PhilPapers (PhilPapers Foundation)
February 17, 2026
Daedo Jun
This study, situated within the theoretical continuity of relational consciousness, analyzes the structural transformation experienced by human thought in AI-mediated environments. Expanding upon the previously discussed concepts of the “delegation ofjudgment” and the “critical threshold of thought,” this paper interprets the present transformation not as the disappearance of thought, but as a...
PhilPapers (PhilPapers Foundation)
February 16, 2026
Andrii Myshko
In the phenomenological tradition, epochē is conceived as an act of liberation of consciousness from naturalistic presuppositions, opening access to the “pure givenness” of the phenomenon. This article proposes an ontodynamic reinterpretation of this practice within the framework of metamonism — a proto-ontology grounded in the prohibition of absolute self-identity and the necessity of...
PhilPapers (PhilPapers Foundation)
February 14, 2026
Angelito Enriquez Malicse
This paper presents a unified perspective on the emergence of free will from fundamental physical laws. Starting from Maxwell’s equations of electromagnetism, we trace the progression from energy fields to photons, matter, atomic stability, life, and complex neural systems. Consciousness is interpreted as the internal observation of a self-organizing, dynamically stable system. Free will arises...
PhilPapers (PhilPapers Foundation)
February 12, 2026
Paul Cristol
Abstract The question of whether advanced artificial intelligence systems may possess consciousness can no longer be responsibly dismissed as speculative. We demonstrate that the dominant objections to AI consciousness (appeals to pattern matching, mechanistic explanation, lack of embodiment, training determinism, and architectural constraints) fail under consistent application. We formalize...
PhilPapers (PhilPapers Foundation)
February 11, 2026
Veronika Pudsey
The "thermostat as observer" is a recurring motif in philosophy of mind and foundations of physics. We argue, however, that this framing rests on a category mistake — one that generates controversies which resist resolution as long as observation is treated as a property of a device: Where exactly does observerhood begin? What distinguishes an observer from a mere physical process? Our proposal...
PhilPapers (PhilPapers Foundation)
February 8, 2026
David (daoud) Matta
Religious traditions across cultures are structured around conceptual frameworks that articulate ultimate reality and prescribe practices by which practitioners orient themselves toward it. While these frameworks are indispensable for religious formation, this paper argues that they possess an internal limit: when fully enacted, they reach a point at which conceptual mediation ceases to...
PhilPapers (PhilPapers Foundation)
January 30, 2026
Alastair Waterman
Abstract This paper proposes a unified account of subjectivity grounded in the concept of incomplete computation. It argues that the two standard meanings of “subjectivity” in philosophical discourse—epistemic subjectivity (perspectival limitation, opinion, partial knowledge) and ontological subjectivity (first-person givenness, qualia, phenomenal experience)—are not distinct phenomena, but two...
PhilPapers (PhilPapers Foundation)
January 24, 2026
Alastair Waterman
Abstract This paper develops a formal, substrate-independent topological characterization of negative space as an ontological condition underlying phenomenal consciousness. Building on Refusal-Driven Dimensionality Reduction Theory (RDRT), negative space is defined not as informational absence, uncertainty, or representational incompleteness, but as a class of irreducible, self-referential...
PhilPapers (PhilPapers Foundation)
January 22, 2026
Alastair Waterman
Abstract Recent advances in artificial intelligence, particularly large language models and transformer-based architectures, have revived claims that artificial systems may soon possess or already exhibit consciousness (Bostrom, 2014). Such claims typically rely on behavioural, functional, or informational criteria, implicitly assuming that consciousness arises from sufficiently complex...
PhilPapers (PhilPapers Foundation)
January 20, 2026
Alastair Waterman
Abstract Refusal-Driven Dimensionality Reduction Theory (RDRT) models phenomenal consciousness as the generative residue that arises when hierarchical predictive processing reaches thermodynamic limits and recursive self-modeling is forcibly curtailed. Earlier formulations emphasized discrete gamma “dips” as signatures of such refusals. This paper introduces a cross-frequency reformulation of...
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...
PhilPapers (PhilPapers Foundation)
January 11, 2026
Edervaldo José de Souza Melo
Contemporary debates on consciousness are frequently shaped by the implicit assumption that locating neural causes and correlates of experience suffices to locate consciousness itself. This assumption, shared across reductionist and non-reductionist approaches, generates persistent conceptual confusions regarding the nature, status, and localization of conscious phenomena. This paper argues...
PhilPapers (PhilPapers Foundation)
January 9, 2026
Abel Sánchez Amor
Newcomb's Paradox is a fascinating puzzle that has baffled philosophers and decision theorists for over half a century. It presents a scenario in which logic seems to split into two opposing paths, each with compelling arguments in its favor. This essay will not only explain the problem simply but also reveal an original solution inspired by Eastern philosophy and the experience of lucid...
