Project description DEENESFRITPL Consciousness and the experience behind it What is consciousness? Studies point to a person’s perception or awareness of something in themselves or the world. But why do we have it? The EU-funded EXPERIENCE project will explore this intriguing mystery by introducing an interdisciplinary programme that is based on cognitive neuroscience methods and an integrative philosophy of mind – the study of the nature of the mind, its functions, events and properties. The project will target interactions between consciousness and affect in both perception and action via four work packages addressing: intrinsic subjective experience; valenced phenomenal field; subjective experience and intentional action; and subjective experience and functional effects. The findings will offer insight into why subjective experiences are important. Show the project objective Hide the project objective Objective Why would we do anything at all if the doing was not doing something to us? In other words: What is consciousness good for? Here, reversing classical views according to which subjective experience is a mere epiphenomenon that affords no functional advantage, I propose that the core function of phenomenal experience is to enable subject-level valuation: “What it feels like” is endowed with intrinsic value. Thus, I argue that it is only in virtue of the fact that conscious agents experience things and care about those experiences that they are motivated to act in certain ways and that they prefer some states of affairs vs. others. Conscious experience functions as a mental currency of sorts that makes it possible for agents to compare vastly different states of affairs in a common subject-centred mental quality space — a feature that explains that consciousness is unified. While my previous work was focused on the how question of consciousness, here, I propose to focus on the even more challenging question of the why of consciousness. EXPERIENCE will address this issue by pursuing a rich interdisciplinary program rooted in integrative philosophy of mind and in innovative cognitive neuroscience methods applied to the interactions between affect and consciousness in perception and action. The project is articulated over four work packages, each addressing a specific claim: (1) Subjective experience has intrinsic value, (2) The phenomenal field is valenced, (3) All intentional action is motivated by subjective experience & (4) Subjective experience has functional effects. EXPERIENCE is high-risk, for the function of subjective experience is largely unexplored territory, and high-gain, for it promises to question entrenched distinctions and to move the scientific approach of conscious a step closer to what we all know: That subjective experience matters. In fact, in many respects, it is the only thing that matters, as without it, life would simply not be worth living. Fields of science natural sciencesbiological sciencesneurobiologycognitive neurosciencehumanitiesphilosophy, ethics and religionphilosophy Keywords functions of consciousness phenomenal experience visual perception affective neuroscience decision-making Programme(s) HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC) Main Programme Topic(s) ERC-2021-ADG - ERC ADVANCED GRANTS Call for proposal ERC-2021-ADG See other projects for this call Funding Scheme ERC - Support for frontier research (ERC) Host institution UNIVERSITE LIBRE DE BRUXELLES Net EU contribution € 2 303 531,00 Address AVENUE FRANKLIN ROOSEVELT 50 1050 Bruxelles / Brussel Belgium See on map Region Région de Bruxelles-Capitale/Brussels Hoofdstedelijk Gewest Région de Bruxelles-Capitale/ Brussels Hoofdstedelijk Gewest Arr. de Bruxelles-Capitale/Arr. Brussel-Hoofdstad Activity type Higher or Secondary Education Establishments Links Contact the organisation Opens in new window Website Opens in new window Participation in EU R&I programmes Opens in new window HORIZON collaboration network Opens in new window Total cost € 2 303 531,00 Beneficiaries (1) Sort alphabetically Sort by Net EU contribution Expand all Collapse all UNIVERSITE LIBRE DE BRUXELLES Belgium Net EU contribution € 2 303 531,00 Address AVENUE FRANKLIN ROOSEVELT 50 1050 Bruxelles / Brussel See on map Region Région de Bruxelles-Capitale/Brussels Hoofdstedelijk Gewest Région de Bruxelles-Capitale/ Brussels Hoofdstedelijk Gewest Arr. de Bruxelles-Capitale/Arr. Brussel-Hoofdstad Activity type Higher or Secondary Education Establishments Links Contact the organisation Opens in new window Website Opens in new window Participation in EU R&I programmes Opens in new window HORIZON collaboration network Opens in new window Total cost € 2 303 531,00
