A Relativistic Theory of Consciousness (shortened version)

Abstract: This paper is a shortened version of the full paper that was published in the journal Frontiers of Psychology in May 2022. In recent decades, the scientific study of consciousness has significantly increased our understanding of this elusive phenomenon. Yet, despite critical development in our understanding of the functional side of consciousness, we still lack a fundamental theory regarding its phenomenal aspect. The phenomenal aspect of consciousness is the first-person answer to what it is like question, and it has thus far proved recalcitrant to direct scientific investigation. The question of how the brain, or any cognitive system, can create conscious experience out of neural representations poses a great conundrum to science. Naturalistic dualists argue that it is composed of a primitive, private, nonreductive element of reality. Illusionists, on the other hand, argue that it is merely a cognitive illusion. We contend that both the dualist and illusionist positions are flawed because they tacitly assume consciousness to be an absolute property that does not depend on the observer. We developed a conceptual and a mathematical argument for a relativistic theory of consciousness in which a system either has or does not have phenomenal consciousness with respect to some observer. According to the theory, Phenomenal consciousness is neither private nor delusional, just relativistic. In the frame of reference of the cognitive system, it will be observable (first-person perspective) and in other frame of reference it will not (third-person perspective). These two cognitive frames of reference are both correct, just as in the case of an observer that claims to be at rest while another will claim that the observer has constant velocity. Neither observer position can be privileged, as they both describe the same underlying reality.