Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-qsmjn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-24T03:54:19.878Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The integrated information theory of agency

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 March 2022

Hugh Desmond Open the ORCID record for Hugh Desmond [Opens in a new window]  and
Philippe Huneman Open the ORCID record for Philippe Huneman [Opens in a new window]
Hugh Desmond
Affiliation:
Institute of History and Philosophy of Science and Technology, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne – CNRS, 75006Paris, France. hugh.desmond@gmail.comwww.hughdesmond.netphilippe.huneman@gmail.comhttps://philippehuneman.wordpress.com
Philippe Huneman
Affiliation:
Institute of History and Philosophy of Science and Technology, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne – CNRS, 75006Paris, France. hugh.desmond@gmail.comwww.hughdesmond.netphilippe.huneman@gmail.comhttps://philippehuneman.wordpress.com
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

We propose that measures of information integration can be more straightforwardly interpreted as measures of agency rather than of consciousness. This may be useful to the goals of consciousness research, given how agency and consciousness are “duals” in many (although not all) respects.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 45 , 2022 , e45
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Atiyah, M. (2007). Duality in Mathematics and Physics. Transcription of a talk delivered at the Institut de Matemàtica de la Universitat de Barcelona.Google Scholar
Atran, S. (2002). In gods we trust: The evolutionary landscape of religion. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Carruthers, P. (2020). Stop caring about consciousness. Philosophical Topics 48(1), 1–2010.5840/philtopics20204811CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dehaene, S., & Changeux, J.-P. (2011). Experimental and theoretical approaches to conscious processing. Neuron 70(2), 200–227. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2011.03.018.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Desmond, H. (2019). Shades of grey: Granularity, pragmatics, and non-causal explanation. Perspectives on Science 27(1), 68–87. https://doi.org/10.1162/posc_a_00300CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Desmond, H., & Huneman, P. (2020). The ontology of organismic agency: A Kantian approach. In: Natural born monads: On the metaphysics of organisms and human individuals (pp. 33–64), eds. Altobrando, A. & Biasetti, P., De Gruyter.10.1515/9783110604665-003CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Godfrey-Smith, P. (2020). Varieties of subjectivity. Philosophy of Science 87(5), 1150–1159. https://doi.org/10.1086/710541CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Laland, K., Matthews, B., & Feldman, M. W. (2016). An introduction to niche construction theory. Evolutionary Ecology 30, 191–202. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10682-016-9821-zCrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Tononi, G. (2008). Consciousness as integrated information: A provisional manifesto. The Biological Bulletin 215(3), 216–242. https://doi.org/10.2307/25470707CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Tononi, G., Boly, M., Massimini, M., & Koch, C. (2016). Integrated information theory: From consciousness to its physical substrate. Nature Reviews Neuroscience 17(7), 450–461. https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn.2016.44CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
van Duijn, M., Keijzer, F., & Franken, D. (2006). Principles of minimal cognition: Casting cognition as sensorimotor coordination. Adaptive Behavior 14(2), 157–170. https://doi.org/10.1177/105971230601400207CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Walsh, D. (2015). Organisms, agency, and evolution. Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781316402719CrossRefGoogle Scholar