Ignacio Cea

• Doctor of Philosophy
• Investigador Adjunto / Research Associate at Temuco Catholic University

In this paper I argue that the Integrated Information Theory of Consciousness has an underlying emergentist metaphysics, specifically of a kind that has received minimal attention and we may call functionalist emergentism. I will try to show that in this scientific theory conscious experience is a functional-role property possessed by the whole sys...

In consciousness studies there is a growing tendency to consider experience as (i) fundamentally affective and (ii) deeply interlinked with interoceptive and homeostatic bodily processes. However, this view still needs further development to be part of any rigorous theory of consciousness. To advance in this direction, we ask: (1) is there any affe...

Integrated Information Theory (IIT) is currently one of the most influential scientific theories of consciousness. Here, we focus specifically on a metaphysical aspect of the theory’s most recent version (IIT 4.0), what we may call its idealistic ontology, and its tension with a kind of realism about the external world that IIT also endorses. IIT 4...

This paper addresses a problem that arises from the ontological commitments of Integrated Information Theory (IIT) 4.0, particularly its stance that only conscious entities truly exist. This position leads to the "origin of consciousness problem": if non-conscious entities do not truly exist, how could consciousness have evolved from non-conscious...

In this article we present two ontological problems for the Integrated Information Theory of Consciousness 4.0: what we call the (i) the intrinsicality 2.0 problem, and (ii) the engineering problem. These problems entail that truly existing, conscious entities can depend on, and be engineered from, entities that do not objectively exist, which is p...

The science of consciousness requires multiple disciplines. There are complex philosophical questions that need to be understood, physical restrictions to consider, biological organisation that seems relevant to conscious beings, and phenomenological and psychological aspects that can not be studied under quantitative methods only. Today, however,...

Integrated Information Theory 4.0 (IIT) aims to explain consciousness by mathematically formalizing it in terms of existence as causal power and employing computational tools for experimental assessment. IIT conceives consciousness as an intrinsic structure of cause-effect powers, postulating that any conscious system exists for itself as a maximal...

The meta-learning framework proposed by Binz et al. would gain significantly from the inclusion of affective and homeostatic elements, currently neglected in their work. These components are crucial as cognition as we know it is profoundly influenced by affective states, which arise as intricate forms of homeostatic regulation in living bodies.

La Política Nacional de Inteligencia Artificial del Gobierno de Chile trata, entre otros temas, los impactos que estas tecnologías probablemente tendrán en el ámbito laboral. Su postura es tecno-optimista al enfatizar que se crearán nuevos puestos de trabajo y aumentará la productividad del país, desestimando la posibilidad de que el desarrollo tec...

In this article, we address the problem of the potential crisis in people’s life’s meaning due to massive automation-driven technological unemployment. Assuming that the problem of (re)distribution of economic resources to the whole of society in such a scenario will be solved (e.g. through provision of a Universal Basic Income), the ques- tion ari...

The deep influence of affectivity on learning is now widely acknowledged (Keefer et al., 2018; Sánchez-Álvarez et al., 2021). For instance, it has been shown that affect influences key learning-relevant processes, such as motivation, perception, behavior, and critical thinking (Izard, 2002; Mayer & Salovey, 1997). Evidence also shows that emotion a...

In a recent remarkable article, Froese (2023) presents his Irruption Theory to explain how motivations can make a behavioral difference in motivated activity. In this opinion article, we review the main tenets of Froese’s theory, and highlight its difficulty in overcoming the randomness challenge it supposedly solves, that is, the issue of how adap...

Introduction Traditionally, empathy has been studied from two main perspectives: the theory-theory approach and the simulation theory approach. These theories claim that social emotions are fundamentally constituted by mind states in the brain. In contrast, classical phenomenology and recent research based on the enactive theories consider empathy...

Models of consciousness need to explain both objective correlates of conscious experience as well as its subjective structure. However, such an explanation would not need to entail a reduction exclusively in terms of physical or neural systems. We briefly sketch a few points of contention with recent work on integrated information theory and some c...

