Reasoning about conscious experience with axiomatic and graphical mathematics.

Area of Science:

• Mathematical Physics
• Cognitive Science
• Philosophy of Mind

Background:

• Understanding consciousness scientifically remains a challenge.
• Existing models struggle to explain subjective experience's core features.
• A need exists for novel theoretical frameworks.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop an axiomatic mathematical framework for consciousness.
• To utilize general process theories for modeling subjective experience.
• To demonstrate the framework's ability to explain key aspects of consciousness.

Main Methods:

• Employing the graphical calculus of general process theories (symmetric monoidal categories and Frobenius algebras).
• Utilizing ontological neutrality inherent in process theories.
• Applying an axiomatic calculus to a toy example.

Main Results:

• The axiomatic calculus naturally recovers distinctions between internal and external subjective experience.
• The framework explains the privacy or unreadability of personal subjective experience.
• Phenomenal unity, a key challenge in consciousness studies, is derived from the calculus's compositional nature.

Conclusions:

• Axiomatic mathematical frameworks based on process theories offer a powerful approach to consciousness.
• The compositional nature of these theories is crucial for explaining complex features of subjective experience.
• This work provides a novel, formal method for the scientific study of consciousness.