Understanding Consciousness: An Online Workshop on Contemporary Theories

Abstract

Nature Network Groups hosted an invited workshop on 'Theories of Consciousness' during the second semester of 2009. There were presentations by each of 15 authors 1 active in the field, followed by debate with other presenters and invitees. A week was allocated to each of the theories proposed; general discussion threads were also opened from time to time, as seemed appropriate. We (who had been participants in the workshop) offer here an account of the principal outcomes. It can be regarded as a contemporary, 'state of the art' snapshot of thinking in this field. It should be said straight away that there was little general agreement in the workshop about what constituted the main problems, or how to address them. Explaining consciousness is particularly difficult, it soon became evident, because it involves so many different conceptual and scientific domains. For example, consciousness has both "subjective" (first

The biological function of consciousness

“…Consciousness science has been the subject of considerable research effort in recent decades, and this has led to the creation of very many theories about consciousness, but none has broad acceptance within the scientific community (Pereira et al, 2010 ; Katz, 2013 ). Katz commented that the profusion of theoretical approaches suggests there is a profound problem in this domain.…”

Triple-Aspect Monism and the Ontology of Quantum Particles

“…Having defined three interrelated modes of existence, we can no longer speak of two exclusive essences, like Plato and Descartes did. In fact, the concept of dualism has gradually lost most of its appeal among present-day philosophers, psychologists and neuroscientists who mainly support the idea of a dual-aspect monism (Pereira et al, 2010) and perceive mind and matter as two interdependent aspects of a single essence. Given the conclusions reached above in this article, we must further expand the notion of monism to include all three modes of existence into a triple-aspect monism.…”

Notes on the Guidelines of the 2009 Online Workshop on Theories of Consciousness

“…The contributors were leading consciousness Alfredo Pereira Júnior theorists. 1 A partial report, first authored by me (Pereira Jr. et al, 2010), was published in the JCS. A final consensus has not been reached during the workshop, and thus no other report has been published.…”