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<p>This paper critically examines the challenges in consciousness research, with a focus on natural kind (NK) reasoning. It proposes supplementing NK reasoning with a structural realist framework, shifting the focus from identifying a natural kind of consciousness to understanding invariant structural relationships across diverse theories, thereby addressing divergence and ensuring coherence. By using predictive processing as a formal framework that underlies the diversity of consciousness accounts and characterises common structural patterns, the structural realist approach aims to integrate divergent theories, offering a more robust, objective, and unified understanding of consciousness that can supplement and guide natural kind reasoning.</p>

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Kinds Without Structure Are Blind; Structure Without Kinds Is Empty: Remarks on the Methodology of Consciousness Science

  • 期刊论文

  • 出版模式：

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  • 发表日期：

    2026年3月14日

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  • Majid D. Beni

摘要

This paper critically examines the challenges in consciousness research, with a focus on natural kind (NK) reasoning. It proposes supplementing NK reasoning with a structural realist framework, shifting the focus from identifying a natural kind of consciousness to understanding invariant structural relationships across diverse theories, thereby addressing divergence and ensuring coherence. By using predictive processing as a formal framework that underlies the diversity of consciousness accounts and characterises common structural patterns, the structural realist approach aims to integrate divergent theories, offering a more robust, objective, and unified understanding of consciousness that can supplement and guide natural kind reasoning.