Does Consciousness Require a Subject? The Self, Agency & AI Limitations

What is consciousness, and how should biology explain it?

In this second conversation with Professor Kevin Mitchell, we examine whether consciousness can be fully accounted for within physics alone, or whether biological organization introduces new levels of explanation.

Mitchell develops a non-reductive naturalist framework in which organisms are genuine agents, higher-level causal structures matter, and subjectivity cannot be ignored in any adequate theory of mind.

We explore:• What needs explaining when we talk about consciousness• The limits and strengths of physicalist reduction• Weak vs strong emergence• Biological organization as a causal framework• Downward causation and levels of explanation• Organisms as agents rather than passive mechanisms• The role of the conscious subject• Mental causation and explanatory gaps• Teleology in evolutionary systems• Whether artificial systems could instantiate subjectivity