Philosopher John Searle on Brain-to-Consciousness Causation
Searle argues that it’s not that “brain processes cause consciousness”. It’s that “consciousness is itself a feature of the brain”. A loose analogy is a table’s weight causing an indented rug. The table’s weight on the rug and the indentation occur at one and the same time.
The American philosopher Daniel Dennett (1942-) once claimed that John Searle’s position is that the brain “secretes” consciousness. I suspect that Searle would argue that consciousness can’t be secreted out of anything — even out of the brain. That’s because Searle sees consciousness as a higher-level attribute of the brain — yes, of the brain. This means that the idea of any secretion of consciousness out of a brain it is already part of doesn’t really make sense.
[It seems that someone — perhaps Dennett? — once said to Searle: “It sounds like you’re saying the brain ‘secretes’ consciousness the way the stomach secretes acid or the liver.” Searle replied: “I have never claimed that [].”]
So what about the word “cause”?
If it can be stressed (as Searle does) that consciousness is a higher-level feature of the brain, then how can the brain cause consciousness?
The problem here, according to Searle, is that many people have a misconception about causation — at least when it…
