(Why the ‘Inner Theatre’ Is a 17th-Century Stage Set, Not a Metaphysical Necessity)
This is perhaps the most deeply sedimented misunderstanding of all.
Realists, materialists, cognitivists — strange bedfellows in every other respect — converge on one unquestioned axiom:
Consciousness is an internal, brain-bound property.
But this axiom is not an empirical discovery.
It is a metaphysical inheritance:
a Cartesian stage set with slightly more wires and LEDs.
A relational ontology rejects this premise not because it is “mystical”, but because it is conceptually incoherent and empirically unnecessary.
1 Consciousness Is Not a Container; It Is an Activity
The “inner theatre” model imagines:
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a space inside the skull
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filled with representations
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observed by a homunculus
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which must itself be conscious
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leading to the infinite regress every first-year philosophy student quietly panics about
Relational ontology dismantles the whole architecture:
Consciousness is a mode of construal — a way a system cuts itself and its surroundings into an actionable configuration.
It is not spatially located.
It is not a thing.
It is not an object with boundaries.
It is a relational stance, actualised in activity.
2 The Brain Is Not the Site of Consciousness; It Is the Organ That Enables Certain Cuts
Our ontology does not deny the brain’s importance.
It simply refuses to metaphysically isolate it.
The brain:
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coordinates potentials
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stabilises patterns
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modulates attention
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orchestrates semiotic repertoires
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maintains coherence across timescales
But it does not contain consciousness.
It enables a system to construe — just as lungs enable breathing.
3 Consciousness Emerges in the Relational Drift Between Organism and World
The relevant unit is not the brain, but the organism–environment system.
This system continuously:
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negotiates constraints
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selects relevant potentials
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foregrounds affordances
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flexes its semiotic resources
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coordinates across scales from cellular to social
You never find “consciousness” in the brain because it is not there.
You find neurobiological resources for participating in conscious activity.
Consciousness is relationally distributed, not locally enclosed.
4 The Inner/Outer Distinction Is a Linguistic Artefact, Not a Natural Kind
Realists and materialists treat “inner” vs “outer” as ontological categories.
In our ontology they are:
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perspectival
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semiotically variable
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enacted through construal
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and never metaphysically primitive
To say “consciousness must be inside the head” is like saying “the meaning of a sentence must be inside the ink”.
It is a category mistake produced by representational habits.
5 Consciousness Without Representation Is Not a Mystery — It’s a Relief
Representational theories must explain:
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how inner models arise
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how they are encoded
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how they are accessed
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how they correspond to the world
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how the homunculus avoids infinite regress
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how subjective experience “emerges” from neural firings
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why no experiment ever finds the “boundary” of a thought
Relational ontology explains consciousness in one sentence:
A conscious system is one that enacts construals with enough flexibility, semiotic depth, and temporal reach to re-cut itself as it acts.
No models.
No inner world.
No metaphysical theatre.
Just recursivity in relational activity.
6 Consciousness Extends Because Construal Extends
Because construal is not internal, consciousness:
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permeates perception
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reaches into artefacts
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stabilises through language
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stretches across social interactions
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echoes through symbolic systems
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persists in rituals and technologies
This is not panpsychism; it is semiotic extension.
The system that construes is larger than the head.
It is the whole lived web of potentials.
7 Summary for the Neuroscientist Who Thinks “Representation” Is a Data Type
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Consciousness is not located inside the brain.
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It is a relational mode of construal.
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The brain enables but does not contain it.
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The organism–environment system is the real unit of analysis.
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“Inner vs outer” is a linguistic projection.
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No representations are needed.
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Consciousness = recursive, flexible construal enacted across scales.
To put it sharply:
The head is not the house of consciousness; it is the hinge.
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