Projektbeschreibung
Das Bewusstsein und die Erfahrung dahinter
Was ist Bewusstsein? Studien deuten auf die Wahrnehmung oder Erkenntnis von etwas in einer Person oder der Welt hin. Aber warum haben wir ein Bewusstsein? Das EU-finanzierte Projekt EXPERIENCE wird diesem spannenden Mysterium auf den Grund gehen. Dafür führt es ein interdisziplinäres Programm ein, das auf Methoden der kognitiven Neurowissenschaft und einer integrativen Philosophie des Geistes – der Erforschung des Wesens des Geistes, seiner Funktionen, Ereignisse und Eigenschaften – beruht. Das Projekt wird Interaktionen zwischen dem Bewusstsein und Affekt bei der Wahrnehmung und beim Handeln über vier Arbeitspakete anvisieren. Diese drehen sich um die intrinsische subjektive Erfahrung, das valenzierte phänomenologische Feld, subjektive Erfahrung und bewusste Handlung sowie subjektive Erfahrung und funktionale Effekte. Die Ergebnisse werden die Bedeutung der subjektiven Erfahrungen näher beleuchten.
Ziel
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.
Wissenschaftliches Gebiet
Schlüsselbegriffe
Programm/Programme
- HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC) Main Programme
Thema/Themen
Finanzierungsplan
ERC - Support for frontier research (ERC)Gastgebende Einrichtung
1050 Bruxelles / Brussel
Belgien