Toward a Mature Science of Consciousness.

A meta-theoretical analysis examines the method of interdisciplinary constraint satisfaction (MICS) introduced in Metzinger's Being No One, which combines phenomenological, representationalist, and neurobiological perspectives to study consciousness. Despite this approach's promise, a mature science of consciousness remains elusive more than a decade later. The paper identifies hurdles MICS has yet to overcome, evaluates how existing approaches address these gaps, and argues that a unifying theory integrating different features of consciousness is necessary for progress.

Study at a glance

Abstract

In Being No One, Metzinger (2004[2003]) introduces an approach to the scientific study of consciousness that draws on theories and results from different disciplines, targeted at multiple levels of analysis. Descriptions and assumptions formulated at, for instance, the phenomenological, representationalist, and neurobiological levels of analysis provide different perspectives on the same phenomenon, which can ultimately yield necessary and sufficient conditions for applying the concept of phenomenal representation. In this way, the "method of interdisciplinary constraint satisfaction (MICS)" (as it has been called by Weisberg, 2005) promotes our understanding of consciousness. However, even more than a decade after the first publication of Being No One, we still lack a mature science of consciousness. This paper makes the following meta-theoretical contribution: It analyzes the hurdles an approach such as MICS has yet to overcome and discusses to what extent existing approaches solve the problems left open by MICS. Furthermore, it argues that a unifying theory of different features of consciousness is required to reach a mature science of consciousness.