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AGPhil: Arbeitsgruppe Philosophie der Physik

AGPhil 12: Foundations of Classical and Quantum Mechanics

AGPhil 12.3: Talk

Friday, March 14, 2025, 15:00–15:30, HS XVII

Rethinking Consciousness Through Quantum Perspectives: A Challenge to Individualism and Objectivity — •Konstantinos Voukydis — Department of History and Philosophy of Science, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece

In the Philosophy of Consciousness, a central issue revolves around how mental states represent objects of the world, particularly concerning whether mental content is individuated by factors that are external or internal to the subject.

From a conceptual and meta-theoretical standpoint, the physical-logical framework introduced by quantum mechanics disrupts the ontological and semantic interpretative schemes of classical logic, redifining the traditional notions of individuality, separability, contextuality, and reality. By foregrounding the observer's role and the inherent interconnectedness of elements in quantum systems, the quantum paradigm provides a novel lens for re-evaluating relationships between wholes and parts, objectivity and subjectivity, and the very nature of phenomenal consciousness.

This interdisciplinary approach seeks to bridge two foundational problems in its epistemic extent: the quantum measurement problem in physics and the hard problem of consciousness in philosophy. By doing so, we propose a framework for understanding phenomenal consciousness not as an autonomous, objective property but as emerging from a dynamic network of interactions involving the internal subjectiveness and the external objectiveness.

Keywords: Philosophy of Quantum Mechanics; Philosophy of Consciousness