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- David Bourget (2004). Quantum Leaps in Philosophy of Mind. Journal of Consciousness Studies 11 (12):17--42.I discuss the quantum mechanical theory of consciousness and freewill offered by Stapp (1993, 1995, 2000, 2004). First I show that decoherence-based arguments do not work against this theory. Then discuss a number of problems with the theory: Stapp's separate accounts of consciousness and freewill are incompatible, the interpretations of QM they are tied to are questionable, the Zeno effect could not enable freewill as he suggests because weakness of will would then be ubiquitous, and the holism of measurement in QM is not a good explanation of the unity of consciousness for essentially the same reason that local interactions may seem incapable to account for it.Reading list | Discuss | Edit | Categorize |My bibliography
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Christof Koch and Klaus Hepp, in a recent essay in this journal1, issued a challenge to “those who call upon consciousness to carry the burden of the measurement problem in quantum mechanics.” Lest absence of a response be construed as admission of a failure of the idea that consciousness can play, via quantum measurement effects, a crucial role in neurodynamics, or that this idea has been in any rational way damaged by the arguments put forth in the cited article, I respond here to that challenge.
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| | Scholar | More options ... The aim of this talk is to provide a rationally coherent physics-based understanding of the manner in which our conscious thoughts can influence our physical actions. An incidental aim is to expose the profoundly illinformed understanding behind the quip that “The claim of quantum physicists that consciousness is related to quantum mechanics comes from the idea that because quantum mechanics is a mystery and consciousness is a mystery, maybe the two are related.”.
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| | Scholar | More options ... Quantum mechanics unites epistemology and ontology: it brings human knowledge explicitly into physical theory, and ties this knowledge into brain dynamics in a causally efficacious way. This development in science provides the basis for a natural resolution of the dualist functionalist controversy, which arises within the classical approach to the mind brain system from the fact that the phenomenal aspects are not derivable from the principles of classical mechanics. A conceptually simple causal quantum mechanical theory of the mind/brain is described, and used to examine the necessity and function of consciousness in brain process.
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| | Other links: lbl.gov | Scholar | More options ... I argue that the logical difference between classical and quantum mechanics that Stapp (1995) claims shows quantum mechanics is more amenable to an account of consciousness than is classical mechanics is irrelevant to the problem.
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| | Scholar | At my library | More options ... A simple exactly solvable model is given of the dynamical coupling between a person’s classically described perceptions and that person’s quantum mechanically described brain. The model is based jointly upon von Neumann’s theory of measurements and the empirical findings of close connections between conscious intentions and synchronous oscillations in well separated parts of the brain. A quantum-Zeno-effect-based mechanism is described that allows conscious intentions to influence brain activity in a functionally appropriate way. The robustness of this mechanism in the face of environmental decoherence effects is emphasized.
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| | Other links: lbl.gov | Scholar | More options ... In this book, which contains several of his key papers as well as new material, he focuses on the problem of consciousness and explains how quantum mechanics...
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| Discuss | Edit | Categorize | My bibliography | Export citation | Other links: link.aip.org adsabs.harvard.edu iop.org osti.gov springerlink.com | Scholar | At my library | More options ...
| | Other links: link.aip.org adsabs.harvard.edu iop.org osti.gov springerlink.com | Scholar | At my library | More options ... For many years, Henry Stapp and I have been working separately and independently on mind-centered interpretations of quantum theory. In this review, I discuss his work and contrast it with my own. There is much that we agree on, both in the broad problems we have addressed and in some of the specific details of our analyses of neural physics, but ultimately we disagree fundamentally in our views on mind, matter, and quantum mechanics. In particular, I discuss our contrasting opinions about the nature and randomness of quantum events, about relativity theory, and about the many-minds idea. I also suggest that Stapp’s theories are inadequately developed.
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| | Scholar | More options ... Quantum approaches to consciousness are sometimes said to be motivated simply by the idea that quantum theory is a mystery and consciousness is a mystery, so perhaps the two are related. That opinion betrays a profound misunderstanding of the nature of quantum mechanics, which consists fundamentally of a pragmatic scientific solution to the problem of the connection between mind and matter.
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| | Other links: lbl.gov | Scholar | At my library | More options ... Replies are given to arguments advanced in this journal that claim to show that it is to nonlinear classical mechanics rather than quantum mechanics that one must look for the physical underpinnings of conscious ness..
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| Discuss | Edit | Categorize | My bibliography | Export citation | Other links: citeseer.ist.psu.edu lbl.gov arxiv.org adsabs.harvard.edu au.af.mil | Scholar | At my library | More options ...
| | Other links: citeseer.ist.psu.edu lbl.gov arxiv.org adsabs.harvard.edu au.af.mil | Scholar | At my library | More options ... David Bourget has raised some conceptual and technical objections to my development of von Neumann’s treatment of the Copenhagen idea that the purely physical process described by the Schrödinger equation must be supplemented by a psychophysical process called the choice of the experiment by Bohr and Process 1 by von Neumann. I answer here each of Bourget’s objections.
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| | Other links: sts.lbl.gov repositories.cdlib.org osti.gov ingentaconnect.com | Scholar | At my library | More options ... Discussion of David Bourget, Quantum leaps in philosophy of mind
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