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Models vs. Theories of Consciousness (view source)
Revision as of 08:49, 18 June 2020
, 08:49, 18 June 2020no edit summary
The terms "model of consciousness" and "theory of consciousness" seem not to be employed in any consistent sense in the literature at present. This page first reviews various uses and subsequently aims to develop a convention that can be employed in this wiki. Please refer to [[Talk:Models vs. Theories]] for discussion.
= Review of contemporary usage =
== Uses of the term "models" ==
Given the missing convention on how to use these terms in the literature, the following convention might be useful for this wiki.
== Theories of consciousness ==
We could use the term "theories" to denote hypothesis about how conscious experience relates to the physical domain that claim to be complete, i.e. which, according to their own standards, do not need to be substantially further developed and describe as much as they can or intend to describe.
== Models of consciousness ==
In contrast, we could use the term "model" to denote hypothesis about how conscious experience relates to the physical domain that are not yet intended to be complete or final. Examples are "toy-models", which do not aim for a comprehensive account of some class of phenomena, but rather focus on some specific aspect of
consciousness only, or which aim to '''test''' a general idea of how consciousness could be modelled.
According to this definition, models might eventually become theories.
