Consciousness and inference to the best explanation: Compiling empirical evidence supporting the access-phenomenal distinction and the overflow hypothesis.
Asger Kirkeby-hinrup, Peter Fazekas
Consciousness and cognition September 1, 2021 Peer reviewed DOI: 10.1016/j.concog.2021.103173 via PubMed
Summary
The study proposes a four-step process for evaluating theories of consciousness based on empirical evidence: Assimilate, Compile, Validate, and Compare. It emphasizes the need to organize and validate evidence rather than just gathering it. A complete collection of empirical support for distinguishing between A-Consciousness and P-Consciousness is presented, along with an example validating the overflow hypothesis using aphantasics' performance in retro-cue paradigms. This process aims to facilitate comparisons between competing theories.
Study at a glance
| Key finding | A four-step inference to the best explanation (IBE) process is proposed to evaluate theories of consciousness based on empirical evidence. |
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Abstract
A tacit assumption in the field of consciousness studies is that the more empirical evidence a theory can explain, the better it fares when weighed against competitors. If one wants to take seriously the potential for empirical evidence to move forward debates in consciousness studies, there is a need to gather, organize, validate, and compare evidence. We present an inference to the best explanation (IBE) process on the basis of empirical support that is applicable in debates between competing theories of consciousness. Our proposed IBE process consists in four steps: Assimilate, Compile, Validate, and Compare. Until now, the vast majority of the work in the field has consisted in gathering empirical evidence for theories i.e., the assimilation step. To illustrate the feasibility of our proposed IBE process, and what it may look like when applied in practice, we deliver a complete collection (the compilation step) of empirical support for the distinction between A-Consciousness and P-Consciousness and the overflow hypothesis. Finally, we offer an example of the validation step, by scrutinizing the interpretation of aphantasics' performance on retro-cue paradigms offered in the literature in support of the overflow hypothesis. The compilation we deliver here is the first effort in the IBE process, the end result of which - hopefully - will be the ability of the research community to carry out side-by-side comparisons of theories and the empirical phenomena they claim to explain, i.e., the comparison step.