrina, Frankfurt (Oder), Germany Stefan Schmidt, Institute for Transcultural Health Studies, European University Frankfurt (Oder), Frankfurt, Germany Department for Psychosomatic Medicine, Medical Faculty, Medical Center - University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany Editorial Board Jonathon Schooler University of California, Santa Barbara, CA, USA Mario Beauregard University of Arizone, Tucson, USA Robert Forman The Forge Institute, USA B. Alan Wallace Santa Barbara Institute for Consciousness Studies, CA, USA
More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/10195
Anders Hedman Consciousness from a Broad Perspective A Philosophical and Interdisciplinary Introduction
Anders Hedman KTH Royal Institute of Technology Stockholm, Sweden ISSN 2211-8918 ISSN 2211-8926 (electronic) Studies in Neuroscience, Consciousness and Spirituality ISBN 978-3-319-52973-8 ISBN 978-3-319-52975-2 (ebook) DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-52975-2 Library of Congress Control Number: 2017931401 Springer International Publishing AG 2017 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Printed on acid-free paper This Springer imprint is published by Springer Nature The registered company is Springer International Publishing AG The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
To my Parents v
Acknowledgements I would like to warmly thank Elena Rodriguez-Vieitez, Gary Guttenberg, Ann Lantz, Mikael Persson, William Stewart, Henrik Åhman, Vincent Lewandowski, Rebekah Cupitt, and Alex Wennberg for their much-appreciated help in reading and commenting on the manuscript of this book. I thank Elena also for her joyful companionship and support. I would also like to thank my parents for having brought me into this world and for raising me with love, kindness, and acceptance essential ingredients for an inquiring mind to express itself. Additionally, many moons ago, my father taught me something important about consciousness and simply mingling in the moment. Since I was a child, my father reminded me often of his definition of happiness i.e., sitting on a rock while eating crispbread (a Scandinavian delight). I have yet to find any fissure in such wisdom. So, I can wholeheartedly recommend for you to go sit on a rock with some crispbread (or anything else that delights you) and this book. Moreover, enjoy the many moments that comprise this unique life of yours. With Gratitude, Anders Hedman vii
Contents Consciousness... 1 Introduction... 1 Discussion Questions... 4 Behaviorism and the Cognitive Revolution... 4 Dualism and Physicalism... 5 Neuroscience and Philosophy... 5 References... 5 Philosophy from Socrates to Descartes... 7 Plato s Philosophy... 8 Body and Soul... 9 Aristotle and Science... 10 Aristotle s World... 11 Logic... 11 Souls... 12 Scholasticism... 12 Dualism... 12 A New Logic... 13 The Method of Doubt... 13 Problems of Dualism... 16 Discussion Questions... 18 Plato... 18 Aristotle... 18 Dualism... 18 References... 19 Philosophy, Science, and the Mind Body Problem... 21 Dualism... 21 Monism... 21 Leibniz s Idealism... 22 Berkeley s Idealism... 22 Hume s Empiricism... 22 ix
x Contents Kant s Transcendental Idealism... 23 Discussion Questions... 27 References... 28 Consciousness as a Scientific Problem... 29 The Science of Psychology... 29 Behaviorism... 32 The Cognitive Revolution and the Re-emergence of the Mind... 35 Information Processing... 36 The Brain as a Computer... 37 Turing s Test... 39 Turing Machines... 39 Searle s Chinese Room... 42 The Background... 43 Mind Without Intentionality... 45 Computational Neuroscience... 45 Discussion Questions... 46 Early Psychology... 46 Freud... 47 Wittgenstein... 47 Behaviorism... 48 The Cognitive Revolution and Artificial Intelligence... 48 References... 50 Consciousness Rediscovered... 53 Functional Neuroanatomy and Biochemistry... 53 Brain Activity Non-stop... 55 Brain Organization... 58 Brain Lobes... 59 Frontal Lobe... 59 Parietal Lobe... 66 Occipital Lobe... 70 Temporal Lobe... 72 Core Brain Structures... 74 Limbic System... 74 Basal Ganglia... 77 Diencephalon... 78 Mesencephalon (Midbrain)... 79 Metencephalon... 80 Myelencephalon (Medulla)... 81 Neurons: Communicating Cells... 82 Neural Coding... 83 Redundancy... 85 Neural Pathways... 85 Neurotransmitters... 86
