意识的功能定义及其方法论意义

On the Functional Definition of Consciousness and Its Methodological Significance

根据我们日常体验的意识种类,意识的功能定义以信息加工为假设将意识界定为全局可用性和自我监控。基于这种功能定义,意识的神经相关物探索与其说是寻找与意识状态相关的神经结构,不如说是在破解神经网络为了解决问题而自我组织的特定方式。同时基于意识是一种超模块化的功能结构,意识神经相关物的探索在方法论上需要整合局部表征和分布式表征。当然从功能主义角度形式化定义意识及其研究方法,仍然没有为心-身关系提供一个确定的答案。

According to the kinds of consciousness we daily experience, consciousness could be defined as being global access and self-monitoring based on information processing. By the functional definition, on one hand, the quest for neuronal correlates of consciousness is unlocking the specific way of self-organization of neural network in dealing with the problems, rather than looking for the neural structure related to the states of consciousness ; on the other, methodologically, local and distributed representation could be integrated to implement this quest. But the approach to formal definition of consciousness and its research methods still cannot provide a satisfied answer to mind-body problem.