Virtual Worlds of Neurophenomenology
Voprosy Filosofii July 1, 2024 Maksim Miroshnichenko
The article compares Francisco Varela's and Thomas Metzinger's views on selfhood, finding both reject a stable, centralized self in favor of selfhood as a product of interacting processes. Varela's enactivist approach treats active engagement with the world as crucial to forming selfhood, while Metzinger emphasizes the illusory nature of selfhood through phenomenal self-modeling. Both see perception as inseparable from virtuality and simulation. Ethically, Metzinger warns of issues in creating self-aware AI, whereas Varela sees understanding a non-substantial 'self' as enabling deeper engagement with the world and freedom from rigid selfhood.