Phenomenal and computational in the structures of consciousness
RUDN Journal of Philosophy September 16, 2018 P N Baryshnikov
The computational approach to phenomenal consciousness has explanatory limits, especially regarding subjective experience. The article argues that the causal incompatibility in the mind-body problem stems from the experience of using linguistic signs, along with semiotic and narrative features of memory. Cognitive processes aim to reconcile pure experience with conceptual schemes, but computational models capture only one aspect of mental states. Natural language alone links the bodily organization of subjective experience to the narrative additional reality of phenomenal states. The conceptual system underlying subjective reality emerges from continuously comparing the qualitative properties of sensory experience, stored in memory, with the content of communicative practices.