intellectica 2011/1, n° 55
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Consciousness and Quantum Physics
Abstract: This paper aims to assess the contribution of quantum physics to understand the phenomenon of consciousness.
If some quantum approaches to consciousness do not shed any light on the questions that have been shelved by
contemporary neurobiology, we show that some others are quite promising. First, by providing, within the framework of
quantum field theory, an explanation of the long-range synchronisation of the brain which is required for the integration and
the diffusion of information, preliminary to the construction of conscious percepts. Second, by using the quantum concepts of
complementarity and entanglement and the corresponding formalism to build a unifying representation of the phenomenon of
consciousness that transcends the materialist framework wherein subjective experience has no place. Indeed, quantum
theory allows to represent the co-emergence of the two entangled psychical and physiological aspects of consciousness
from a « neutral », psychophysical and more fundamental level without appealing to a mysterious concept of causality
between mental and physiological processes – a mode of representation that can be used more generally to model the
psychosomatic unity of the individual.
Key words : Consciousness, quantum physics, brain, complementarity, entanglement, psychosomatic unity.
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