‘Aristotelian Causation and Neural Correlates of Consciousness’ published in Topoi

October 23, 2018 // By Matthew Owen

Recently, my research article Aristotelian Causation and Neural Correlates of Consciousness was published in Topoi: An International Review of Philosophy. A pre-print draft can be freely downloaded here and the authenticated published version can be downloaded here and viewed for free here.

ABSTRACT: Neural correlates of consciousness (NCC) are neural states or processes correlated with consciousness. The aim of this article is to present a coherent explanatory model of NCC that is informed by Thomas Aquinas’s human ontology and Aristotle’s metaphysics of causation. After explicating four starting principles regarding causation and mind-body dependence, I propose the Mind-Body Powers model of NCC.

KEYWORDS: neural correlates of consciousness; NCC; consciousness; Aristotelianism; Thomism; human ontology; causation; powers; mental powers