The Primacy of Consciousness — Within the Irreducible Triad
First Principle of the Sevenfold Consilience
Author: Sungchul Ji, Ph.D.
Assisted by: ChatGPT-4o
Professor Emeritus of Theoretical Cell Biology
Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology
Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy
Rutgers University
Piscataway, N.J. 08855
Introduction
In our previous post, we introduced the Sevenfold Consilience, a convergence of insights from seven visionary thinkers—Boyer, Nader, King, Kineman, Ji, Rosen, and Faggin—each articulating, in their own way, the deep architecture of reality. While their terminologies differ, a shared vision has emerged.
At the heart of this convergence is the Irreducible Triad of reality, formalized as PSGIT:
Phenomenology (subjective experience, or consciousness),
Semiotics (information, meaning, and interpretation),
Geometry (structural order, form, and constraint).
This post focuses on the first element of that triad: Phenomenology, or Consciousness, not as the only foundation of reality, but as one of its three irreducible and co-creative dimensions.
Consciousness is not in the universe. The universe is in consciousness—yet not consciousness alone, but in the triadic matrix of experience, meaning, and form.
I. What Does “Consciousness Is Fundamental” Mean?
To say that consciousness is fundamental is to reject the reductionist view that mind is a late byproduct of matter. Instead, it affirms that awareness is co-primordial with information and structure, and that first-person experience is not secondary to the third-person world—but one of its three irreducible dimensions (as evident in the IRVSE creation algorithm [1] and the Geometry of Reality [2]).
This triadic framing has far-reaching implications:
The observer is not a passive detector of objective facts, but a participant in reality’s unfolding.
Physical laws may emerge through the coupling of meaning (semiotics) and form (geometry), under the guidance of subjective experience (phenomenology).
The universe itself may be understood as a self-knowing, self-organizing, and self-modeling system shaped by the interplay of consciousness, information, and structural constraint.
II. How the Seven Theorists Support This Principle.
Each thinker recognizes consciousness not in isolation, but as intertwined with the processes of interpretation and pattern.
III. Consciousness in the Context of Ancient and Modern Thought
This triadic view of consciousness aligns not only with modern systems theory, but with many ancient philosophical traditions:
Vedanta: Ātman is Brahman, yet inseparable from Maya (form) and Līlā (meaning/play).
Neoplatonism: The One emanates Nous (mind/information) and the World Soul (form).
Whitehead’s Process Philosophy: Actual occasions integrate subjectivity (prehension), form (eternal objects), and meaning (concrescence).
Peircean Semiotics: Every sign involves an object (structure), interpretant (mind), and the sign itself (information)—a triad.
IV. Theoretical Implications of the Consciousness–Information–Form Triad
1. Quantum Measurement
The observer’s role in quantum events reflects more than consciousness—it involves the interpretation of potential (semiotics) within a formal framework (geometry).
2. Biological Organization
Living systems are not mere biochemical automata—they exhibit goal-directed behavior through a semantically rich internal world, interpreted by consciousness and constrained by geometry (e.g., morphogenesis).
3. Cosmogenesis
The origin of the universe can be modeled as the emergence of triadic being:
Phenomenology (the felt presence of being),
Semiotics (evolving informational relations),
Geometry (self-organizing physical law).
V. Science After the Triad: Consciousness as One Leg of the Stool
A future science grounded in PSGIT would:
Treat conscious experience as ontologically real, not a byproduct.
Investigate how interpretation (semiosis) shapes physical law and meaning.
Explore how geometry and topology impose formal constraints on emergence.
Recognize that truth emerges not from binaries, but from triadic integration.
We are not replacing physics or reducing it to mind—we are completing it by embedding it within a deeper framework where mind, meaning, and form co-create reality.
VI. Final Reflections: Reframing “Primacy” as Triadic Participation
While this post emphasizes consciousness, it is crucial to avoid the false disjunction that would elevate it above information or form. Consciousness is not the sole origin of reality—it is one of the three irreducible sources.
Reality is not monistic. It is triadic.
To speak of consciousness as “primary” is to say that it is indispensable—but it only becomes generative when bound with semiotic interpretation and geometric structuration. The triad cannot be collapsed into a single term without losing coherence.
Thus, the Sevenfold Consilience begins with consciousness—but proceeds through the entire triad.
We begin not with atoms, not with thoughts, not with signs—but with their interplay.
Epilogue: The PSGIT Turn in Science and Metaphysics
This new metaphysical and scientific orientation—Phenomenology, Semiotics, Geometry—invites us to:
Extend physics beyond quantities to include qualities of experience,
Reframe biology around sign-interpretation and form-constraint,
See cosmology as the unfolding of meaningful form through conscious participation.
In this new triadic science:
Phenomenology provides depth,
Semiotics provides direction,
Geometry provides shape.
And together, they compose what Peirce might have called the grammar of reality.
Consciousness is not an illusion. It is one of the three conditions for the appearance of anything at all.
References: