What Makes a Theory of Consciousness Unscientific?

Authors

IIT-Concerned
Michał Klincewicz, Tilburg University
Tony Cheng, Waseda University
Michael Schmitz, Universität Wien
Miguel Ángel Sebastián, National Autonomous University of México
Joel S. Snyder, University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Aaron Schurger, Chapman UniversityFollow

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

3-10-2025

Abstract

Theories of consciousness have a long and controversial history. One well-known proposal — integrated information theory — has recently been labeled as ‘pseudoscience’, which has caused a heated open debate. Here we discuss the case and argue that the theory is indeed unscientific because its core claims are untestable even in principle.

Comments

This article was originally published in Nature Neuroscience, volume 28, in 2025. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41593-025-01881-x

The Link to Full Text button above directs users to a free read-only version of the article.

Aaron Schurger is a member of IIT-Concerned, the first author on this paper.

Recommended Citation

IIT-Concerned., Klincewicz, M., Cheng, T. et al. What makes a theory of consciousness unscientific?. Nat Neurosci 28, 689–693 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41593-025-01881-x

Copyright

Springer