The Quantum Mechanical Interpretation Of Consciousness And Its Philosophical Studies

Consciousness, which was only considered as the topic of philosophy, psychology and neuroscience in previous days, encounters quantum mechanics nowadays. But this is not a coincidence, from the theoretical aspect, quantum mechanics can't leave out the participation of consciousness at the beginning of its construction, it need the selection of consciousness to solve the measurement problem. No matter in the Copenhagen Interpretation which was considered the orthodox of quantum mechanics,or in the interpretation from John von Neumann and Eugene Wigner about measurement problem, and also the Many World Interpretation, consciousness was always the key element to collapse wave function. We can also say, without the participation of consciousness in quantum mechanics, measurement problem can't be solved, and also none the development of the quantum mechanics in our days. From the aspect of reality, many cognitive experiments have given the evidence that our consciousness also possesses the characteristics of quantum mechanics, like the superposition and entanglement of our minds. Then, at the first international science of consciousness conference hold by University of Arizona in 1994, the enigma of consciousness and quantum mechanics finally met each other.Although the encounter of enigma of consciousness and quantum mechanics was not a coincidence, it is also not a very easy thing for the rise of quantum mechanical method of consciousness, it has experienced for a long period in fact. The main reason for that is because the traditional research methods of consciousness has obtained lots of theoretical achievements before the rise of the method of quantum mechanics,which makes themselves in a leading place in interpreting consciousness. But the problem is, the traditional methods of consciousness have also faced many difficulties in solving some problems of consciousness, like the qualia, intentionality, free will etc.What's more, they also face the challenges from the theories like extended minds which put the consciousness out of brain. All this urge people to find a new perspective to study consciousness. Meanwhile, since people got the understanding of the relationship between consciousness and quantum mechanics more and more deeply, from the start of 1960s, there are more and more quantum physicists constantly try to interpret the neural activities in our brain from the perspective of quantum theories, which resulting in the rise of quantum brain dynamics theory.What's more, quantum theories of consciousness were established from the beginning of 1980s, which provided stable theoretical basis for the quantum mechanical interpretation of consciousness. Finally, at the shift of 21st century, the research of interpreting consciousness in the point view of quantum mechanics was widely accepted and recognized by most of the related researchers, the quantum mechanical method was also gradually become another main research method for consciousness competing with neural scientific method.But how does quantum mechanics interpret consciousness exactly? This Paper choose the bellow five main theory or interpretation to answer this question, they are the order interpretation of consciousness put forward by David Bohm based on his implicate order theory; the Orch OR model established by Roger Penrose and Stuart Hameroff; Henry Stapp's psychophysical theory; the interpretation of quantum mechanics to the "hard problem" of consciousness and free will. In the view of David Bohm, the activities of neurons inside of our brain is a holographic movement which obey the implicate order rules, and consciousness is the results of the holographic projection of neurons inside of brain to the materials outside of brain. Roger Penrose and Stuart Hameroff claims that there are quantum superposed states composed by the dipole movement of many electrons, then consciousness is the result of the collapse of wave function induced by quantum gravity in microtubules. While Henry Stapp suggests there are many excited pattern of neurons presented by different kinds of neurons codes, consciousness is the selection to the top-level code in our brain. And also,for the "hard problem" of consciousness or qualia,Penrose and Hameroff understand it as the representative of quantum information in human brain, they believe that qualia is in fact a process of quantum information. In addition, regarding the fierce challenge to free will from neuroscience, the famous neuroscientists Friedrich Beck and John Eccles claims that the quantum uncertainty and probability of neuro transmitter in human brain are the reasons for causing free will. Meanwhile,based on the nonlocality in space and time of quantum information, Hameroff proposed that there is no back and forward time between readiness potential and conscious will in our quantum brain, which made a defense for the existence of free will in some extent. In a word, the theories of consciousness provided by quantum mechanics is fantastic, which also enriches the content of the research of consciousness.Indeed, the interpretation of consciousness by the way of quantum mechanics has provided us a total new physical perspective to understand consciousness, but what kind of philosophical implications does it bring to us? From the point of view of realism, quantum theory of consciousness is also a kind theory possesses reality, since it accords with the criteria of reality and main characteristics of scientific realism.From the aspect of ontology, by the analysis of the holographic brain model, the quantum field theory of consciousness and the quantum self' theory, this paper suggests that quantum theory of consciousness owns abundant ontological meaning,since it helps us to pinpoint the 'being' of consciousness. Meanwhile, if we look into the methodology, we will found that the quantum theory of consciousness has the deep mark of dualism since many quantum physicists try to establish their theories from physical and psychological aspects. Finally, in the view of coordination theory,quantum theory of consciousness maybe not the most proper theory to describe consciousness since it didn't hold an obvious advantage in the ability of solving problems compared with the theories of consciousness in neuroscience. But that does not mean it is meaningless, according to the view of theory of coordination, once the force of coordination of quantum theory of consciousness enhanced, it will obtain more advances in the ability of solving problems than theories of consciousness in neuroscience. In a word, as a new method and thought to study consciousness, the research of consciousness from the perspective of quantum mechanics not only breaks the obstacles of traditional methods, but also holds many advantages compared to others. We believe that in a long time in future, the method of quantum mechanics will always be an indispensable way to study consciousness, and the future of quantum theory of consciousness is worth expecting.