On the Necessity of Consciousness for Sophisticated Human Action.

Roy F Baumeister,Heather M Maranges,Cory J Clark,Stephan Lau

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01925

Roy F Baumeister, Heather M Maranges + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01925

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Abstract

In this essay, we aim to counter and qualify the epiphenomenalist challenge proposed in this special issue on the grounds of empirical and theoretical arguments. The current body of scientific knowledge strongly indicates that conscious thought is a necessary condition for many human behaviors, and therefore, consciousness qualifies as a cause of those behaviors. We review illustrative experimental evidence for the causal power of conscious thought while also acknowledging its natural limitations. We argue that it is implausible that the metabolic costs inherent to conscious processes would have evolved in humans without any adaptive benefits. Moreover, we discuss the relevance of conscious thought to the issue of freedom. Many accounts hold conscious thought as necessary and conducive to naturalistic conceptions of personal freedom. Apart from these theories, we show that the conscious perception of freedom and the belief in free will provide sources of interesting findings, beneficial behavioral effects, and new avenues for research. We close by proposing our own challenge via outlining the gaps that have yet to be filled to establish hard evidence of an epiphenomenal model of consciousness. To be sure, we appreciate the epiphenomenalist challenge as it promotes critical thinking and inspires rigorous research. However, we see no merit in downplaying the causal significance of consciousness a priori. Instead, we believe it more worthwhile to focus on the complex interplay between conscious and other causal processes.

Highlights

Everyday experience furnishes the strong impression that conscious thoughts such as decisions, plans, and intentions play an important role in causing behavior
Epiphenomenalism proposes that human conscious thought has no causal influence on the physical world, including human action
We argue against the notion of conscious thought being just the steam whistle of an engine, and for the idea that conscious thought is an important part of the inner, causal machinery instead

Summary

INTRODUCTION

Everyday experience furnishes the strong impression that conscious thoughts such as decisions, plans, and intentions play an important role in causing behavior. The relevance of consciousness to such situations may reflect that people use their conscious thoughts to imagine various possible futures and to calculate how their own actions might lead to these good and bad outcomes They alter their behavior based on how they have mentally simulated various future outcomes. The experiments manipulated a host of variables that theorists have linked to free action: number and diversity of options, uncertainty about future outcome, competing reasons, (absence of) time pressure, lack of a clear best option, difficulty of deciding, and the like These generally made no difference or in some cases detracted from feelings of freedom rather than increasing it. The implication is that both the belief in free will and the reality (such as it may be) of free will improve human interaction in ways that lead to broadly beneficial, adaptive outcomes

A CHALLENGE TO EPIPHENOMENALISTS

CONCLUSION