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Consciousness, Reduction and Quantum Psychophysical Laws
University of Skövde, School of Bioscience. University of Skövde, Systems Biology Research Environment. Department of Philosophy, History and Art Studies, University of Helsinki, Finland. (Cognitive neuroscience and philosophy)ORCID iD: 0000-0001-7838-8293
2026 (English)In: The Elephant in the Room: Investigating Consciousness Beyond Reductionism / [ed] F. Tormen; C. Carpentier; C. Mascarello; A. Mahajan, Singapore: Springer, 2026Chapter in book (Refereed)
Abstract [en]

David Chalmers (1996) proposed that because it does not seem likely that consciousness (understood as phenomenal properties) can be reduced to physical properties, it is better to assume that phenomenal properties are fundamental and connected to fundamental physical properties by fundamental psycho-physical laws.  While this proposal is interesting there is the problem that it leaves phenomenal properties causally inefficacious, making the view a form of epiphenomenalism.  In this paper an alternative approach is explored.  This approach borrows from Chalmers the idea that information at least sometimes has both phenomenal and physical properties. It tries to avoid epiphenomenalism by making use of Bohm and Hiley’s ontological or ‘pilot wave’ interpretation of quantum theory where information is fundamental and causally efficacious and can be extended to include mental and conscious states.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Singapore: Springer, 2026.
Series
Consciousness Studies: Interdisciplinary Discussions on Sciences, Humanities and Cultures, ISSN 3004-8494, E-ISSN 3004-8508
Keywords [en]
phenomenal properties, laws of nature, psycho-physical laws, double-aspect theory of information, epiphenomenalism, meaning, soma-significance, active information, Chalmers, Bohm, Hiley.
National Category
Philosophy
Research subject
Consciousness and Cognitive Neuroscience
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:his:diva-25413OAI: oai:DiVA.org:his-25413DiVA, id: diva2:1980599
Available from: 2025-07-02 Created: 2025-07-02 Last updated: 2026-01-15

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Pylkkänen, Paavo

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CiteExportLink to record
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