Panpsychism and dualism in the science of consciousness.
Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews October 1, 2024 Sergey B Yurchenko 5 citations
Panpsychism and dualism are resurgent in neuroscience, posing metaphysical challenges for theories of consciousness. Integrated Information Theory (IIT) exemplifies a framework that combines elements of both, but many theories of consciousness implicitly lean toward panpsychism when they define consciousness universally, while those invoking strong emergence risk dualism. A remedy is proposed in the form of "bioprotopsychism," grounded in evolutionary biology, autopoiesis, and the free energy principle. This approach offers a minimalist account of consciousness through a triad of chemotaxis, efference copy mechanisms, and counterfactual active inference, linking weakly emergent conscious states to the brain's unconscious predictive processing and information content.