Consciousness and topologically structured phenomenal spaces.
Consciousness and Cognition February 26, 2019 R. Prentner 43 citations
Conscious inner life is structured, and a key feature is the unity of consciousness. This work makes precise three features of experience related to unity: environmental embedding, mutual constraint between local and global representations, and top-down object formation. A formal model is introduced based on phenomenal space, defined by quasi-elementary and extended entities, using mereological and topological concepts and a projector-based calculus to capture its dynamical structure. This approach addresses the mind-matter problem by relating environmentally embedded agents to topologically defined objects from decompositions of phenomenal space. The authors suggest consciousness involves a series of transitions between structured layers of experience rather than a single brain-to-mind transition.