How voluntary control over information and body movements determines “what it’s like” to have perceptual, bodily, emotional and mental experiences

Frontiers in Psychology

article

J. Kevin O'Regan¹ 

[1] Integrative Neurosciences and Cognition Center, CNRS, Planet Learning Institute, Université Paris Cité

关键词: Phenomenal consciousness;    hard problem;    what it's like;    sensorimotor theory;    Voluntary Control;    body movements;    Perceptual presence;    Locus of Attribution;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fpsyg.2022.1108279

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: Frontiers

【 摘 要 】

Two very fundamental aspects of phenomenal experiences underlie the fact that they seem to have “something it’s like”. One aspect is the fact that experiences have a locus: they can seem “external” (perceptual), “internal” (interoceptive, bodily or emotional) or “mental”. A second fundamental aspect is the imposingness of experiences. They can seem “present” to us in different ways, sometimes seeming displayed before us with “spatio-temporal presence”. Both these aspects of “what it’s like” can be identified with the degree to which we can voluntarily control what we are doing when we engage in an experience. The external/internal/mental dimension is determined by how our voluntary bodily actions can influence the sensorimotor flow of information. The degree of imposingness of experiences and their “spatio-temporal presence” is determined by how our voluntary actions are impeded or assisted by innate, attention-grabbing mechanisms. By elucidating these two most fundamental aspects of “what it’s like”, and taken together with prior work on inter- and intra-modal differences in experiences, this article suggests a path towards a scientific theory of the “hard problem” of phenomenal consciousness, explaining why experiences feel like something rather than feeling like nothing.

【 授权许可】

CC BY