Composite Subjectivity and Intelligent Subjects

Abstract

This chapter is about how to combine subjects of experience understood in functionalist terms, as systems whose consciousness comes from having a functional structure which supports intelligent behavior. This requires examining how composition relates to the key features of such subjects, including not just their functional structure but the structure of their consciousness, and the systematic coherence between these two structures. The chapter argues that information-integrating interactions are key to connecting the conscious structure and functional structure of the parts, so that they form a whole with even richer structure. This integration can take many forms, even including the social interactions of cooperating subjects in a social group.