The Falsification Thinking in Consciousness Research

What is consciousness? Even to this day, human knowledge still cannot provide a definitive answer to this question. Dualistic theories, which separate consciousness from matter, and reductionist theories, which reduce consciousness to neurobiological processes, encounter unsolvable dilemmas when attempting to answer what consciousness is. Starting from a perspective of falsification-based thinking and drawing upon existing philosophical and neurobiological research, this article attempts to answer what consciousness not is. It points out that: (1) consciousness is not an absolute mind or purely spiritual phenomenon; (2) consciousness is not purely a neurobiological process; and (3) consciousness is not the most fundamental component of systemic structures. On this basis, a preliminary exploration of the possible generation mechanism of consciousness is carried out. Consciousness may be the product of the complexity generated by the dynamic interactions among neurons, or by the interplay between neurons and the external world within large-scale complex systems.