Qualities, subjectivity and spatial extension: is there a common factor?

Summary

Conscious vision provides knowledge of how objects extend into space, compensating for limitations in neuro-computational systems that handle point-like information. This paper explores links between spatial extension, subjectivity, and the qualitative aspect of phenomenal experience. The author identifies 'thingness'—the materialization of something that extends into space—as the underlying property from which subjectivity and quality derive. Subjectivity structures a third-person world within a first-person world, forming egocentric knowledge. Quality reveals how something materializes through differentiation from other qualities. A hypothesis is proposed for how qualities may originate from physical brain processes.

Study at a glance

Abstract

According to the Extended Information Theory, conscious vision allows us to know how objects extend into the space they belong to. In this way, consciousness compensates for some of the limitations of Neuro-Computational systems, which handle Point-Like Information. The aim of this paper is to explore the potential links between spatial extension and two other properties of phenomenal experience: subjectivity and the qualitative aspect. One way to investigate these aspects and develop a coherent model for explaining subjectivity, qualities and spatial extension is to identify a property that underlies them. I have identified this property in an aspect of appearance: thingness. Thingness consists in the materialization of something that extends into space. The other properties are derived from it. Through spatial extension, we gain immediate knowledge of how an object is made. Subjectivity implies a structure in which a third-person world forms within a first-person world. Consequently, egocentric knowledge is formed that encompasses the subject itself. With quality, we know how something materializes based on its degree of differentiation from other qualities. The way in which it materializes in feature qualities can explain both their relational and categorical phenomenal character. The knowledge conveyed by qualities transforms existing unconscious knowledge into conscious knowledge. It is an accessory function of consciousness and is linked to the extended nature of objectual contents. I propose a hypothesis about how these qualities may originate from physical processes in the brain.

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