Consciousness

A variety of concepts have been developed to solve the mind-body problem, which can be divided into the basic views of monism and dualism. Thomas Nagel describes the problem of the subjectivity of consciousness and argues that it is impossible to fully understand the subjective experience of another species. Daniel Dennett describes consciousness as a useful illusion that arises from the functioning of the brain. A disadvantage of the philosophy of mind is that it alone is not capable of investigating the underlying physical, biological, or information-theoretical processes of consciousness. Neuroscience views consciousness as a kind of user interface that helps us process new situations. The neural correlates of consciousness are specific patterns of neural activity associated with conscious experience. The theory of the global neuronal workspace (GWT) assumes that consciousness arises through the global transmission and amplification of information through interconnected networks in the cortex, while the theory of integrated information (IIT) proposes that consciousness is based on the intrinsic ability of a neural network to influence itself by generating maximally irreducible integrated information. Antonio Damasio has developed his own theory of consciousness based on the world’s largest database of brain lesions. For him, consciousness arises from the interaction between our biological self and the environment, closely linked with emotions and bodily reactions. The concept of the “body loop” and the importance of emotions play a central role in this.