Mind meets the body searching for itself: embodied, social, perceptual, ethical, linguistic and temporal aspects of consciousness

Abstract

Consciousness is a vague concept. The thesis goal is to elucidate why. We will argue for the possibility of analyzing the complex concept of consciousness into its main basic aspects, following Damasio’s distinction of core consciousness and extended consciousness. The method chosen for performing such analysis is provided by the Tononi’s Integrated Information Theory, as it allows for the analysis, while accounting for the integration between the parts arranged as a whole. Consciousness was thus analyzed into the aspects of: embodied core consciousness; and five aspects of extended consciousness; Social; Perceptual; Ethical; Linguistic; and Temporal. While impairment of core consciousness extinguishes the expression of consciousness as a whole. The aspects of extended consciousness, on the contrary, can be selectively knocked down, yet preserving the remaining aspects. The thesis presents a demonstration that the Reductive Analytical Method can be derived, as a particular case, from Integrated Information Theory, thus justifying our choice. The aspects of core consciousness and extended consciousness received a transdisciplinar review of the literature. The evidence thus gathered replicated previous findings, suggesting core consciousness to be localized, extended consciousness to be decentralized and the integration between the parts to constrain the possibilities of consciousness as a whole.