The Sensory Problem And Tononi's Integrated Information Theory

At present,most scholars believe that the problem of consciousness is a "mysterious"problem.It is a hard problem that can not be explained reasonably by science.For Kant,consciousness is the "thing-in-itself",which is the object that science and reason can't grasp.This article attempts to explain the consciousness and qualia with the integrated information theory of neuroscientist Tononi.Firstly,Tononi is admitting the existence of consciousness and qualia,the the integrated information theory explains the essence of the mind from the physical basis,which is based on two characteristics of the brain neurons,one is the selectivity of neuronal activity,and the other is the interaction of neurons.The selectivity represents the interconnected neurons in the thalamus cortex exclude the uncertain state,thus generating information,and the causal interaction of neurons indicates the interconnected neurons constantly exchanging signals with each other,so that the information processed by the thalamus cortex system can be integrated.Secondly,Tononi believes that the integrated information produced by the system of the thalamus cortex in the brain is our consciousness,which is the result of the integration and selection of information.Finally,Tononi believed that the communicating information of relation between "the external world" and"the inner soul" is determining our qualia.The complexity of the neuron and the integrated information caused the uniqueness of the qualia.From the view of geometry,qualia is a uniquely polyhedron shape in abstract multidimensional space.This article summarizes the innovation of integrating information theory.To begin with,the integrated information theory analyses the problems in philosophy from the level of neurobiology and information theory,which supports Thomas Nagel's "the bat argument" and the view of"supervenience" in the philosophy of mind,as well as the David J.Chalmers of "the zombies argument" and eliminative materialism and so on,giving a scientific refutation.Furthermore,the integrated information theory clearly points out that the mechanism of the thalamus cortex is the basis and premise to produce consciousness,thus providing an empirical and measurable research idea for the consciousness and qualia,which is also helpful to the study of cognitive science and philosophy of mind.In short,Tononi has found a new direction for the study of consciousness.However,the integrated information theory only explains the nature of consciousness and qualia,and their the produced mechanism,and does not answer Chalmers's "the hard problem of consciousness".For example,that pain is not equal to the C-Fibre firing,which is still an unanswered question.Tononi acknowledges that there is "the explanatory gap".Therefore,Tononi pointed out that the integrated information theory only gave a preliminary direction for the study of the mind in order to developing more theories to solve this problem.