Intrinsic Contextuality as the Crux of Consciousness
arXiv Preprint Archive October 29, 2013 Diederik Aerts, Jan Broekaert, Liane Gabora
Conscious experience is inherently contextual, shaped by sensory input, emotions, and associative networks that link experiences to broader worldviews. This contextuality both enables and constrains behavior, and because one cannot directly access another's conscious experience, behavioral contextuality serves as the basis for judging whether a system is conscious. The authors argue that understanding contextuality is essential for studying consciousness and explore whether methods developed for analyzing contextuality in quantum particles can be applied to conscious experience. This paper represents the early stages of a new interdisciplinary collaboration.