The Causal Efficacy of Consciousness

Area of Science:

• Philosophy of Mind
• Cognitive Science
• Theoretical Neuroscience

Background:

• Integrated Information Theory (IIT) asserts consciousness arises from causal efficacy.
• Metaphysical commitments regarding consciousness and causation significantly impact IIT's framework.
• Contemporary philosophy of mind identifies key challenges in mental causation: psychophysical laws, causal exclusion, and causal pairing.

Purpose of the Study:

• To survey the threats posed by mental causation problems to different versions of IIT.
• To analyze how varying metaphysical commitments within IIT influence its susceptibility to these problems.
• To provide a roadmap for IIT theorists navigating the complexities of mental causation.

Main Methods:

• Distinguishing between reductive, non-reductive, and non-physicalist IIT based on metaphysical commitments.
• Presenting and evaluating the threat of psychophysical laws, causal exclusion, and causal pairing to each IIT version.
• Referencing prior work on the causal pairing problem for non-physicalist IIT.

Main Results:

• Lack of psychophysical laws poses minimal threat to all IIT versions.
• Reductive and non-reductive IIT face significant threats from the causal exclusion problem.
• Non-physicalist IIT, while avoiding exclusion, is vulnerable to the causal pairing problem, with a proposed solution.
• Non-reductive IIT also faces the pairing problem without a clear response.

Conclusions:

• Metaphysical commitments critically shape IIT's engagement with mental causation.
• Reductive and non-reductive IIT struggle with causal closure due to the exclusion problem.
• Non-physicalist IIT offers a way around exclusion but introduces the pairing problem.
• Clarifying these commitments is essential for advancing IIT.