Descrizione del progetto
La coscienza e l’esperienza alle sue spalle
Cos’è la coscienza? Secondo quanto indicato dagli studi svolti in merito, si tratterebbe della percezione o della consapevolezza che una persona prova riguardo a qualcosa presente in se stessa, oppure nel mondo. Ma perché abbiamo una coscienza? Il progetto EXPERIENCE, finanziato dall’UE, indagherà questo mistero intrigante grazie all’introduzione di un programma interdisciplinare basato su metodi delle neuroscienze cognitive e su una filosofia della mente integrativa, ovvero lo studio della natura della mente e delle funzioni, delle proprietà e degli eventi relativi. Il progetto concentrerà l’attenzione sulle interazioni tra la coscienza e le emozioni a livello sia di percezione che di azione, attraverso quattro pacchetti di lavoro, incentrati su: esperienza soggettiva intrinseca, campo fenomenico e relativa valenza, esperienza soggettiva e azione intenzionale e, infine, esperienza soggettiva ed effetti funzionali. I risultati forniranno indizi sulle ragioni per cui le esperienze soggettive rivestono importanza.
Obiettivo
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.
Campo scientifico
Parole chiave
Programma(i)
- HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC) Main Programme
Argomento(i)
Meccanismo di finanziamento
ERC - Support for frontier research (ERC)Istituzione ospitante
1050 Bruxelles / Brussel
Belgio