Contents xi Glia and the Other Brain... 88 Brain Imaging... 88 Computed Tomography... 88 Positron Emission Tomography... 89 Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging... 89 Electroencephalography... 90 Magnetoencephalography... 90 Neural Correlates of Consciousness... 90 Biological Naturalism... 91 Causal Emergence of the Conscious Field... 94 Free Will... 96 Discussion Questions... 97 References... 98 Consciousness as a Modern Mystery... 101 Approaches to Understanding the Mind... 101 Idealism... 102 Physicalism... 102 Behaviorism... 103 Functionalism... 103 Consciousness as Mysterious... 104 Imagine a Causal Explanation of Consciousness... 104 Why Are We Conscious?... 106 Consciousness and Blindsight... 107 Evolution of Virtual and Conscious Seeing... 108 David Chalmers on Consciousness... 108 Consciousness as a Fundamental... 109 Chalmers s Theory of Consciousness... 110 Joseph Levine s Explanatory Gap... 112 Tomas Nagel and Being a Bat... 113 Mary the Scientist... 114 McGinn and Cognitive Closure... 115 Mysterian Pluralism... 118 Human Cognition... 119 Consciousness and Emergence... 120 Discussion Questions... 121 Introduction... 121 Ben the Neuroscientist... 121 Consciousness and Blindsight... 122 David Chalmers... 122 Joseph Levine... 123 Thomas Nagel... 124 Frank Jackson... 124 Colin McGinn... 124 References... 126
xii Contents Rethinking Consciousness... 127 Correlation and Causation... 127 Neuroscientific Studies of Vision and Consciousness... 128 Illusions of Time and Action... 129 Free Will and Action... 129 Ordering of Events... 130 The Binding Problem... 131 Split Brains... 131 Ned Block and the Concept of Consciousness... 132 Access and Phenomenal Consciousness... 132 Bernard Baars s Global Workspace Model of Consciousness... 133 The Theater Model in More Detail... 135 Consciousness as Serial Processing in Parallel-Processing Brains... 136 Contrastive Analysis... 137 Beyond Rethinking Consciousness... 137 The New Skeptics... 139 Eliminative Materialism... 139 Folk Psychology as Theory... 140 Folk Psychology and Neurophilosophy... 142 Replacing Folk Psychology with a Neurocomputational Model... 143 Consciousness Explained?... 149 Information Processing and Consciousness... 149 The Problems of Life and Consciousness as Mechanical Problems... 151 A Computational View of Consciousness... 151 Cartesian Materialism... 152 The User Illusion... 153 Virtual Machines in the Brain... 154 Putting the Stream of Consciousness Together... 159 Dennett on Subjective Experience... 163 Discussion Questions... 163 The Visual World as an Illusion... 163 Benjamin Libet... 164 The Binding Problem... 164 Split Brains... 165 Ned Block... 165 Bernard Baars... 165 Paul and Patricia Churchland... 166 Daniel Dennett... 169 References... 170 Externalism and Consciousness... 173 Internalism Challenged... 173 Frege on Meaning... 175 Putnam s Externalism... 177 Burge s Externalism... 178
Contents xiii Qualia and Externalism... 179 Block s Inverted Earth... 181 In the Head and the World... 182 Clark and Chalmers s Vehicle Externalism... 183 Active and Passive Externalism... 184 Functionalism and Vehicle Externalism... 185 Contingency and Coupling... 185 Externalism About Beliefs... 186 Externalism and Consciousness... 187 Susan Hurley s Vehicle Externalism of Consciousness... 188 Alva Noë Considers Life and Consciousness... 193 Consciousness in a Petri Dish... 195 Rewiring Visual Systems... 197 Phantom Limbs... 198 Sensory Substitution... 199 Biology of Consciousness?... 200 Discussion Questions... 205 Introduction... 205 Frege and Russell... 206 Putnam and Burge... 206 Clark and Chalmers... 207 Alva Noë... 208 Summary Questions... 208 References... 208 Conclusions... 211 Neurofunctionalism... 211 Envirofunctionalism... 214 Radicalism... 215 Dualism... 216 Forms Ontology and the Otherworldly... 218 Systems Views... 219 Copenhagen Skepticism... 219 Technological Ontology... 219 Wheeler s Metaphysics of Information... 223 Biological Liberalism... 229 References... 234 A Conscious Universe... 237 Western Subjectivism and Eastern Formlessness... 237 The Ego and the Universe... 238 Constrained Stories of Western Subjectivism... 240 The Focus on Thought in Western Naturalism... 242 Naturalism as a Metaphysical Perspective... 244 Hume and Kant on the Limits of Naturalism... 245 Einstein s Pragmatic Realism... 248
xiv Contents Fundamentally Observers of Our Universe... 248 A Pointless Universe as a Reductio ad Absurdum... 250 Will of Nature, Will to Power, and Consciousness... 251 A Thought Experiment in the Western Intellectual Tradition... 253 Imagine Schopenhauer s Satori... 253 Postmodernism and Will to Power... 256 Meditative Perspectives and Conditioned States of Mind... 257 Faith in Philosophical Materialism... 259 A Dialogue on Consciousness... 260 Western Subjectivism... 271 Researching the Formless... 275 References... 278 Index... 281