What is a mathematical structure of conscious experience?

Johannes Kleiner*, Tim Ludwig

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

Several promising approaches have been developed to represent conscious experience in terms of mathematical spaces and structures. What is missing, however, is an explicit definition of what a ‘mathematical structure of conscious experience’ is. Here, we propose such a definition. This definition provides a link between the abstract formal entities of mathematics and the concreta of conscious experience; it complements recent approaches that study quality spaces, qualia spaces, or phenomenal spaces; and it provides a general method to identify and investigate structures of conscious experience. We hope that ultimately this work provides a basis for developing a common formal language to study consciousness.

Original languageEnglish
Article number89
Pages (from-to)1-23
Number of pages23
JournalSynthese
Volume203
Issue number3
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 5 Mar 2024

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2024.

Funding

FundersFunder number
Association for Mathematical Consciousness ScienceFQXi-RFP-CPW-2018
Fetzer Franklin Fund
Fluid Spintronics
Modelling Consciousness Workshop
Silicon Valley Community Foundation
Foundational Questions Institute
Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek182.069
Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek

    Keywords

    • Perceptual spaces
    • Phenomenal spaces
    • Q-spaces
    • Qualia spaces
    • Quality spaces
    • Structuralism

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