Science of Consciousness

To which extent is it justified to adopt Kant as a godfather of cognitive science? To prepare the stage for an answer of this question, we need to set aside Kant’s general transcendental approach to the mind which is of course radically anti-empiricist and instead turn our attention to specific topics and claims regarding the mind which are often not the focus of his epistemology but nevertheless interestingly presented. If someone is willing to take this stance, it turns out that there are many bridges connecting Kant with contemporary cognitive science. We investigate possible bridges suggested in the literature between some of Kant’s central claims about consciousness, mental content, and functions of mind, and some specific treatments of these topics in contemporary philosophy of mind and cognitive science. While doing so, we offer additional arguments for some proposed bridges, reconstruct others and completely destroy some bridges by demonstrating that some suggested links between Kant and cognitive science remain only apparent and are misleading.

Cubist painting and Piaget's development of object permanence have parallel characteristics that indicate the existence of two levels of human cognitive processing: abstract and imaginary sense data. These two levels of sense data delineate, at a previously inscrutable level, the perceptual and representational cognitive processes that unify or synthesize consciousness with the external world. The parallel characteristics elucidate why the Piagetian formative basis of sense perception informs the creation of Cubist paintings 1910-1912. Conclusions indicate that Cubists painted a representation of the perceptual environment (the world) pre-synthesis--as the senses perceive it--that is just as accurate as Realist artists depictions’ of the perceptual environment post-synthesis--after the cognitive production of three-dimensional objects. The case study that forms the research of this thesis compares the Cubist deconstruction of objects with the infant construction of objects to show that both construction and deconstruction follow identical paths. The thesis finds that by positing two levels of sense data--proposed here to be abstract and imaginary sense data--the human mind forms a perceptual world matching the subjective mind with the external objective world.

Many scientists have come to believe that any true unification model in physics must include a concept of consciousness as well as a model for the mind that interprets the external physical/material world. And, that number is growing. This particular physical model does just that. In fact it goes much further. Since Beichler's single field theory (SFT) includes a physical model of the neural net and explains how Mind and Consciousness can emerge from the physics of living organisms, it assimilates more intuitive models such as Andrews' 0-D point Void which witnesses and co-creates higher-dimensional Riemannian geometrical realities as well as other more generalized physical models of consciousness to form a truly synergistic model of reality. In other words, physical reality and the consciousness that perceives and interprets that reality both come from the same source, they are co-created at the very beginning of the universe. A singular discrete 0-D point/twist Void emerged within the absolute spaceless-timeless Void of nothingness that preceded everything and through a logical sequence of events produced everything that now exists as our universe. This synergistic model goes well beyond the notion of Mind and Consciousness as mere perceivers and interpreters of the external material/physical world. It clearly demonstrates that the precursors to our experience of Consciousness are fundamental elements and active participants in creating the physical world that we perceive and scientifically interpret through the application of physics. Andrews' intuitive approach to consciousness science It is well known that intuitives are often the very people who intimately experience first-hand knowledge of consciousness. Their views of consciousness and the inner workings of the world in general greatly differ from those of ordinary people and the majority of scientists. Even the word 'intuition' has been looked down upon in science as recently as a few decades ago. Most scientists consider their own worldview above reproach, believing their insights are based upon acute observations of the external world around them. In general, scientists have historically looked down upon all types of intuitive knowledge and have obstinately refused to consider intuitive knowledge of consciousness and how it works in relation to the world as a whole. They view intuitive data with suspicion as no more than anecdotal evidence, without any scientific validity. Yet that evidence or data, anecdotal or not, can provide valid observations of consciousness and how consciousness works in the world at large. So to those few scientists willing to seriously consider information from intuitives, it can seem as though conservative scientists are wrong on this issue, as well as overly biased by acting completely in an unscientific manner within the broader meaning of science itself. Keeping this in mind, it is both interesting and informative to consider insights brought forward by Sperry Andrews whose undergraduate degree in science and ongoing study has been enhanced as a Near Death Experiencer (NDEr) from the age of four, over sixty years ago. Andrews has proposed a speculative bottom-up theory in physics of everything originating from nothing.

In this essay, we will support the claim that at the current level of scientific advancement a) some first-person accounts cannot be reduced to their third-person neural and psychophysiological correlates and b) that these first-person accounts are the only information to reckon when it is necessary to analyse qualia contents. Consequently, for many phenomena, first-person accounts are the only reliable source of information available and the knowledge of their neural and psychophysical correlates don't offer any additional information about them.