Here is a lecture on Consciousness by Mark Solms that I listened to during my walk today that folks might find interesting:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CmuYrnOVmfk

 

His lecture offers some good discussion on the hard problem of subjectivity. If you listen, keep in mind that there are two problems…one that is ontological and the other that is epistemological, as this blog emphasizes. These problems can and should be disentangled in these kinds of discussions. His shows that although we can built neurocognitive correlate pictures, they are slippery and examples of patients with various kinds of brain damage show how flexible the relationship can be. Ultimately, Solms offers a view that is consistent with the idea that there is a “base of sentience” (i.e., valence qualia) that John and I synced up on in Untangling the World Knot.

Best,
Gregg

 

 

Hi Folks,

  You might find this article by Christof Koch of interest:

https://www.realclearscience.com/2021/03/16/is_consciousness_everywhere_768344.html

 

He is advancing IIT. IIT does some very good things, most notably it nails the basic architecture that affords consciousness (i.e., integrated information).

 

However, it fails as a complete theory. One of the reasons that is clear from a UTOK vantage point is that it mistakenly equates functional awareness and responsivity to subjective conscious experience. In the language of the Map of Mind1,2,3, this is the crucial difference between Mind1 and Mind2.

 

It is because of this descriptive metaphysical error that the ontology and epistemology of IIT breaks down and it ends up seeing “consciousness everywhere”.

 

Best,
Gregg

 

___________________________________________

Gregg Henriques, Ph.D.
Professor
Department of Graduate Psychology
216 Johnston Hall
MSC 7401
James Madison University
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(540) 568-7857 (phone)
(540) 568-4747 (fax)

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Check out the Unified Theory Of Knowledge homepage at:

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