Models of consciousness need to explain both objective correlates of conscious experience as well as its subjective structure. However, such an explanation would not need to entail a reduction exclusively in terms of physical or neural systems. In this article, we develop some points of contention with recent work on integrated information theory (...

The relevance of inner speech for human psychology, especially for higher-order cognitive functions, is widely recognized. However, the study of the phenomenology of inner speech, that is, what it is like for a subject to experience internally speaking his/her voice, has received much less attention. This study explores the subjective experience of...

The introduction of mindfulness in the West was carried out through theories and research methods based on the effects that mindfulness practices produce in the brain (information processing and neurobiological activity). Nevertheless, these approaches elude any reference to the core feature of mindfulness, that is, its subjective and intersubjecti...

Background Alzheimer's disease dementia (ADD) and Parkinson's disease (PD) have a significant impairment in social emotion recognition. Most of these studies assess emotional perception as the ability to identify others' facial emotions (Ekman faces). Nevertheless, emotional recognition with information that integrates whole‐body and postural contr...

Traditionally, empathy has been studied from two main perspectives in social cognition: The Theory-Theory approach and the Simulation-Theory approach. However, recent research based on the enactive theory considers empathy as the basic process of contacting other emotional experiences through direct bodily perception and sensation. This perspective...

En este artículo abordo críticamente la aseveración de David Papineau según la cual la evidencia fisiológica acumulada es suficiente para adoptar razonablemente el Principio del Cierre Causal de lo Físico y la vía negativa, viz. entender físico como no mental, como solución al dilema de Hempel. Comenzaremos restando fuerza a tal afirmación revisand...

Finding the place for consciousness within the natural order, taking seriously both its inherently phenomenal nature, and what our best sciences tell us about the composition and structure of the world, has been an outstanding difficult matter (Chalmers 1996, Kim 2005, Goff 2017). One of the most salient features of consciousness, and at the same t...

Encontrar el lugar para la conciencia dentro del orden natural, tomando en serio tanto su carácter inherentemente cualitativo y subjetivo, como lo que nuestras mejores ciencias nos dicen sobre la composición y la estructura del mundo, ha sido un asunto difícil (Chalmers 2002, Kim 2005). Una de las perspectivas que ha mostrado signos crecientes de r...

In this presentation I argue that a strong variant of emergentism is exemplified in one of our best current scientific theories of consciousness: the Integrated Information Theory (IIT)(Oizumi, Albantakis & Tononi 2014; Tononi 2012; Tononi, Boly, Massimini & Koch, 2016). Through a taxonomy of different forms of emergentism and the analysis of core...

En este artículo abordo críticamente la aseveración de David Papineau según la cual la evidencia fisiológica acumulada es suficiente para adoptar razonablemente el Principio del Cierre Causal de lo Físico y la vía negativa, viz. entender físico como no-mental, como solución al dilema de Hempel. Comenzaremos restando fuerza a tal afirmación revisand...

El presente artículo investiga el antiguo concepto de 'cuidado de sí' (epimeleia heautou) tal como es retratado por Foucault en sus últimas obras, contrastándolo con la noción actual de 'autocuidado', a fin de dilucidar en qué medida y forma el primero estaría presente en nuestros días. Se argumentará que el autocuidado carece de la dimensión espir...

En esta presentación abordo en primer lugar, diferentes conceptos de consciencia en filosofía y ciencia de la mente contemporánea, para luego evaluar los principales argumentos a favor y en contra de las dos principales perspectivas respecto a la naturaleza metafísica de la experiencia consciente: el materialismo y el dualismo. Finalmente presento...

In this presentation I address the problem of conscious mental causation in philosophy of mind from the perspective of contemplative neuroscience and buddhist philosophy

El propósito central de este escrito es abordar el problema de la causación psico-física de las propiedades conscientes (fenoménicas, experienciales, cualitativas o simplemente qualia) de nuestros estados mentales dentro del contexto del fisicalismo, la doctrina metafísica de acuerdo a la cuál, puesto en términos simples, ‘todo depende de y esta de...