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PERSPECTIVE article

Front. Psychol.
Sec. Consciousness Research
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1485433

Only Consciousness Truly Exists? Two Problems for IIT 4.0's ontology

Provisionally accepted
Ignacio Cea Ignacio Cea 1*Niccolo Negro Niccolo Negro 2Camilo M. Signorelli Camilo M. Signorelli 3
  • 1 Center for Research, Innovation and Creation, Temuco Catholic University, Temuco, Chile
  • 2 Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Tel Aviv, Israel
  • 3 University of Oxford, Oxford, England, United Kingdom

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    In this article we present two ontological problems for the Integrated Information Theory of Consciousness 4.0: what we call the i) the intrinsicality 2.0 problem, and ii) the engineering problem. These problems entail that truly existing, conscious entities can depend on, and be engineered from, entities that do not objectively exist, which is problematic: if something does not exist in objective reality (i.e., in itself, independently of another entity's consciousness), then it seems that it cannot be part of the material basis and determinants of other entities that do exist on their own. We argue that the core origin of these problems lies in IIT's equation between true existence and phenomenal existence (consciousness), and the corresponding ontological exclusion of non-conscious physical entities (i.e., extrinsic entities) from objective reality. In short, these two problems seem to show that IIT should reconsider the ontological status of these extrinsic entities, because they need to exist objectively to account for the ontological implications of the scenarios we present here, which are permitted by the operational framework of the theory.Currently, Integrated Information Theory (IIT) is recognized as one of the leading scientific theories of consciousness (Seth and Bayne 2022;Consortium et al. 2023;Signorelli, Szczotka, and Prentner 2021). In contrast to other prominent theories, like the Global Neuronal Workspace Theory (Dehaene

    Keywords: Integrated Information Theory, Intrinsicality problem, consciousness science, ontology of consciousness, formal metaphysics, intrinsic existence, extrinsic existence, idealism

    Received: 23 Aug 2024; Accepted: 10 Oct 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Cea, Negro and Signorelli. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Ignacio Cea, Center for Research, Innovation and Creation, Temuco Catholic University, Temuco, Chile

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