Referring to Martin Heidegger’s thought, this paper argues that identity should be understood not as self-preservation or formal self-coincidence (A = A), but as a dynamic process constituted through becoming, transition, wandering, and distress. Rather than confining identity to Heidegger’s later conceptual-historical discussions, the paper reconstructs it through an experiential structure...
This paper examines two approaches to the measurement problem in quantum mechanics, invoking the concept of consciousness and highlighting the strengths and weaknesses of each. The first approach is the model proposed by David Chalmers and Kelvin McQueen, based on the idea of the Consciousness Collapses Wave Function (CCWF), originally attributed to John von Neumann and Eugene Wigner. The...
Delusions in psychosis involve complex and dynamic experiential, affective, cognitive, behavioural, and interpersonal alterations. Their pattern of emergence during the early stages of illness remains poorly understood and the origin of their thematic content unclear. Phenomenological accounts have emphasised alterations of selfhood and reality experience in delusion formation but have not...
Despite decades of progress in the neuroscience of consciousness, prevailing empirical paradigms remain largely anchored in the study of typical, content-rich states that are characterized by layered perceptual, cognitive, affective, and self-referential processes. Such complexity may obscure the neural mechanisms that give rise to conscious experience. Here, we propose that advanced...
Structural descriptions of qualitative aspects of conscious experience (qualia) offer a rigorous empirical approach to study consciousness. Mathematical structures describing qualia can be mapped to mathematical structures derived from brain activity and underlying neuronal connectivity. That is, rather than merely identifying the co-occurrence of specific neuronal activity patterns with...
Magnesium-ibogaine, a formulation combining ibogaine with pre- and post-treatment magnesium, was recently found to yield rapid clinical improvements in U.S. Special Operations veterans with TBI and PTSD. Yet, its therapeutic phenomenology during such healing is unknown. We analyzed post-session narratives from 30 male veterans who, after a single open-label magnesium-ibogaine treatment,...
Abstract This paper proposes a unified account of subjectivity grounded in the concept of incomplete computation. It argues that the two standard meanings of “subjectivity” in philosophical discourse—epistemic subjectivity (perspectival limitation, opinion, partial knowledge) and ontological subjectivity (first-person givenness, qualia, phenomenal experience)—are not distinct phenomena, but two...
This issue of Agatheos has its origins in an important passing of a torch within the philosophy of religion.Linda Zagzebski was the Kingfisher Chair in Religion and Ethics at the University of Oklahoma for over twenty years until her retirement in 2021.She was succeeded in January of 2024 by Yujin Nagasawa, who left a research chair in Birmingham for the honor.Zagzebski and Nagasawa, in...
Human interaction with manipulable objects relies heavily on the ability to perceive and execute grasping actions, yet it remains unclear whether the semantics of these actions are processed without conscious awareness. While previous work has identified bottom-up influences on grasp recognition, direct evidence for subliminal semantic processing of grasping actions is limited. Grounded in...
The rapid advancement of artificial intelligence(AI) has reshaped contemporary life and intensified philosophical questions concerning human consciousness and selfhood. While AI systems increasingly simulate cognitive and creative processes, they remain confined to surface-level cognition and instrumental reasoning. This paper argues that the AI era calls for a renewed inquiry into deeper...