Process Metaphysics of Consciousness
Open Philosophy March 3, 2019 Prentner Robert
The hard problem of consciousness—explaining why there is subjective experience—rests on three questionable assumptions about how consciousness is constituted and how it causally relates to the world. By rethinking these phenomena as internally-structured processes, the problem ceases to be an insurmountable obstacle for a science of consciousness. This approach aligns with early 20th-century philosophical projects that preceded contemporary philosophy of mind. The authors translate metaphysical problems of consciousness into mereological language, focusing on part-whole relationships. Although the project is philosophical, it connects to quantum mechanics, systems theory, and embodied cognition.