L35 - Consciousness Flashcards
There is isomorphism between the function of the brain and the conscious experiences.
There is isomorphism between the function of the brain and the conscious experiences.
David Chalmer
Terms trying to explaining why there is consciousness as the “hard problem” and what happens (neural events) when we are conscious as the “easy problem”
Daniel Dennett
While our intuition that consciousness is special may be compelling, it is a poor guide to the underlying nature of complex processes. He suggests that we let go of this belief and set about better understanding, the biological processes that generate consciousness: the easy and only problem
John Searle’s Chinese Room thought experiment
1) Chinese writing (characters) comes into your room
2) You use the rulebook and construct more Chinese characters (this is an algorithmic process)
3) You send those new (Chinese) characters out of the room
*Basically Chinese questions are asked (step 1) and you answer in Chinese (step 2 and 3)
Question: Do you understand Chinese?
No you don’t -Is there more to consciousness than algorithms?
What has and can neuroscience tell us about consciousness?
Scope: the “how” (hard q), not the where and what
Proprietary: a problem that is squarely the domain of Neuroscience
Naivety: acceptance of the existence of time and space and such as external realities
Why don’t we know how brains generate phenomenality? (3 possibilities)
1) Current approaches will ultimately succeed, but only with a great deal more investigation
2) Current approaches will be fruitful, but progress is impeded for want of some currently undiscovered organising principles (is the missing info a higher order structure of neuronal activity)
3) The methods neuroscientists currently pursue are inadequate to address the mechanism of consciousness
Do we have a complete conception of matter?
We may have an incomplete conception of matter, it may have properties that, in suitable arrangements, performs some physical processes that generates consciousness.
*The info we have now will be related to and informative if we come across a discovery related to consciousness
William James
Every object that excites an instinct excites an emotion
Interoception (perception from your own body, rather than the outside world) connects positive and negative affective exp with adaptive behaviours (e.g. thirst, hunger, temperature deviation)
Interoception (perception from your own body, rather than the outside world) connects positive and negative affective exp with adaptive behaviours (e.g. thirst, hunger, temperature deviation)
Edelman
Consciousness based on perception (the need to have better perception in the world)
Denton - centered on homeostasis, the detection of physiological status
Consciousness based on the need to survive
Craig- centered on homeostasis, the detection of physiological status
Evolution in primates of a sense of the physiological condition of the whole body involving posterior insula, dorsal margin (interoceptive cortex) and right anterior insula
Much of the interoception, and the instinctive behaviours and primordial emotions their activity give rise to, must be genetic and hard wired.
Much of the interoception, and the instinctive behaviours and primordial emotions their activity give rise to, must be genetic and hard wired.
Other primordial emotions: desire to sleep, have sex, thwarting of visceral function. These functions regulated “in the basement” (hypothalamus and brainstem). Most exteroception is upstairs.
Other primordial emotions: desire to sleep, have sex, thwarting of visceral function. These functions regulated “in the basement” (hypothalamus and brainstem). Most exteroception is upstairs.
