Radical Solutions to the Ontological and Epistemological Problems of Consciousness

Abstract

The problem of consciousness is one of the first that most intimately concerns man, though it was the last to be approached by science. It is possible that the mystery of consciousness is that in order to be explained, it is necessary to face very diverse and complex issues. It is the purpose of this chapter to review the main problems that hinder the study of consciousness, the approaches from which the various disciplines have approached it, and the most radical and groundbreaking solutions that have been found. For this, a journey is carried out through three fundamental difficulties: the problem of reality, the problem of dualism, and the problem of the subjective quality of experience, as radical solutions to each of these problems are the conscious realism of Donald Hoffman, the model of the objective orchestrated reduction of Roger Penrose and Stuart Hameroff, the principle of synchronicity of Carl G. Jung, the new consciousness-collapse of the wave function model of David Chalmers, and the neurophenomenology of Francisco Varela. We conclude by highlighting the intrinsic difficulty in objectifying the phenomenon of consciousness, the state of immature science reflected in the apparent antagonism of theoretical proposals, and, finally, that the progressive integration and complementarity between some theoretical approaches could yield results in a promising paradigm shift which would allow further progress in clarifying the ontological and epistemological foundations of consciousness.