Consciousness Viewed in the Framework of Brain Phase Space Dynamics, Criticality, and the Renormalization Group
arXiv Preprint Archive March 7, 2011 Gerhard Werner
The paper argues that consciousness should be understood as a collective phenomenon emerging from the brain's complex neural dynamics, amenable to study through phase space dynamics and criticality. It critiques flawed notions in theoretical neuroscience that impede viewing consciousness as a physical phenomenon and highlights neglected facts in current discourse. Drawing on concepts from physics—phase transitions and the renormalization group—the author proposes that these tools account for emergent collective behaviors with distinct ontologies across scales. The central claim is that the subjectivity of consciousness arises as an epistemic interpretation of a new level of reality originating from phase transitions in the brain-body-environment system.