CAUSAL-PATTERN THEORIES OF CONSCIOUSNESS: A CHALLENGE AND A META-CAUSAL RESPONSE
Manuscrito December 17, 2024 John Barnden
A new challenge targets consciousness theories that require conscious processes to involve causation patterned in a specific way, including Integrated Information Theory, Global Workspace theories, and a type of Higher-Order Thought theory. The challenge is that the causal pattern itself is not required for the effects those processes have on the organism's other aspects, making the property of being conscious dispensable in accounting for those effects. This raises operational and evolutionary problems. The paper proposes meeting the challenge by introducing meta-causation, where causation acts on causation instances themselves, allowing instances of causation in conscious processes to be causes of effects elsewhere. The author also summarizes previous motivation for meta-causation as the basis of consciousness.