Thomas Metzinger

Our theories about phenomena change, but the phenomena stay the same.

We know that our beliefs about consciousness can subtly change what we perceive, influencing the very contents and functional profile of subjective experience itself.

Consciousness is what binds things together into a comprehensive, simultaneous whole. If we have this whole, then a world appears to us.

But cognitive neuroscience is now telling us that this very engagement may well be the product of a self-less, bottom-up process generated by our brains.

There is nobody to despise or rebel against—not even ourselves.