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Subjectivity "Demystified": Neurobiology, Evolution, and the Explanatory Gap
Todd E Feinberg1, Jon Mallatt2
1Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, Psychiatry and Neurology, New York, NY, United States.
Frontiers in Psychology
|August 17, 2019
Summary
Consciousness arises from complex life and diverse brains, bridging the explanatory gap. Understanding its evolution and adaptive value requires considering life
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Philosophy of Mind
- Evolutionary Biology
Background:
- The 'explanatory gap' describes the difficulty in explaining subjective experience from physical brain processes.
- Life is generally explained by physics, chemistry, and biology, but consciousness remains a puzzle.
Purpose of the Study:
- To deduce the living and neural features underlying primary consciousness.
- To identify animal taxa possessing these features and reconstruct the evolution of consciousness.
- To consider the adaptive value of consciousness.
Main Methods:
- A naturalistic biological framework was used to analyze living and neural features.
- Comparative analysis across animal taxa (vertebrates, arthropods, cephalopod molluscs) to identify consciousness correlates.
- Reconstruction of evolutionary history and adaptive significance of consciousness.
Main Results:
- Primary consciousness is theorized to be based on complex system features of life and elaborate brains.
- Specific animal groups (vertebrates, arthropods, cephalopod molluscs) possess the identified features.
- The explanatory gap is attributed to the multifactorial nature of consciousness, encompassing life's complexity and neural diversity.
Conclusions:
- Bridging the explanatory gap requires a multifactorial account.
- Key factors include the diversity of consciousness, its personal nature rooted in embodied life, and unique neural features.
- Consciousness is a unique evolutionary adaptation with significant adaptive value.