Theories of Consciousness 6/6: Integrated Information Theory – Methodology, Foundations, Explanations (with Matteo Grasso)

February 25, 2024. 2 hours. Integrated Information Theory (IIT) accounts for consciousness in physical terms by identifying the essential properties of experience (axioms), and inferring the necessary and sufficient properties that its physical substrate must satisfy (postulates). In this talk Grasso presents an outline of IIT 4.0’s account of some qualitative contents of experience. First, he introduces IIT’s methodology to study consciousness scientifically, highlighting its differences with respect to other approaches in philosophy and consciousness science. Following this, he provides an overview of the core concepts of the theory, with particular focus on the role of phenomenology, on the view…