Towards a structural turn in consciousness science.
Consciousness and Cognition February 28, 2024 DOI: 10.1016/j.concog.2024.103653 via Semantic Scholar
Summary
AI-generated from the abstractA structural turn is emerging across consciousness studies, replacing verbal descriptions of conscious experience with mathematical spaces and other structural tools. The author offers three essential comments to prevent early misunderstandings: metaphysical premises underlying structural approaches, the viability of structure-preserving mappings, and clarifying what a structure of conscious experience actually is. The piece also explains the great promises of structural methodologies and their potential impact on consciousness science.
Study at a glance
| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Keywords | Medicine Philosophy |
| Key finding | Structural approaches in consciousness studies, using mathematical spaces to model experience, require careful attention to metaphysical premises, mapping viability, and the definition of experiential structure to avoid early misunderstandings. |
Abstract
Recent activities in virtually all fields engaged in consciousness studies indicate early signs of a structural turn, where verbal descriptions or simple formalisations of conscious experiences are replaced by structural tools, most notably mathematical spaces. My goal here is to offer three comments that, in my opinion, are essential to avoid misunderstandings in these developments early on. These comments concern metaphysical premises of structural approaches, the viability of structure-preserving mappings, and the question of what a structure of conscious experience is in the first place. I will also explain what, in my opinion, are the great promises of structural methodologies and how they might impact consciousness science at large.