The structure of phenomenal consciousness

Summary

The chapter argues that the explanation of phenomenal consciousness will be mechanistic, involving specific neural mechanisms in the brain. This perspective contrasts with reductionist and functionalist views, suggesting that scientific explanations focus on active material entities organized to produce phenomena. The authors discuss the implications of this mechanistic view for understanding the complex structural essence of consciousness.

Study at a glance

Abstract

Philosophers have largely abandoned the claim that the special sciences will ultimately reduce to microphysics in favour of the view that the special sciences trade in functional explanations. However, a careful examination of scientific practice reveals that the explanatory strategy of the special sciences is neither reductionist nor functionalist, but mechanistic. Mechanistic explanations appeal to active material entities organized so as to produce the target phenomena. We claim that phenomenal consciousness will also succumb to mechanistic explanation: it will turn out to be the activity of specific neural mechanisms in the brain. In this chapter we explore the implications of this perspective for the ontology of consciousness, arguing that it has a complex structural essence.