Consciousness, Quantum Mechanics, and the Limits of Scientific Objectivism
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Quantum Physics arXiv:2604.14234 (quant-ph) [Submitted on 14 Apr 2026] Title:Consciousness, Quantum Mechanics, and the Limits of Scientific Objectivism Authors:John B. DeBrota, Christian List View a PDF of the paper titled Consciousness, Quantum Mechanics, and the Limits of Scientific Objectivism, by John B. DeBrota and 1 other authors View PDF HTML (experimental) Abstract:Consciousness and quantum mechanics are among the most puzzling phenomena studied in the sciences. Some scholars suggest they are related, though others think this claim commits a "minimization of mystery" fallacy. The aim of this programmatic paper is to draw attention to a less widely discussed parallel between consciousness and quantum mechanics: both challenge the classical objectivist worldview of science. Under certain assumptions, they are each in tension with a package of metaphysical theses -- "non-relationalism", "non-fragmentation", and "one world" -- that jointly make up that worldview. This points to three distinct non-objectivist responses: the "relationalist", "fragmentalist", and "many-subjective-worlds" ones. We will map out their pros and cons. Comments: Subjects: Quantum Physics (quant-ph); History and Philosophy of Physics (physics.hist-ph) Cite as: arXiv:2604.14234 [quant-ph] (or arXiv:2604.14234v1 [quant-ph] for this version) https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2604.14234 Focus to learn more arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite (pending registration) Submission history From: John B. DeBrota [view email] [v1] Tue, 14 Apr 2026 20:26:22 UTC (198 KB) Full-text links: Access Paper: View a PDF of the paper titled Consciousness, Quantum Mechanics, and the Limits of Scientific Objectivism, by John B. DeBrota and 1 other authorsView PDFHTML (experimental)TeX Source view license Current browse context: quant-ph new | recent | 2026-04 Change to browse by: physics physics.hist-ph References & Citations INSPIRE HEP NASA ADSGoogle Scholar Semantic Scholar export BibTeX citation Loading... BibTeX formatted citation × loading... Data provided by: Bookmark Bibliographic Tools Bibliographic and Citation Tools Bibliographic Explorer Toggle Bibliographic Explorer (What is the Explorer?) Connected Papers Toggle Connected Papers (What is Connected Papers?) Litmaps Toggle Litmaps (What is Litmaps?) scite.ai Toggle scite Smart Citations (What are Smart Citations?) Code, Data, Media Code, Data and Media Associated with this Article alphaXiv Toggle alphaXiv (What is alphaXiv?) Links to Code Toggle CatalyzeX Code Finder for Papers (What is CatalyzeX?) DagsHub Toggle DagsHub (What is DagsHub?) GotitPub Toggle Gotit.pub (What is GotitPub?) Huggingface Toggle Hugging Face (What is Huggingface?) ScienceCast Toggle ScienceCast (What is ScienceCast?) Demos Demos Replicate Toggle Replicate (What is Replicate?) Spaces Toggle Hugging Face Spaces (What is Spaces?) Spaces Toggle TXYZ.AI (What is TXYZ.AI?) Related Papers Recommenders and Search Tools Link to Influence Flower Influence Flower (What are Influence Flowers?) Core recommender toggle CORE Recommender (What is CORE?) Author Venue Institution Topic About arXivLabs arXivLabs: experimental projects with community collaborators arXivLabs is a framework that allows collaborators to develop and share new arXiv features directly on our website. Both individuals and organizations that work with arXivLabs have embraced and accepted our values of openness, community, excellence, and user data privacy. arXiv is committed to these values and only works with partners that adhere to them. Have an idea for a project that will add value for arXiv's community? Learn more about arXivLabs. Which authors of this paper are endorsers? | Disable MathJax (What is MathJax?)