Emergent Predictive Experience Theory (EPET): An Integrative Philosophy of Consciousness
May 16, 2025 preprint DOI: 10.31219/osf.io/c4kfw_v3 via OpenAlex
Summary
The Emergent Predictive Experience Theory (EPET) proposes a new framework for understanding consciousness, viewing it as an emergent process rather than a fundamental property. This theory combines insights from predictive processing, global workspace theory, embodied cognition, and Buddhist philosophy to explain subjective experiences and the sense of self as dynamic constructs arising from predictive modeling. EPET aims to provide a naturalistic explanation of conscious experience while avoiding dualism and reductionism.
Study at a glance
| Key finding | EPET explains consciousness as a dynamic process realized through integrated predictive modeling within an action-oriented system. |
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Abstract
This paper introduces the Emergent Predictive Experience Theory (EPET), an integrative framework addressing the hard problem of consciousness from a non-reductive emergentist physicalist perspective. EPET synthesizes key insights from Predictive Processing (PP), Global Workspace Theory (GWT), embodied cognition, and core Buddhist philosophical principles (notably Anattā - no-self, and Paṭiccasamuppāda - dependent origination). The theory posits consciousness not as a substance or fundamental property, but as a real, emergent, dynamic process realized through integrated predictive modeling within an embodied, action-oriented system. **Offering a constitutive account**, it explains subjective quality (qualia) not as an epiphenomenal add-on, but as intrinsic properties of this modeling process itself, reflecting the system's ongoing assessment of interaction relevance for its own viability. The phenomenal sense of self is interpreted as a dynamic construct arising from recursive self-modeling within the predictive architecture, an account compatible with the Buddhist doctrine of Anattā. By integrating these scientific and philosophical perspectives, EPET aims to provide a coherent, naturalistic, and empirically grounded explanation of conscious experience, avoiding the pitfalls of substance dualism, panpsychism, and strong reductionism/illusionism, while offering a heuristically valuable framework for future interdisciplinary research and generating testable hypotheses.