Emergence Metaphors of Consciousness

November 9th, 2007 Fred McVittie

The term ‘emergent’ is used extensively to describe the appearance of a property which is associated with a complex system but which is not easily described or predicted from an analysis of the individual components which make up that system. An oft-quoted example of an emergent entity is consciousness, (see Hameroff 1994, Diaz 2000, Jordan & Ghin 2006, Seager 2006)which seems inexplicable as a phenomenon from an examination of the substance or actions of neurons in the brain with which it is obviously associated. This is the so-called ‘hard problem’ identified by David Chalmers.

This ‘emergence’, it is worth noting, is obviously a metaphorical concept, mobilised to provide a framework for understanding something that would otherwise be incomprehensible (c.f. Lakoff and Johnson 1987). Given the metaphorical status of the concept, it is also significant that when the term is used to explain a phenomenon like consciousness only part of the metaphor is used. There are entailments to the metaphor (or more accurately ’schema’), that problematise the overall understanding of emergence, particularly its status as an alternative to the more metaphysical interpretations of consciousness implied by panpsychism.

The ‘emergence’ metaphor structures an understanding of consciousness using a variation of the widespread ‘containment’ schema described by Johnson which underpins much of our understanding of categories and the ‘movement’ of concepts into and out of those categories. So, for example, we talk of someone being ‘in the army’ in which ‘the army’ is considered as a kind of container with an interior, an exterior, and some kind of boundary separating these two regions, the ‘walls’ of the container. This metaphorical container also has a portal of some kind which allows for limited and controlled movement across the boundary from one region to the other. So in this example the interior and exterior regions are ‘army life’ and ‘civilian life’ and the portal is constituted of the various protocols which allow one to move from one to the other. To go from the outside to the inside is to ‘go into’ the army, and to move in the opposite direction is to ‘leave’ the army. The ‘emergence’ metaphor clearly relates to this overall schema in its mobilisation of our understanding of portals and containers. To ‘emerge’ is to move from an interior space to an exterior space (as a bear might emerge from a cave). It is also significant that this imaginary interior space is hidden from sight; whatever processes cause this emergence are invisible to us. So in the case of emergent phenomena, whatever interactions take place between the individual physical components, neurons in the case of consciousness, the particular processes which cause it to emerge are consigned to the interior space behind the boundary. The idea that consciousness ‘emerges’ therefore determines its apparently unknowable nature; there is no way within the schema activated by the ‘emergence’ metaphor that a satisfactory explanation of consciousness could be found, since the metaphor demands that such explanation lies in an inaccessible interior conceptual space.

A second aspect of ‘emergent’ consciousness which is usually overlooked when this particular metaphor is used is the requirement that there be an exterior space for the phenomenon to emerge into. In the example noted above, the person who is ‘in the army’, that is, who is categorised using the metaphor of containment, clearly emerges into civilian life when their time in the service is complete. The exterior of the ‘army’ container/category is well-defined and maps accurately onto the lived and embodied experience of the individual concerned. The emergence of consciousness, however, shows no such consistency. It is far from clear what aspect of lived experience maps onto the exterior region that consciousness emerges into.

Díaz, José-Luis (2000). Mind-body unity, dual aspect, and the emergence of consciousness. Philosophical Psychology 13 (3):393-403.

Hameroff, Stuart R. - Quantum coherence in microtubules: A neural basis for emergent consciousness? Journal of Consciousness Studies, Volume 1, Number 1, 1994 , pp. 91-118(28)

Jordan, J. Scott & Ghin, Marcello (2006). (Proto-) consciousness as a contextually emergent property of self-sustaining systems. Mind and Matter 4 (1):45-68.

Seager, William (2006). The emergence of consciousness. Philosophic Exchange 36:5-23.

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