Panpsychism and dualism in the science of consciousness.

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.

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Abstract

A resurgence of panpsychism and dualism is a matter of ongoing debate in modern neuroscience. Although metaphysically hostile, panpsychism and dualism both persist in the science of consciousness because the former is proposed as a straightforward answer to the problem of integrating consciousness into the fabric of physical reality, whereas the latter proposes a simple solution to the problem of free will by endowing consciousness with causal power as a prerequisite for moral responsibility. I take the Integrated Information Theory (IIT) as a paradigmatic exemplar of a theory of consciousness (ToC) that makes its commitments to panpsychism and dualism within a unified framework. These features are not, however, unique for IIT. Many ToCs are implicitly prone to some degree of panpsychism whenever they strive to propose a universal definition of consciousness, associated with one or another known phenomenon. Yet, those ToCs that can be characterized as strongly emergent are at risk of being dualist. A remedy against both covert dualism and uncomfortable corollaries of panpsychism can be found in the evolutionary theory of life, called here "bioprotopsychism" and generalized in terms of autopoiesis and the free energy principle. Bioprotopsychism provides a biologically inspired basis for a minimalist approach to consciousness via the triad "chemotaxis-efference copy mechanism-counterfactual active inference" by associating the stream of weakly emergent conscious states with an amount of information (best guesses) of the brain, engaged in unconscious predictive processing.