Is Phenomenal Consciousness a Complex Structure?
Chuck Steig,
Cogprints,
Apr 04, 2010
The title - Is Phenomenal Consciousness a Complex Structure? - is the best part of this paper. The question it explores is interesting: is consciousness the result of evolutionary mechanisms ("an adaptation based on its complexity"). To be such, though, it would have to be the result of a physical mechanism (a 'complex system', in the parlance of this paper, though the definition of 'complex' ("composed of many interacting parts") is inadequate (to be 'complex', in my sense, the parts must not only interact, they must change each others' state - gears interact, but a system of gears is not complex (it is only complicated) because a gear remains the same from one interaction to the next). But in any case, is consciousness even 'made up of many parts'? Steig argues it might not be. "They fail to establish that phenomenal consciousness is a complex structure in the relevant sense." Explaining consciousness through biology is a mistake, Steig argues, because "that task is already in the domain of cognitive science." Um, well, no. Cognitive science is not the only alternative to modular theories of mind. Complexity - properly understood - is another alternative.
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