Experiential Set Monism (ESM): Dissolving the Hard Problem of Consciousness
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) July 1, 2026 Ignacio Granell Vite
Subjective experience is not produced by the brain but is the intrinsic nature of matter itself. The hard problem of consciousness arises from a cognitive mistake: projecting a mental model of inertness onto the nervous system. The framework, Experiential Set Monism (ESM), rests on five postulates and treats each experiential set as ontologically complete at its own scale, thereby dissolving the combination problem and the phylogenetic threshold problem. The theory yields testable predictions in neuroscience and artificial intelligence.