Cargando…

A relational approach to consciousness: categories of level and contents of consciousness

Characterizing consciousness in and of itself is notoriously difficult. Here, we propose an alternative approach to characterize, and eventually define, consciousness through exhaustive descriptions of consciousness’ relationships to all other consciousness. This approach is founded in category theo...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Tsuchiya, Naotsugu, Saigo, Hayato
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Oxford University Press 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8517618/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34659799
http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/nc/niab034
_version_ 1784584058157662208
author Tsuchiya, Naotsugu
Saigo, Hayato
author_facet Tsuchiya, Naotsugu
Saigo, Hayato
author_sort Tsuchiya, Naotsugu
collection PubMed
description Characterizing consciousness in and of itself is notoriously difficult. Here, we propose an alternative approach to characterize, and eventually define, consciousness through exhaustive descriptions of consciousness’ relationships to all other consciousness. This approach is founded in category theory. Indeed, category theory can prove that two objects A and B in a category can be equivalent if and only if all the relationships that A holds with others in the category are the same as those of B; this proof is called the Yoneda lemma. To introduce the Yoneda lemma, we gradually introduce key concepts of category theory to consciousness researchers. Along the way, we propose several possible definitions of categories of consciousness, both in terms of level and contents, through the usage of simple examples. We propose to use the categorical structure of consciousness as a gold standard to formalize empirical research (e.g. color qualia structure at fovea and periphery) and, especially, the empirical testing of theories of consciousness.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-8517618
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2021
publisher Oxford University Press
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-85176182021-10-15 A relational approach to consciousness: categories of level and contents of consciousness Tsuchiya, Naotsugu Saigo, Hayato Neurosci Conscious Review Article Characterizing consciousness in and of itself is notoriously difficult. Here, we propose an alternative approach to characterize, and eventually define, consciousness through exhaustive descriptions of consciousness’ relationships to all other consciousness. This approach is founded in category theory. Indeed, category theory can prove that two objects A and B in a category can be equivalent if and only if all the relationships that A holds with others in the category are the same as those of B; this proof is called the Yoneda lemma. To introduce the Yoneda lemma, we gradually introduce key concepts of category theory to consciousness researchers. Along the way, we propose several possible definitions of categories of consciousness, both in terms of level and contents, through the usage of simple examples. We propose to use the categorical structure of consciousness as a gold standard to formalize empirical research (e.g. color qualia structure at fovea and periphery) and, especially, the empirical testing of theories of consciousness. Oxford University Press 2021-10-15 /pmc/articles/PMC8517618/ /pubmed/34659799 http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/nc/niab034 Text en © The Author(s) 2021. Published by Oxford University Press. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Review Article
Tsuchiya, Naotsugu
Saigo, Hayato
A relational approach to consciousness: categories of level and contents of consciousness
title A relational approach to consciousness: categories of level and contents of consciousness
title_full A relational approach to consciousness: categories of level and contents of consciousness
title_fullStr A relational approach to consciousness: categories of level and contents of consciousness
title_full_unstemmed A relational approach to consciousness: categories of level and contents of consciousness
title_short A relational approach to consciousness: categories of level and contents of consciousness
title_sort relational approach to consciousness: categories of level and contents of consciousness
topic Review Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8517618/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34659799
http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/nc/niab034
work_keys_str_mv AT tsuchiyanaotsugu arelationalapproachtoconsciousnesscategoriesoflevelandcontentsofconsciousness
AT saigohayato arelationalapproachtoconsciousnesscategoriesoflevelandcontentsofconsciousness
AT tsuchiyanaotsugu relationalapproachtoconsciousnesscategoriesoflevelandcontentsofconsciousness
AT saigohayato relationalapproachtoconsciousnesscategoriesoflevelandcontentsofconsciousness