Ontological Metabolism: A Hypothesis of the Origin of Consciousness from the Perspective of a Continuous Civilization —— A Paradigmatic Dialogue with Panpsychism, Emergentism, and Cosmopsychism

Panpsychism, emergentism, and cosmopsychism all share an unspoken assumption: they were developed after the 'disenchantment of the world' and presuppose a separation between mind and matter, leading to logical problems like the combination problem. The paper argues this stems from a 'civilization-level theoretical amnesia' and contrasts it with a civilization that has never undergone mind-matter dualism. It proposes 'ontological metabolism,' where consciousness is the cosmic origin that progressively derives matter and individual minds through self-reflexive differentiation and holographic constrained manifestation, avoiding the combination problem and providing a deducible pathway from cosmic to individual consciousness.

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Abstract

Panpsychism, emergentism, and cosmopsychism have each made significant contributions to contemporary consciousness studies. Yet all three share an unspoken presuppositional predicament. They were born in the wake of the "disenchantment of the world," and they attempt to re-establish a connection between mind and matter that had already been presupposed as separate. Consequently, they confront logical closure problems regarding core mechanisms such as combination, emergence, and grounding. This paper argues that the above predicament stems from a "civilization-level theoretical amnesia." To make this case, it introduces a contrasting intellectual sample: a civilization with five millennia of continuous evolution that has never undergone the presuppositional cut of mind-matter dualism. On this basis, the paper proposes an alternative hypothesis of "ontological metabolism." Consciousness, on this view, is not a combination or emergence from matter. Rather, as the cosmic origin, it progressively derives matter and individual minds through a dynamic process of self-reflexive differentiation and holographic constrained manifestation. This approach logically avoids the combination problem and the mysteriousness of emergence, and it provides a deducible pathway for the transition from cosmic consciousness to individual consciousness. The paper engages in a systematic dialogue between this approach and existing paradigms. Its aim is to open up a new theoretical space for consciousness research, which has stalled at its ontological source. This manuscript is submitted for publication to the Journal of Consciousness Studies (JCS). This is Version 1.0 of the work.