Structure & Quality: Conceptual and Formal Foundations for the Mind-Body Problem

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel framework based on structure and quality to address the mind-body problem, using information theory to analyze their relationship and implications for various philosophical positions.

Contribution

It develops a new Q-S space and categorization for structure-quality relationships, providing a formal foundation for understanding consciousness.

Findings

Introduces a Q-S space for analyzing structure-quality fidelity

Categorizes five possible relationships between structure and quality

Provides ontological insights into philosophical theories of consciousness

Abstract

This paper explores the hard problem of consciousness from a different perspective. Instead of drawing distinctions between the physical and the mental, an exploration of a more foundational relationship is examined: the relationship between structure and quality. Information-theoretic measures are developed to quantify the mutual determinability between structure and quality, including a novel Q-S space for analyzing fidelity between the two domains. This novel space naturally points toward a five-fold categorization of possible relationships between structural and qualitative properties, illustrating each through conceptual and formal models. The ontological implications of each category are examined, shedding light on debates around functionalism, emergentism, idealism, panpsychism, and neutral monism. This new line of inquiry has established a framework for deriving theoretical constraints on qualitative systems undergoing evolution that is explored in my companion paper, Qualia & Natural Selection.