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46 Human Consciousness and the Mind
Hermeneutics is a methodology used to view and understand
all things arising from the human mind as representations of
experience, and attempts to grasp the human mind scientifically
through interpretation called “understanding.” Sein und Zeit (Being
and Time) is one of the most important works of Heidegger.
Based on Husserl’s phenomenological methodology, Heidegger
analyzed the fundamental problem of human existence as an
existence associated with the world as space and time [In der Welt
Sein (Being in the World)].
The difference between Heidegger and Husserl lies in that
Husserl analyzed consciousness and the mind as an internal
existence in humans, whereas Heidegger interpreted consciousness
and the mind as “being in the world.” In other words, Heidegger
believed that consciousness and the mind should not be considered
an internal problem of humans but should be analyzed as they
relate to the outside world, or environment and situations. The ideas
proposed by Heidegger are now remembered as the starting point of
contemporary cognitive science.
Heidegger’s assertions became the source of the notion of
“cognition embedded in situations” and “embodied mind” in the
newly conceived cognitive science.
Embodiment is a hot topic of discussion in cognitive science
today.
4.7 Phenomenology of Embodiment
French philosopher Maurice Merleau-Ponty (1908–1961) was the
first person to explain embodiment philosophically. He started
studying perception and embodiment based on the phenomenology
of Heidegger and existentialism of Jean-Paul Sartre (1905–1980).
His book Phenomenology of Perception is famous.
Merleau-Ponty denied the mind–body dualism of Descartes and
his followers, declaring, “My consciousness is experienced in and
through my body.” He also said, “The mind is the cause of the body,
and the body determines the condition of the mind.”
French philosopher Sartre explains human existence using two
opposing ideas: being-in-itself and being-for-itself. The former
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Phenomenology of Embodiment 47
referred to the essence of substances and the latter to the essence
of human consciousness.
According to Sartre, two different concepts coexist in humans. A
human is itself a substance (being-in-itself) and at the same time
differentiates between “this” and “not this” (being-for-itself) and
endeavors to become an existence exceeding the substance itself,
that is, becoming free. He asserts that freedom is the essence of
human consciousness. Sartre stayed with the mind–body dualism
concept, but, interestingly, he explained that freedom is the essence
of human consciousness.
The thinking of Merleau-Ponty was succeeded by Emmanuel
L
´
evinas (1906–1995), who became an influential thinker of the era.
The difference between Merleau-Ponty and L
´
evinas is that Merleau-
Ponty tried to explain the other based on the self, whereas L
´
evinas
attempted to explain the self from the viewpoint of the other.
Materialism was promoted by German thinker Karl Marx
(1818–1883) as an analogy of Hegel’s philosophy (Fig. 4.6). Marx
replaced Hegel’s mind with material and the development of the
Karl Marx
1818–1883
Figure 4.6. Karl Marx.
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48 Human Consciousness and the Mind
Sigmund Freud
1856–1939
Figure 4.7. Sigmund Freud.
mind with the development of an economic society to establish
historical materialism.
Austrian psychopathologist Sigmund Freud (1856–1939)
(Fig. 4.7) shed light on the psychological principle existing in the
subconscious of humans in his book, The Interpretation of Dreams
(Freud, 1900). He thought that hysteria arose from sexual inhibition
and found that hysteria was improved by treatments aimed at sexual
release. Later, he generalized this theory and preached that many
psychological diseases occurred from sexual inhibitions. It may be
said that Freud showed in his book that the problem of the human
mind was not yet solved in the era where historical materialism was
at its peak.
Carl G. Jung (1875–1961) followed and developed Freud’s
thinking (Wehr, 1989). Jung believed that there were origins,
something like the Great Mother and the World Mandala of Esoteric
Buddhism, in the depths of the human mind, and tried to explain
humans’ mental world as emotions arising from these origins.
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Phenomenology of Embodiment 49
Norbert Wiener
1894–1964
Figure 4.8. Norbert Wiener.
Another noteworthy research of consciousness and the brain is
cybernetics, a bio-machine theory. Cybernetics was defined by Nor-
bert Wiener (1894–1964) (Fig. 4.8) as the science of communication
and control in organisms and machines. Cybernetics covers a broad
field of studies, including medicine, engineering, physics, biology,
mathematics, psychology, and social science (Wiener, 1956). It was
later divided into information science, bionics, cognitive science and
robotics. The term cybernetics is formed from a Greek word that
means steersman.
I have so far introduced historical researchers related to
consciousness and the mind. I will now summarize the knowledge
about consciousness and the mind itself.
One of the important problems regarding consciousness and the
mind is, which approach should be taken: materialism or idealism?
The Cartesian mind–body dualism holds that the body and the
mind are separate from each other, and the mind is connected to
God. From the Cartesianist point of view, the mind would then be
discussed as a matter of idealism, and the body would perhaps be
explained from the viewpoint of materialism. It should be noted,
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50 Human Consciousness and the Mind
however, that Descartes does not explain how the separated mind
and body are interrelated.
Descartes’ allegation seems to directly apply to present-day
computers. Computer hardware is a materialistic existence, whereas
software and data are idealistic. It may sound somewhat rude
and unreasonable to say that the software and data stored in a
computer are an “idea,” but this might be permitted perhaps as an
analogy. Software is information and never belongs to the category
of material. Software can only have meaning when it exists side by
side with a physical substance or hardware.
The central theme of this book is to discuss the problem of
creating consciousness artificially; so I would like to consider con-
sciousness and the mind materialistically. I discovered, however, that
conventional materialism is insufficient to explain consciousness.
I believe a new materialism should be conceived. This will be
discussed later in this book.
The next question is, which should be used to explain conscious-
ness and the mind: functionalism or behaviorism?
Functionalism is “a position in epistemology and methodology
not to treat things as real matters statically but to consider
their functions dynamically, as having correlations, and as a
process” (the Kohjien, “Wide garden of words,” a single-volume
Japanese dictionary). Functionalism is, thus, a theory to consider
consciousness and the mind as a set of a variety of mental functions.
Behaviorism is “a thought aiming at becoming an objective
science of psychology. The target of psychology is limited to learning
the lawful relationships between stimuli and externally observable
reactions (behaviors), while eliminating concepts related to con-
sciousness” (Kohjien; partly modified). According to this definition,
“concepts related to consciousness are eliminated.”
This book is intended to create artificial consciousness, and
therefore I cannot accept behaviorism that specifically eliminates
consciousness.
Behaviorism was the product of an age when scientism exerted
an overwhelming influence upon psychology to completely remove
subjective matters from psychology in an attempt to conduct purely
objective and scientific study.
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