Thomas, Charles S.: System-Derivation Ontology - A Formal Category for Consciousness Studies

Major theoretical programs in consciousness studies disagree about what consciousness is while tacitly agreeing on whose consciousness is at issue. The system whose integration is measured, whose workspace is mapped, whose free energy is minimized is presupposed by each framework, not derived within it. This agreement is not benign: it fixes the referent of every downstream claim, constrains what counts as an explanation, and thereby determines which questions can be asked, which answers can cou