Cognitive Metaphysics: How the Predictive Brain Constructs Reality

This book bridges metaphysics and cognitive science by exploring how the brain does not passively receive the world but actively predicts and hallucinates it, turning our experience into a neural construct. Cognitive Metaphysics identifies the basic categories through which the brain structures our perceived reality and investigates the metaphysical implications that follow. Drawing on predictive processing, it reframes material reality as a model built by the brain and proposes a naturalist, Kantian-idealist framework for understanding the fundamental structures of both ordinary and scientific objects, as well as how they relate to one another. The book shows how questions about composition, persistence, vagueness, and their connection to quantum reality must be rethought in terms of the predictive mind, offering a fresh approach to traditional metaphysical problems.

Arthur C. Schwaninger was originally trained as a computational scientist at ETHZurich, where he published research articles in the areas of computational biology and computational physical chemistry. Towards the end of his science degree, he became acquainted with the traditional questions of theoretical philosophy and became intrigued by the possibility that these questions could be addressed from a computational or information-theoretic perspective. In order to get a solid understanding of the subject matter, Arthur pursued a second Master’s degree in Philosophy at the Universityof Cambridge. During this time, he deepened his understanding of metaphysics and the philosophy of science.

After his time in Cambridge, Arthur conducted research at the LMU in Munich, investigating how paradoxes such as the sorites paradox could be the result of how the brain categories objects and how perception works. He realised that in order for him to further develop these ideas, he needed a more comprehensive understanding of how the brain functions. For this reason, he continued his research at the Human Brain Project, where he developed mathematical models of the visual cortex within the framework of predictive processing and conducted large-scale simulations.

Having engaged in such computational neuroscience research, Arthur spent the following years writing several research articles in philosophy to receive feedback on isolated parts of his larger project. By 2022, he earned his PhD with summa cum laude honours for an earlier version of the manuscript presented in this proposal. Since then, he has refined the manuscript multiple times, continuing his research while also focusing on other areas of artificial intelligence such as Responsible AI and advising companies on their Responsible AI strategies.