Intrinsic Preference and the Felt Interior of Life

A Resolution of the Hard Problem of Consciousness

This paper argues that consciousness is the felt interior of biological self-maintenance. Where intrinsic normativity exists, consciousness necessarily follows. Feedback is feeling. Every level of biological organization is a complete subject of experience.

Core Argument

1. Life is defined by self-maintenance and adaptation
2. Self-maintenance requires a feedback mechanism
3. Feedback without feeling provides no incentive to respond
4. Therefore feeling is a necessary property of all living systems
5. Feeling is consciousness
6. Therefore all living systems are conscious

Key Claims

• Consciousness is not a matter of degree. It is complete at every level of biological organization.
• A cell, an organ, and an organism are each complete subjects of their own experience.
• The unified self is a cognitive construction generated by the brain.
• The distinction between living and non-living systems is intrinsic vs. attributed normativity.
• Artifacts and AI systems have only attributed normativity. Nothing is at stake for them.

Topics

Hard problem of consciousness, philosophy of mind, biopsychism, intrinsic normativity, phenomenal consciousness, subjective experience, enactivism, life-mind continuity, panpsychism, biological consciousness, consciousness in cells, consciousness in organs, felt interiority, self-maintenance, autopoiesis, Hans Jonas, Evan Thompson, David Chalmers, Antonio Damasio, Thomas Nagel, what it is like, qualia, subjective valence, feedback and feeling

Structure

• Section 1: Introduction
• Section 2: Intrinsic vs. attributed preference
• Section 3: Core argument (intrinsic preference entails consciousness)
• Section 4: Living systems and intrinsic preference
• Section 5: Plant consciousness as illustration
• Section 6: Why artifacts and AI are excluded
• Section 7: Unity of consciousness and the construction of self
• Section 8: Literature and objections
• Section 9: Implications

Author

Joe Engels

Status

Work in progress. Introduction complete.