November 2024
Myriad theories of consciousness have been proposed throughout two centuries of consciousness research. Organising the various approaches to the what and how of this human experience — what philosopher David Chalmers deems “the hard problem of consciousness” — is no small job.
But Robert Lawrence Kuhn was up to it.
The producer and host of the American TV program, “Closer to Truth“, interviewed 200 scientists and philosophers prior to producing a taxonomy, which he captured in a comprehensive article published in scientific journal Progress in Biophysics and Molecular Biology.
Kuhn evaluated the theories on four aspects:
- meaning, purpose and value
- AI consciousness
- virtual immortality
- survival beyond death
His chart organises 209 consciousness theories across 10 categories.
“My purpose here must be humble: collect and categorize, not assess and adjudicate. Seek insights, not answers”, writes Kuhn who trained in neurophysiology.
He admitted that his opinions on certain proposals evolved while writing the 175,000-word article, according to science news website Phys.org.
“My own hunch, right here, right now might be something of a Dualism-Idealism mashup”, Kuhn says. “Second place might go to some form of Quantum Consciousness … Third place, counterintuitively, to a kind of Eliminative Materialism/Illusionism.”
“But what I believe doesn’t much matter”, Kuhn said.
While the truth about consciousness may be found only deep inside each of us, for those who want to grasp this topic intellectually, it is not so easy.
There is Integrated Information Theory, Global Workspace Theory, Orchestrated Objective Reduction, panpsychism, idealism, quantum theories, dualism, nondualism, theories based on eastern traditions or western traditions, and even something called mysterianism.
Explaining consciousness is the core of the mind-body problem – how thoughts and sensations interrelate with activities in our brains. As Chalmers asks, “Why does it feel like something inside? Why do we have this amazing, entertaining inner movie going on in our minds?”
The proponents of those approaches are impassioned: Last year’s showdown on competing theories between some scientists was dubbed a “consciousness war”.
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Topic Brief: Covering Consciousness
View all FJN content on theoretical models of consciousness
Written by Anders Bolling
Edited by Liza Horan
