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What makes a theory of consciousness unscientific?

  • IIT-Concerned
  • , Michał KLINCEWICZ*
  • , Tony CHENG*
  • , Michael SCHMITZ*
  • , Miguel Ángel SEBASTIÁN*
  • , Joel S. SNYDER*
  • , Alan LEE
  • *Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Journal PublicationsComment / Debate Research

Abstract

Theories of consciousness have a long and controversial history. One well-known proposal — integrated information theory — has recently been labeled as ‘pseudoscience’, which has caused a heated open debate. Here we discuss the case and argue that the theory is indeed unscientific because its core claims are untestable even in principle.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)689-693
Number of pages5
JournalNature Neuroscience
Volume28
Issue number4
Early online date10 Mar 2025
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Apr 2025

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© Springer Nature America, Inc. 2025.

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