What Actually is the ‘Hard Problem’ of Consciousness? Native Quantum Cosmovisions as Response to Our Polycrisis
Philosophy International Journal July 10, 2026 DOI: 10.23880/phij-16000372 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Topics | Philosophy of mind |
| Key points | Argues that the genuine hard problem of consciousness is how minds and bodies lost their embeddedness in the relational web of life, which modernity/coloniality ruptured through its focus on progress. Proposes that convergences between Indigenous cosmovisions and modern theories such as Hoffman's interface theory, Ferrer's participatory approach, and quantum approaches can yield "native quantum cosmovisions" that help move beyond the polycrisis and support pluriversal "visionary sovereignty." |
Abstract
One of the challenges our current polycrisis presents is to comprehend the role of our understanding of consciousness in the genesis of this host of intertwined crises. Instead of focusing on the so-called hard problem of how experience and subjectivity arise from matter, the suggestion is that the actual hard problem is how our minds and bodies lost their sensual, nurturing embeddedness in the relational web of life. The history of modernity/coloniality with its central focus on progress is identified as the rupture of paradigms of relationality. The examples of the interface theory of perception (Hoffman) and the participatory approach to spiritual phenomena (Ferrer), in conjunction with quantum theoretical approaches, help us to validate and appreciate the pluriversality of cosmovisions and their evolutionary fitness payoffs. The polycrisis indicates that the fitness payoffs of the cosmovision of modernity/coloniality appear to be diminishing. At present apparent convergences of central assumptions of Indigenous cosmovisions with advanced research and theories emerging from modernity/coloniality enable us to develop native quantum cosmovisions, emergent relational frameworks that may facilitate moving beyond the current polycrisis and appreciating pluriversal assertions of visionary sovereignty, the right of humans to creatively embody their relational presence in place.