Individuation in a Consciousness-First Ontology
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) March 14, 2026 DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.19021121 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Key points | Proposes an "Integration Dominance Criterion" according to which a region of experiential organisation constitutes an individuated subject when its internal integration exceeds its coupling to surrounding experiential dynamics. Argues that subjects are stability regimes within a unified experiential field, with unity from dense internal integration, boundaries from structural segregation, and persistence from diachronic stability of constraint organisation. |
Abstract
A satisfactory consciousness first ontology must explain how multiple individuated perspectives arise within a reality whose fundamental character is experiential manifestation. Contemporary approaches including panpsychism and cosmopsychism recognise this difficulty, though a detailed structural account of subject formation often remains underdeveloped (Strawson, 2006; Chalmers, 2015; Goff, 2017; Nagasawa & Wager, 2017). Reality is interpreted here as a unified experiential field whose organisation is governed by relational constraints analogous to those described in contemporary physics (Ladyman & Ross, 2007). Within this field experiential organisation can develop stable regimes of integration. Drawing on dynamical systems theory and contemporary cognitive science (Kelso, 1995; Tononi, 2008; Dehaene, 2014), the paper formulates an Integration Dominance Criterion according to which a region of experiential organisation constitutes an individuated subject when internal integration exceeds its coupling to surrounding experiential dynamics. Individuated subjects are interpreted as stability regimes within the unified experiential field. Their unity reflects dense internal integration within a stability regime, while their boundaries arise from structural segregation within the surrounding field. Persistence reflects the diachronic stability of constraint organisation across successive experiential states. The resulting framework provides a structural explanation of subject formation and shows how multiple perspectives can arise within a unified experiential ontology.