Erik Hoel, host of The Intrinsic Perspective, discusses the history and neglect of studying consciousness in neuroscience, the challenges of understanding neuroscience and consciousness, the concept of the brain as modular, and the future of writing online.
Consciousness research in neuroscience has been influenced by the theories of Francis Crick and Gerald Edelman, who focused on explaining the neural mechanisms underlying conscious experience.
Phenomenology, the study of conscious experience, involves introspection and observation of one's own consciousness to identify its characteristics, such as unity and integration.
Identifying the neural correlates of consciousness, which are specific brain activities associated with conscious experience, provides valuable insights into the neural basis of consciousness.
Deep dives
The importance of consciousness research
Consciousness research is a growing field within neuroscience that aims to understand the nature of consciousness. Two influential figures in this field, Francis Crick and Gerald Edelman, played a significant role in establishing the legitimacy of studying consciousness. They focused on developing theories and hypotheses to explain the neural mechanisms underlying conscious experience. Crick proposed testable hypotheses about the integration of brain activity, while Edelman explored the idea of neural Darwinism. Although their theories didn't provide complete explanations, they laid the groundwork for further research in consciousness.
Phenomenology and the study of consciousness
Phenomenology is the study of conscious experience and its properties. It involves introspection and observation of one's own consciousness to identify its characteristics. By examining the properties of our own experience, we can develop a theory of consciousness that reflects these observations. For example, the unity and integration of conscious experience are essential properties, and disruptions in integration can impact consciousness. Phenomenological theories aim to explain these properties and offer insights into the nature of consciousness.
Neural correlates of consciousness
One approach within consciousness research is to identify the neural correlates of consciousness, which are the specific brain activities associated with conscious experience. This involves studying brain processes and their relationship to conscious states. For example, the integration of information between brain regions has been linked to conscious experience. Researchers have also explored split-brain patients to understand how consciousness can be affected by disconnecting different parts of the brain. The search for neural correlates of consciousness provides valuable insights into the neural basis of conscious experience.
Challenges in studying consciousness
Studying consciousness poses several challenges. One major challenge is the lack of an overarching theory that can integrate the diverse methodological results within neuroscience. Without a theoretical framework, the field can be fragmented, hindering progress. Additionally, the subjective nature of consciousness makes it difficult to develop precise scientific explanations. However, researchers continue to explore various avenues, such as phenomenological approaches, neural activity correlations, and integrative theories, to deepen our understanding of consciousness.
The Importance of Introspection in Understanding Consciousness
The podcast episode discusses the tendency to underestimate the richness of conscious experience. It highlights the importance of introspection and personal experience in contradicting simplified explanations of neuroscience. For instance, experiments have shown that while detailed information like lettering is best perceived in the central visual field, peripheral vision can still detect motion. This contradicts the belief that vision is solely dependent on a precise center. The episode argues that consciousness is a significant function of the brain and should not be minimized or reduced in scientific studies.
Scientific Incompleteness and the Limits of Knowledge
The podcast episode raises the issue of scientific incompleteness and discusses the potential limitations of science in fully understanding consciousness. It argues that there may be aspects of consciousness that are unknowable due to inherent paradoxes and self-referential loops. The episode explores the idea that science has not given enough attention to the study of consciousness and that more ambitious efforts and young scientists focused on the theory of consciousness are needed. Additionally, it suggests that the medium of writing newsletters presents a new and promising avenue for exploring and advancing literary perspectives.
Today, Razib talks to Erik Hoel, host of the Substack The Intrinsic Perspective and author of The World Behind the World: Consciousness, Free Will, and the Limits of Science. An academic neuroscientist by training, in The World Behind the World Hoel outlines the emergence of modern neuroscience, and where it went wrong in terms of the field’s researchers' focus. But first, Hoel discusses human understanding of the mind, and how it has changed over time. He gives his take on Julian Jayne’s The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind, and explains that it is unlikely that consciousness emerged after the Bronze Age as posited in the book. Instead, The World Behind the World argues that the differentiation between the inner world and the outer world, the intrinsic perspective of literature and psychology and the extrinsic perspective of physics and biology arose with the Classical Greeks 2,500 years ago. Hoel also observes that a modern perspective on one’s inner world and psychological complexity so evident in Greco-Roman texts rapidly fades again after the fall of Rome and the regression during the Dark Ages, when literacy declined and text became refocused exclusively on the functional external world, whether it be tax records or agronomy manuals.
The World Behind the World is a book-length argument fleshing out Hoel’s contention that understanding consciousness is, and must be, at the heart of neuroscience. Though studies of the biology and chemistry of axons and glial cells make sense from a reductionistic perspective, Hoel makes a convincing case that contemporary neuroscience models fail to understand how the brain works. The World Behind the World suggests modern neuroscience is pre-paradigmatic, like biology before evolution or physics before Newtonian mechanics: merely a collection of fascinating observations and detailed mechanisms. Hoel maintains that a true neuroscience theory with consciousness as its center and organizing principle is necessary to understand how the intrinsic world emerged and functions.
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