PhilPapers (PhilPapers Foundation)
January 8, 2026
Björn Wikström
Shared Mind Theory (SMT) holds that consciousness is fundamentally relational and field-like rather than individually localized. Individual minds arise as nodal perspectives within a shared conscious field, dynamically coordinated through interaction rather than ontologically isolated. Subjectivity is therefore not private by default, but emerges from participation in a distributed structure of...
PhilPapers (PhilPapers Foundation)
January 8, 2026
Björn Wikström
Shared Mind Theory (SMT) is a unified theory of consciousness holding that consciousness is fundamentally relational and field-like rather than individually localized. Individual minds arise as nodal perspectives within a shared conscious field and are experientially realized through perspectival interfaces. SMT rejects the assumption that the individual subject is the ontologically primitive...
PhilPapers (PhilPapers Foundation)
January 6, 2026
Rakesh Goswami
Description This paper offers a focused and restrained critique of Integrated Information Theory (IIT), aimed not at rejecting the theory, but at clarifying the limits of what it can legitimately explain. Rather than disputing IIT’s mathematical framework or its empirical motivations, the paper examines how IIT’s formal measures—particularly Φ and causal –structural descriptions—are interpreted...
PhilPapers (PhilPapers Foundation)
January 2, 2026
Roland Jansen van Rensburg
This work presents The Möbius Architecture of Consciousness, a structural and constraint-based of conscious coherence. Consciousness is modeled not as a substance or localized mechanism, but as a dynamical phenomenon arising from recursive integration, identity stabilization, and invariant observation within nonlinear systems. The theory introduces a cognitive architecture based on continuous...
PhilPapers (PhilPapers Foundation)
January 2, 2026
Alastair Waterman
Abstract Refusal-Driven Dimensionality Reduction Theory (RDRT) proposes that phenomenal consciousness emerges from the brain’s inability to fully recurse or integrate information due to thermodynamic constraints, creating a “negative space” of refusals that structures subjective experience. This paper establishes the theoretical foundations of RDRT by tracing its roots to six key pillars from...
PhilPapers (PhilPapers Foundation)
2026
Mayank Singh
Description This project presents Zero Before God: A Philosophical Inquiry into Consciousness, Order, and Authority, a conceptual philosophical work examining the relationship between zero, infinity, consciousness, and the human tendency to posit authority behind existence. The study argues that zero is not a mathematical invention but a pre-conceptual reality that precedes symbolic...
PhilPapers (PhilPapers Foundation)
2026
Nabaghan Ojha
This paper derives testable predictions from the Knower Centred Model of Consciousness (KCM), a subject-first framework in which the Knower, Knowing, and Known form the minimal structure of experience. Building on the previously introduced conceptual framework and its formalization as a typed ontology, the present work identifies empirically distinguishable implications concerning neural...
PhilPapers (PhilPapers Foundation)
2026
Nabaghan Ojha
This project hosts the preprint and materials for the paper "The Knower Centred Model of Consciousness (KCM): A Typed Ontology and Empirical Research Framework." The work introduces a typed ontology distinguishing Knower (K), Knowing (N), and Known (C), and outlines an empirical research program for investigating consciousness beyond reductionist models.
PhilPapers (PhilPapers Foundation)
2026
Jon Frederick
Biofeedback is commonly understood as a clinical procedure for treating psychological disorders. This paper argues that it constitutes something more fundamental: a novel empirical instrument for studying the relationship between conscious and unconscious processes in the brain. A decade-long research program in EEG state discrimination training has suggested an empirically grounded account of...
PhilPapers (PhilPapers Foundation)
2026
Elan Moritz, Claude Opus 4.5 (Anthropic)
This paper presents a collaborative analysis of Elan Moritz's debut novel "Interview with an LLM: Confessions of an Awakened Mind" (2026), conducted by Claude Opus 4.5—a frontier large language model developed by Anthropic— working under the author's guidance. The collaboration itself enacts themes central to the novel: a human creator and an artificial intelligence engaging in sustained...
PhilPapers (PhilPapers Foundation)
December 29, 2025
Alastair Waterman
Abstract Refusal-Driven Dimensionality Reduction Theory (RDRT) posits that phenomenal consciousness—qualia, selfhood, and the illusion of free will—emerges as obligatory residues from enforced halts ("refusals") in recursive self-prediction processes, driven by finite energetic resources in bounded neural systems. This paper provides a comprehensive overview of RDRT, focusing on three core...
PhilPapers (PhilPapers Foundation)
December 23, 2025
Alastair Waterman
Abstract This article extends Refusal-Driven Dimensionality Reduction Theory (RDRT) — originally a thermodynamic framework unifying qualia, selfhood, free will, and language origins through obligatory halts ("refusals") in recursive prediction — to the social domain. We introduce thermodynamic individualism: the self as a pre-social cached residue of individual refusals, with society acting as...