Biological Naturalism

Abstract

In this chapter, the author develops biological naturalism as a theory of consciousness. Biological naturalism is the name given to the approach to what is traditionally called “the mind-body problem”. The chapter gives a definition of consciousness, a brief account of some of its most important structural features, and a general statement of its relations to the brain and other parts of the real world. It also discusses a few objections to biological naturalism from the point of view of the philosophical tradition. It is important to emphasize that one can have epistemically objective knowledge of a domain that is ontologically subjective. It is for this reason that an epistemically objective science of ontologically subjective consciousness is possible. Three features of consciousness are qualitativeness, subjectivity, and unity. One can make the causal power of subjective consciousness perfectly consistent with its causal functioning as a natural neurobiological, and therefore electrochemical, set of processes.

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