Everything is in motion. “Inertness” arises from (approximative) repetition, that is, through rotation or an alternation that delineates a focus of consciousness. This focus of consciousness, in turn, must also move/alternate (the two differ only in continuity). If its alternation seems to go too far – physically, psychically or intellectually – it reaches into the subconscious. In this way, interconnection is established by the alternation of the focus of consciousness. Therefore, in a world in which everything is interconnected, all focuses must reciprocally transition into each other. “Reality” is a common “goal,” a focus which all participants can switch into and which is conscious to them as such, as a potential one. Its “degree of reality” is the probability of its fully becoming conscious (or more simply: its current degree of consciousness). Thus, a reality is created when all participants increase its probability or, respectively, their consciousness of it.

Key words: existence, consciousness, individual, awareness, reality, perception

What Spencer-Brown wants to rationalize out of existence is alternation itself – the prerequisite of his whole operation! In doing so he simplifies (identifies) more than he says. Furthermore, he does not say all that is important.

Key words: George Spencer-Brown, laws of form, distinction

This article is not an attempt to explain consciousness in terms basically of quantum physics or neuro-biology. Instead I should like to place the term “Consciousness” on a broader footing. I shall therefore proceed from everyday reality, precisely where we experience ourselves as conscious beings. I shall use the term in such a general way as to resolve the question whether only a human being enjoys consciousness, or even a thermostat. Whilst the difference is considerable, it is not fundamental. Every effect exists in the perception of a consciousness. I elaborate on its freedom of choice (leading to free will), in my view the most important source of creativity, in a similarly general way. The problems associated with a really conscious decision do not disappear by mixing determination with a touch of coincidence. Both must enter into a higher unity. In so doing it will emerge that a certain degree of freedom of choice (or free will) is just as omnipresent as consciousness – an inherent part of reality itself. Relevance: This paper unites aspects of radical constructivism, non-dualism and first-person approaches to explain freedom of choice by a broader definition of consciousness.

Key words: free will, consciousness, perception, choice, decision, freedom

Can we trace back consciousness, reality, awareness, and free will to a single basic structure without giving up any of them? Can the universe exist in both real and individual ways without being composed of both? This metaphysical dialogue founds consciousness and freedom of choice on the basis of a new reality concept that also includes the infinite as far as we understand it. Just the simplest distinction contains consciousness. It is not static, but a constant alternation of perspectives. From its entirety and movement, however, there arises a freedom of choice being more than reinterpreted necessity and unpredictability. Although decisions ultimately involve the whole universe, they are also free in varying degrees here and now. The unity and openness of the infinite enables the individual to be creative while this creativity directly and indirectly enters into all other individuals without impeding them. A contrary impression originates only in a narrowed awareness. But even the most conscious and free awareness can neither anticipate all decisions nor extinguish individuality. Their creativity is secured. Relevance: This article includes major constructivist concepts like operational closure and openness, individual and alternating perception, creativity, and a non-dualistic theory of everything.

Key words: consciousness, distinction, free will, reality, individuality, intersubjectivity, identity, awareness

The uniqueness of each standpoint, each point of effect, can only be “overcome” by the standpoint changing to other standpoints and returning. In such alternation, which can also appear as constant change, lies the unity of the world. The entirety of an alternation, however, is a consciousness structure due to the special relationship between the circumscribing periphery and the infinitesimal center. This process structure unites determinacy and indeterminacy also totally at every place. Therefore, we are dealing with forms of consciousness everywhere, with more or less freedom of choice and an increasingly unknown depth. We live in a world of the choosing consciousness or better: awareness. In this respect, our environment expresses a deep truth about ourselves. Relevance: Outlines the concept of infinitesimality structure to explain first, second, and third person experience as well as free will at once.

Key words: consciousness, free will, awareness, individual, reality

When so much is being written on conscious experience, it is past time to face the question whether experience happens that is not conscious of itself. The recognition that we and most other living things experience non-consciously has recently been firmly supported by experimental science, clinical studies, and theoretic investigations; the related if not identical philosophic notion of experience without a subject has a rich pedigree. Leaving aside the question of how experience could become conscious of itself, I aim here to demonstrate that the terms experience and consciousness are not interchangeable. Experience is a notoriously difficult concept to pin down, but I see non-conscious experience as based mainly in momentary sensations, relational between bodies or systems, and probably common throughout the natural world. If this continuum of experience – from non-conscious, to conscious, to self-transcending awareness – can be understood and accepted, radical constructivism (the “outside” world as a construct of experience) will gain a firmer foundation, panexperientialism (a living universe) may gain credibility, and psi will find its medium.

This essay is divided into two parts, deeply intermingled. Part I examines not only the origin of conscious experience but also how it is possible to ask of our own consciousness how it came to be. Part II examines the origin of experience itself, which soon reveals itself as the ontological question of Being. The chief premise of Part I chapter is that symbolic communion and the cat-egorizations of language have enabled human organisms to distinguish between themselves as actually existing entities and their own immediate experience of themselves and their world. This enables them to reflect upon abstract concepts, including “self,” “experience,” and “world.” Looking beyond human self-consciousness to investigate the origin and nature of awareness itself in Part 2, reductive objective materialism is found to be of little use. Awareness in itself must thus be considered ultimately unexplainable, but this may more indicate its inexpressible transcendence of all symbolic qualifiers than its nonexistence. Our underlying symbolic worldviews are found to be autopoietic: they limit or open our conscious experience, which, in turn, confirms those worldview expectations. As we explore a future of unforeseeable technological breakthroughs on an ailing planet who patiently copes with our “success,” truly vital decisions about the nature, meaning, and future of conscious experience will have to be made. Can we transcend our conditioned selves? Relevance: Human self-construction – autopoiesis – begins in awareness-in-itself, which may be universal.

Key words: experience, awareness, language, self-consciousness, awareness-in-itself, autopoiesis