Applying category theory to the study of consciousness?

Abstract

What are the potential uses and misuses of applying category theory to the study of consciousness? We first review a recent proposal from the neurosciences of consciousness to illustrate the general approach using the integrated information theory of consciousness. We then propose possible avenues for further research, importantly also stressing the need to better develop the categorical representation of consciousness, in particular its phenomenological structure. A better understanding of consciousness cannot be achieved by merely studying the physical brain. By contrast, the categorical treatment suggests application in the domain of computer science and artificial intelligence research while also emphasizing the primacy of (first-personal) experience.

Mathematized Phenomenology and the Science of Consciousness

“…Moreover, if we understand a "transcendental approach" as tantamount to elucidating the (often hidden) factors that are decisive in the generation of (overt) conscious experience, a broadly mathematical approach becomes suggestive, no matter whether it is grounded in a dynamical-systems approach that looks at the time evolution of a physical system, often towards a meta-stable state (Atmanspacher & Fach, 2019;Yoshimi, 2011), or a (more recent) applied category theoretic approach that focuses on the composition of processes that operate on experiences (Prentner, 2022;Signorelli, Wang, & Coecke, 2021).…”