Perspective Without Phenomenology: Why Recursive Integration Produces Structural Centering
Lasse Paulsen
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) March 14, 2026 preprint DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.19018419 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper |
|---|---|
| Topics | Philosophy of mind |
| Key points | Argues that perspective is a structural-operational concept defined by a system organizing its processing recursively around a self-stabilizing center z*, proposes four necessary and sufficient conditions for "operative perspective," and proves that large language models are structurally perspectiveless in a formal sense. |
Abstract
Perspective is standardly treated as either a phenomenological concept — something it is like to have — or as a representational concept — a viewpoint from which the world is modeled. This paper argues for a third position: perspective is a structural-operational concept. A system has perspective not by virtue of representing the world but by virtue of organizing its processing recursively around a self-stabilizing center z* that differentiates, weights, and anticipates perturbations relative to its own state. The paper develops four necessary and sufficient conditions for operative perspective, proves that large language models are structurally perspectiveless in a precise formal sense, and positions the framework relative to Integrated Information Theory, enactiv
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