Emergent Predictive Experience Theory (EPET): An Integrative Philosophy of Consciousness

Abstract

This paper introduces the Emergent Predictive Experience Theory (EPET), an integrative framework addressing the hard problem of consciousness from a non-reductive emergentist physicalist perspective. EPET synthesizes key insights from Predictive Processing (PP), Global Workspace Theory (GWT), embodied cognition, and core Buddhist philosophical principles (notably Anattā - no-self, and Paṭiccasamuppāda - dependent origination). The theory posits consciousness not as a substance or fundamental property, but as a real, emergent, dynamic process realized through integrated predictive modeling within an embodied, action-oriented system. **Offering a constitutive account**, it explains subjective quality (qualia) not as an epiphenomenal add-on, but as intrinsic properties of this modeling process itself, reflecting the system's ongoing assessment of interaction relevance for its own viability. The phenomenal sense of self is interpreted as a dynamic construct arising from recursive self-modeling within the predictive architecture, an account compatible with the Buddhist doctrine of Anattā. By integrating these scientific and philosophical perspectives, EPET aims to provide a coherent, naturalistic, and empirically grounded explanation of conscious experience, avoiding the pitfalls of substance dualism, panpsychism, and strong reductionism/illusionism, while offering a heuristically valuable framework for future interdisciplinary research and generating testable hypotheses.