Emergence and the cognitive neuroscience approach to psychiatry

Abstract

In this paper, I introduce the philosophical notion of strong emergence and argue that it is almost exclusively applied to properties related to (conscious) subjective experience. Contrary to the still common attitude of refraining anxiously from these topics, I argue that we have a promising scientific approach to them: The cognitive neuroseiences. I list a spectrum of interesting, potentially strongly emergent properties already investigated, and discuss the example of volition in more detail. Psychiatric disorders, like antisocial personality disorder, schizophrenia, and obsessive compulsive disorder, open new ways for understanding aspects of volition such as willed action, decision making, and agency. I conclude that the notion of strong emergence is only a preliminary label which, however, might be understood as a challenge for empirical scientists to explain and understand phenomena related to subjectivity and consciousness.