Consciousness is not reducible to physical processes
Subjective experience is a basic feature of reality not fully explained by, or derivable from, physical facts about the brain.
2 open contradictions
- Evidential: These hypotheses draw opposite conclusions from the same evidence. Conflicts with Reality is fundamentally physical.
- Evidential: These hypotheses draw opposite conclusions from the same evidence. Conflicts with Consciousness is integrated information (IIT).
Evidence balance
Supporting
2- The explanatory-gap argumentw70
David J. Chalmers · 1995 · Philosophical argument
The explanatory-gap argument is the core case for non-reducibility.
- Penrose: non-computable physics in the mindw25
Roger Penrose · 1989 · Book
Penrose's non-computability claim, if right, supports non-reducibility (weakly; widely criticized).
Opposing
1- Neural correlates of consciousnessw70
Crick & Koch · 1998 · Peer-reviewed
Strong neural dependence pressures non-reductive views.
Assumptions
A complete physical description would still leave experience unexplained
unjustified — Intuition-driven; contested.
Conceivability of zombies implies their possibility
unjustified
Open questions within this hypothesis
- What is the relation between non-reducible experience and neural dynamics?
- Can the view make any novel empirical prediction?
Falsification criteria
A successful reductive explanation that predicts the presence and character of experience from physical facts alone would undercut it.