Materialist conceptions about the immediate seat of conscious-ness
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.11606/issn.2178-6224v15i1p93-136Keywords:
Primary consciousness, Neural correlate of consciousness, Holism, Materialism, LocalizationismAbstract
This paper studies, from a materialist point of view, the debate concerning what is the physical seat of “primary consciousness”, that is, the most basic form of consciousness involving sensations and emotions. We examine historically the problem of whether such a sensorium is located in a small region of the brain or whether consciousness is distributed in a holistic way. Emphasis is given to the writings of the neurophysiologists of the 1950’s, divided between the claim that the seat of primary consciousness is subcortical, and more holistic views like that of the homogeneity thesis (functionalism). One attempts to explain the transition that took place in the end of the 1960’s, and the privileged role that was given to the neocortex. The philosophical aim of this paper is to recover the importance of the subcorticalist thesis.
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