QUANTUM NEUROPHILOSOPHY AND THE REHABILITATION OF THE CARTESIAN MODEL OF CONSCIOUSNESS

In this paper, the study of the neuronal correlates of consciousness from the point of view of a philosophical definition of the concept of consciousness and the problem of free will are considered. It is shown that the ideas of the quantum nature of the brain make it possible to avoid the problem of breaking the causal closure of the physical world by using the traditional Cartesian approach towards the definition of consciousness. However, the center of gravity of the problem is transferred to the field of physics, as at present there are no well recognized models describing the quantum properties of such macroobjects as the brain. It is demonstrated that one of the outputs in this situation is the analogy between the brain and the multimode laser, since both objects belong to the class of nonequilibrium quantum systems. Classical experiments demonstrating the quantum-like behavior of a person making decision under uncertainty are discussed, as well as experiments on the study of neuronal correlates of consciousness in making free decisions. Some considerations on the application of the principles of quantum mechanics are given to explain the processes of figurative and discursive thinking.