Nondual Awareness and Minimal Phenomenal Experience.

Minimal phenomenal experiences (MPEs) are episodes with greatly reduced phenomenal content and arousal, often considered cases of consciousness-as-such. The authors argue instead that consciousness-as-such is primarily a type of non-conceptual, non-propositional, and nondual awareness—non-representational in nature. This unique kind of awareness cannot be adequately captured by the two-dimensional model of consciousness that combines arousal level with phenomenal content or by mental representations. To understand consciousness-as-such and consciousness more generally, the authors suggest researching it as a distinct kind.

Study at a glance

Abstract

Minimal phenomenal experiences (MPEs) have recently gained attention in the fields of neuroscience and philosophy of mind. They can be thought of as episodes of greatly reduced or even absent phenomenal content together with a reduced level of arousal. It has also been proposed that MPEs are cases of consciousness-as-such. Here, we present a different perspective, that consciousness-as-such is first and foremost a type of awareness, that is, non-conceptual, non-propositional, and nondual, in other words, non-representational. This awareness is a unique kind and cannot be adequately specified by the two-dimensional model of consciousness as the arousal level plus the phenomenal content or by their mental representations. Thus, we suggest that to understand consciousness-as-such, and by extension consciousness in general, more accurately, we need to research it as a unique kind.