Philosophy
Philosophers are interested in two broad areas of research relating to consciousness science: the first concerns the nature of consciousness; the second concerns the nature of science.
Photo credit: Kceniya Holmes 2024
The nature of consciousness
In relation to the nature of consciousness, there are fundamentally philosophical questions about the relation between conscious states and neural states (is it a relation of reduction, identity, emergence, or something else?); about the subjective nature of conscious awareness; the phenomenal structure of consciousness; the similarities and differences between human consciousness, animal consciousness and plant consciousness; the moral implications of consciousness; the function of consciousness and how it relates to free will; individual motivation and social coordination, and about the merits of particular theories of consciousness (higher-order theories, representationalist theories, interpretative narrative theories, cognitive theories, neural theories, quantum theories and nonphysical theories).
The nature of science
In relation to the nature of science - since science involves theory-construction - it depends essentially on philosophical assumptions that are often presupposed rather than explicitly stated or defended. Philosophers are interested in uncovering and assessing these assumptions, drawing out their implications.
There is the further philosophical question of whether scientific theories should be interpreted literally, as making claims about the world, or as models that provide a simpler account of a far more complicated reality, or simply as instruments for prediction. Philosophy is everywhere in science: is consciousness everywhere, too?
People
Andy Clark, Beatrice Fazi, Sarah Sawyer, Robyn Waller, Dan Williams