Computation, reduction, and teleology of consciousness |
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| Authors: | Ron Sun |
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| Affiliation: | 1. Department of Biomedicine, Unit of Biochemistry, Faculty of Medicine, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal;2. i3S, Instituto de Investigação e Inovação em Saúde, Universidade do Porto, Porto, Portugal;1. Neuroscience Axis, Research Center of CHU de Québec - Université Laval, Quebec City, QC, Canada;2. Research Center CERVO, Quebec City, QC, Canada;3. Department of Psychiatry and Neuroscience, Faculty of Medicine, Université Laval, Quebec City, QC, Canada;4. Department of Computer Science and Software Engineering, Université Laval, Quebec City, QC, Canada;5. Department of Microbiology, Infectious Diseases and Immunology, Faculty of Medicine, Université Laval, Quebec City, QC, Canada |
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| Abstract: | This paper aims to explore mechanistic and teleological explanations of consciousness. In terms of mechanistic explanations, it critiques various existing views, especially those embodied by existing computational cognitive models. In this regard, the paper argues in favor of the explanation based on the distinction between localist (symbolic) representation and distributed representation (as formulated in the connectionist literature), which reduces the phenomenological difference to a mechanistic difference. Furthermore, to establish a teleological explanation of consciousness, the paper discusses the issue of the functional role of consciousness on the basis of the aforementioned mechanistic explanation. A proposal based on synergistic interaction between the conscious and the unconscious is advanced that encompasses various existing views concerning the functional role of consciousness. This two-step deepening explanation has some empirical support, in the form of a cognitive model and various cognitive data that it captures. |
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| Keywords: | Consciousness Cognition Qualia Implicit learning Computation Reduction Teleology |
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