#Consciousness question from someone who read #philosophy stuff on this years ago but nothing from #neuroscience. Is it generally understood to be a memory phenomenon? It seems logically that it must be (see below), but that's not the way the philosophy stuff I have read about it discussed it.
My argument is that the only thing we could be talking about if we're talking consciousness is things that have made their way into a specific memory subsystem (the ones that are accessible to our language systems), otherwise we wouldn't be able to talk about it. Similarly, anything that has made its way into that memory subsystem would also be something we were conscious of. In other words, consciousness is just the set of things that go into that subsystem.
So is consciousness just the study of some particular memory subsystem and the way it interacts with other systems like language? And if we don't understand how memory works, can we understand anything about consciousness?
@neuralreckoning As I understand it, you are talking about the content of consciousness. Some think there is a basic consciousness "before", or without content. Watch the discussion between Metzinger and Friston, the philosopher and neuroscientist resp.: Phenomenology of Pure Consciousness with Thomas Metzinger and Karl Friston (2023): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qlPHGnChhI4
@MolemanPeter thanks! Do they give some reason for thinking there is some "basic consciousness" separate from a memory formation process? I can't see any reason we should think so or how we could have evidence of it.
@neuralreckoning The reason is consciousness is (grounded in) feelings about the body in order to maintain homeostasis. This is not a cortical process. This is about basic consciousness, not (yet) selfconsciousness. Any followers to comment on my explanation (or correct it)?
#neuroscience
@MolemanPeter I think I don't understand. Why is consciousness grounded in feelings about the body to maintain homeostasis? I'm not sure I understand what that means or why it should be true.
@neuralreckoning Well, it took me a couple of years reading to understand that. I do not imply that it would take you equally long, but I can not explain it in short. Read Solms M (2021): The hidden spring; a journey to the source of consciousness ISBN 978-1-78283-571-4. To start: why may be not the right question about consciousness being grounded in feelings.You first have to be convinced it is. #neuroscience
@MolemanPeter @neuralreckoning Dan - I think the most basic forms of consciousness (like https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1520084113) require representation and require some integration of sensory information over time (even if the timescale is short, like a few hundred milliseconds). Would you consider this memory? Is all integration memory?
