Consciousness: A Molecular Perspective

This perspective examines the role of chemistry and molecular biology for a science of consciousness. Opposed to the consensus view, we argue that the molecular organization of biological systems is key to arrive at a thorough understanding of the dynamics correlated to the phenomenology of consciousness in complex organisms. This is indicated by the fact that the molecular sciences either provide one or more mechanisms directly related to phenomenology or otherwise describe the dynamics of the underlying substrate. In addition, we discuss substrate-independence in information-processing theories of consciousness and the issue of combination in panpsychist theories of consciousness, both from the angle of the molecular sciences. In any case, molecular details matter.

• Publication year

  2017

• Venue

  Philosophies

• Publication date

  2017-12-06

• Fields of study

  Not labeled

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.3390/PHILOSOPHIES2040026
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

• Thermodynamics of information

  2015cited by this paper
• Consciousness: here, there and everywhere?

  2015cited by this paper
• Consciousness as a state of matter

  2014cited by this paper
• The entropic brain: a theory of conscious states informed by neuroimaging research with psychedelic drugs

  2014cited by this paper
• Panpsychism and Panprotopsychism

  2013cited by this paper
• Chemosignals Communicate Human Emotions

  2012cited by this paper
• Consciousness as Integrated Information: a Provisional Manifesto

  2008cited by this paper
• The Ambiguity of Reduction

  2007cited by this paper
• Contextual Emergence in the Description of Properties

  2006cited by this paper
• Reducing mind to molecular pathways: explicating the reductionism implicit in current cellular and molecular neuroscience

  2006cited by this paper
• Realistic monism: Why physicalism entails panpsychism

  2006cited by this paper
• A framework for consciousness

  2003cited by this paper
• Emergence in Chemistry: Chemistry as the Embodiment of Emergence

  2002cited by this paper
• Neurochemistry of Consciousness: Neurotransmitters in Mind. Advances in Consciousness Research

  2002cited by this paper
• Towards a cognitive neuroscience of consciousness: basic evidence and a workspace framework.

  2001cited by this paper
• The Computer and the Brain

  1959cited by this paper

• Emergence ex Machina: Correlates of Consciousness

  2025cites this paper
• Interfacing consciousness

  2024cites this paper
• Pharmaco-Analysis of Psychedelics—Philo-Fictions about New Materialism, Quantum Mechanics, Information Science, and the Philosophy of Immanence

  2023cites this paper
• Molecular pathways of major depressive disorder converge on the synapse

  2022cites this paper
• Considerations of Consciousness and Emotive Memory

  2021cites this paper
• Autopoiesis and Its Efficacy - A Metacybernetic View

  2021cites this paper
• Towards new concepts for a biological neuroscience of consciousness

  2020cites this paper
• Biogenetic etiologies of OCD: Review and recommendations for clinicians

  2019cites this paper
• Neural Correlates of Consciousness Meet the Theory of Identity

  2018cites this paper