INFORMATION PROCESSING AND MIND—BRAIN IDENTITY

The thesis that conscious states are processes in the brain that can be described in terms of the physical sciences is criticized as being scientifically implausible in several respects. A modified version of this thesis is proposed according to which conscious states are processes of the organism's central information‐processing system, by which it is enabled to maintain flexible control over its behavior in a changing perceptual environment. Description of these processes requires the categories of cybernetics, specifically those of information and of negative feedback.