Artificial Intelligence, Mind & the Future
Biological Naturalism
Searle’s own positive theory of mind: consciousness is an ordinary, higher-level biological feature caused by specific neurophysiological processes in the brain — comparable to how digestion is a biological feature of the stomach — real and physical, but not reducible to abstract computation alone.
Proponents
John Searle
Evidence For
Avoids both the mystery of Cartesian dualism and what Searle sees as the confusion of pure computationalism, by treating consciousness as a wholly natural, scientifically studiable biological phenomenon rather than an abstract pattern that could run on anything.
Evidence Against
Critics counter that Searle never adequately explains why biological neurons specifically have the causal power to produce consciousness while other physical substrates could not in principle, leaving the core claim more asserted than argued for.
Real Sources
Transmissions
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