Subjective Holism and the Problem of Consciousness.

The explanatory gap in consciousness—how unconscious matter becomes conscious—arises from physicalist and dualist viewpoints. This paper proposes that adopting subjectivism and holism, forming a theory of subjective holism, can either dissolve the problem entirely (maximum answer) or at least point toward the correct way to solve it (minimum answer). The argument suggests that by shifting perspective away from eliminativism and dualism, the hard problem of consciousness need not arise, offering a positive resolution to the mind-body problem.

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Abstract

How does unconscious matter become conscious? How does our physical part, which lacks consciousness, have such a subjective quality? This is the explanatory gap in the problem of consciousness or the hard problem of consciousness which comes from a physicalist (eliminativist physicalism) point of view. From the opposite point of view, i.e. dualism, the mind-body problem has led to the problem of consciousness and the explanation of how our unconscious physical (matter) part (substance) is related to our conscious mental part (substance). If the problem of consciousness is the result of such views (eliminativism and dualism), is it possible to adopt a different perspective so that the problem does not arise at all? Or find a solution for it (maximum answer) or at least determine the right way to solve the problem (minimum answer)? The current research goes to this issue by adopting subjectivism and holism to make its subjective holism theory. Therefore, it gives a positive (maximum and minimum) answer to the above questions.