Subjective And Objective

Neuronic interactions cause consciousness.

Behavior demonstrates consciousness.

However, neither neurons nor behavior are identical with subjective experiences.

Consciousness is a relationship between subjects and objects.

It involves a qualitative difference between subjective and objective.

Nothing that is objectively observable is a subjective experience or vice versa.

An organism with a central nervous system is a subject and object of consciousness.

Each subject observes other subjects but not their experiences.

Subjective experiences are not invisible objects.

They are what it is like to be a conscious organism.

We know an organism's subjective experiences by being that organism, not by external observation.

Experience is present in each conscious organism, not elsewhere in an immaterial realm.

The relationship between objectively observable brain states and subjectively experienced mental states remains mysterious.

The relationship is not explained by reifying mental states.

To reify mental states would be either to identify them with brain states or to objectify them in an immaterial realm.

We must avoid either mechanistic reductionism or mind-body dualism.

The emergence of consciousness was a qualitative transformation.

Quantitatively increasing sensitivity was qualitatively transformed into sensation.

This created the distinction between subjective and objective.