Experiential Structural Realism (ESR)
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) March 3, 2026 DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.18846874 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Key points | Argues that Experiential Structural Realism resolves the instantiation deficit in structural realism by treating experiential manifestation, rather than a mental substance, as the ontologically primitive ground that renders lawful relational structure concrete. It contends that this framework accommodates quantum nonseparability and quantum gravity's reconstruction of spacetime while preserving empirical realism, and proposes reinterpreting the hard problem of consciousness as a problem of structural enactment under physical constraint. |
Abstract
This monograph develops and defends Experiential Structural Realism (ESR), a metaphysical framework constrained by contemporary physics that treats relational structure as ontologically primary while grounding its concreteness in experiential manifestation. Quantum theory dissolves classical objecthood into nonseparable relational architecture, and several leading approaches to quantum gravity treat classical spacetime geometry as non-fundamental within mathematically controlled frameworks. These developments support structural realism at the level of physical description and at the same time leave unresolved the problem of instantiation.The central claim of ESR is that experiential reality provides the minimal ontological ground capable of rendering lawful relational structure concrete as determinate occurrence. Structural realism identifies relational architecture as fundamental in physics. ESR extends this insight by holding that experience supplies the mode of being in virtue of which such structure exists as enacted reality. Consciousness, understood as experiential manifestation rather than as a mental substance, is ontologically primitive, and physical reality is interpreted as stable constraint architecture realised within experiential occurrence.Ontological constraints are drawn from experimentally established quantum nonseparability and decoherence, together with research programmes in quantum gravity that provide coherent models in which classical spacetime geometry is reconstructed from deeper relational organisation. These constraints are applied to the evaluation of leading foundational ontologies. Neutral monism, informational ontologies, refined materialism, and Ontic Structural Realism (OSR) preserve relational description while leaving the transition from formal specification to concrete manifestation insufficiently accounted for. ESR addresses this instantiation deficit without appeal to additional substrates, quiddities, or primitive lawlike posits.Within this framework, physical laws are interpreted as stability constraints governing experiential transition. Objects are dynamically stabilised regimes within relational manifestation, spacetime is treated as emergent organisational structure, and subjects are individuated streams of integrated experiential organisation. The hard problem of consciousness is reconceptualised as a problem of structural enactment under physical constraint, shifting explanatory attention from the derivation of phenomenality to the organisation of experiential structure.Quantum holism becomes ontologically natural within a unified experiential field, and cosmological typicality is grounded in dynamical stability rather than observer counting. ESR is presented as an abductive completion of structural realism that satisfies the grounding demands imposed by contemporary physics while preserving empirical realism.