CONSCIOUSNESS AND BRAIN

EXPLANATORY GAP AND ONTOLOGICAL GAP

Abstract

(This article is part of a project by Trans/Form/Ação: Unesp Philosophy Journal. It is the Authorial Philosophy Dossier, to be published in 2022.)  The question I have proposed to reflect on in this article is whether, and if so, in what terms, a non-reductionist and interactionist physicalist approach explains the relationship between consciousness and brain. For that, I took as a guiding thread the problem of the explanatory gap, which was faced with the problem of the ontological gap, which involves two intertwined issues: 1. Does the existence of an explanatory gap implies the existence of an ontological gap? 2. Does the nonexistence of an ontological gap imply the nonexistence of an explanatory gap? I believe this reflection is welcome, since these two perspectives, the epistemological and the ontological, are often confused, and not understood.