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Searle on the brain's causing consciousness

Surely the operation of the brain is not related to cognition/engagement as cause to effect.  There must be a better word for the way animal brains are related to that engagement.

Searle likes to say that raising one's hand doesn't cause one to vote (when at a town hall meeting).  Rather it constitutes one's vote.  One votes by way of raising their hand rather than by means of doing so.

Couldn't something analogous be the case for neural activity in relation to cognition/intentional engagement?

How about "an animal perceives by way of brain activity"?


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