Consciousness generates agent action

Delafield-Butt, Jonathan and Trevarthen, Colwyn (2022) Consciousness generates agent action. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 45. e44. ISSN 1469-1825 (https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X2100203X)

[thumbnail of Delafield-Butt-Trevarthen-BBS-2021-Consciousness-generates-agent-action]
Preview
Text. Filename: Delafield_Butt_Trevarthen_BBS_2021_Consciousness_generates_agent_action.pdf
Accepted Author Manuscript

Download (123kB)| Preview

Abstract

Consciousness directs the actions of the agent for its own purposive gains. It re-organises a stimulus-response linear causality to deliver generative, creative agent action that evaluates the subsequent experience prospectively. This inversion of causality affords special properties of control that are not accounted for in integrated information theory (IIT), which is predicated on a linear, deterministic cause-effect model. IIT remains an incomplete, abstract, and disembodied theory without explanation of the psychobiology of consciousness that serves the vital agency the organism.