Steresis, Metaxy, and Metaxis: Consciousness as a Response to Structural Fissure

Abstract

This paper reconsiders the conditions under which conscious experience arises, challenging approaches that treat consciousness primarily as a capacity of the subject or as a form of information processing. It argues that when a coherence structure reaches a level of complexity that includes self-reference, complete closure becomes impossible and a structural gap inevitably emerges. This gap is termed steresis. When steresis arises, the coherence structure differentiates into two descriptive phases, an external descriptive phase and an internal descriptive phase, separated only by a zero-thickness relational phase termed metaxy. Within metaxy, a structural pressure toward coherence regulates the gap produced by steresis. This regulatory movement is called metaxis. Metaxis is not a subjective operation but a structural process that arises to prevent the collapse of coherence. Consciousness is not this operation itself but the phenomenal surface on which it appears as experience. From this perspective, consciousness is not a capacity of the subject but a secondary phenomenon emerging from the world's ongoing attempt to maintain its own coherence. The conditions for the emergence of consciousness can therefore be formulated as a structural chain: from world to steresis, from steresis to metaxy, from metaxy to metaxis, and from metaxis to consciousness. Consciousness is thus interpreted as the experiential projection of the world's ongoing adjustment of coherence. This work is shared as a preprint.