Consciousness: Structural Thresholds, Not Metaphysical States
PhilPapers (PhilPapers Foundation) January 20, 2026 Theodore William Bouskill
This paper presents a minimal, falsifiable definition of consciousness. It rejects metaphysical dualism in favor of structural constraints, establishing criteria by which it is possible to measure and understand whether an entity is conscious. Consciousness is defined as a membership threshold where a system possesses the capacity to understand and react to real-time modeling of consequences to...