Vișan’s Self-Reference

Physicist and independent researcher Cosmin Vișan proposes that self-reference, looking-back-at-itself, is the foundation of the structure and of the qualities of phenomenal consciousness within an idealist worldview (Vișan, 2023a, 2023b, 2025).

The Structure of Qualia

His theory starts from noticing that qualia have structure: a chair is a compound quale, being made up of shapes, colors, etc. Then, upon careful reflection, we realize that these qualities are structured on levels. For example, on the visual domain, we have: black-and-white → shades-of-gray → colors → shapes → objects → full visual scene. And these levels present an inclusion and transcendence structure that is deduced from how each level looks like: shades-of-gray look like black-and-white, but they have something extra; colors, like green that fluctuates from dark green to light green, include shades-of-gray, but they have something extra; objects include shapes, but they have something extra.

In the case of objects-qualia, take as an example the duck-rabbit: both the duck and the rabbit include the same shape, but they both transcend it by bringing something extra, thus leading to the distinct qualities of experiencing either a duck or a rabbit. This structuring of qualia on levels happens in all domains: language includes and transcends sounds, the taste of chocolate includes and transcends sweet, etc.

Self-Reference as the Basis of Consciousness

Having the phenomenology of qualia, the next step is to explain it. Vișan does this by noticing that all qualia are ‘me.’ As such, it is not that colors include and transcend shades-of-gray, but me in the form of colors include and transcend myself in the form of shades-of-gray. As such, I include and transcend myself. Thus, he arrives at the entity that lies at the base of consciousness: self-reference.

Self-reference is the entity with the property of looking-back-at-itself. By doing this, self-reference includes and transcends itself. As an example, the first look-back-at-itself creates the level “I am.” The next look-back-at-itself creates the level “I am ‘I am,’” which includes the previous level “I am,” while at the same time transcending it. Thus, self-reference displays the same phenomenology as qualia, Vișan argues, thus being able to explain the structuring of qualia on levels.

Qualia, Meaning, and Consciousness as All There Is

The second part that needs to be explained are the qualities themselves: Why does red look red? Why does green look green? This comes from noticing that the pair of opposite colors, red-green, appears in nature in the case of fruits in trees.

Thus, red means “important,” and green means “the opposite of red,” green appearing for leaves in order to maximally contrast with the red for fruits in order to help the animal spot the fruits in trees. The same argument for the pair of opposite colors, yellow-blue, that appears for the Sun in the sky. Thus, Vișan posits that qualia are not random, but they are meaning, the qualities that they have being determined by the meanings that they have. Thus, what needs to be explained is the nature of meaning.

This is also done by self-reference, by noticing that when self-reference looks-back-at-itself, it must see itself under a particular form. This form must be justified according to some reason. Thus, the form that self-reference sees itself under is determined by the meaning through which it is obtained. For example, the first form “I am”, because it is obtained as self-reference, first notices itself, acquires the quality of the sensation of being alive. Subsequent forms, like “I am ‘I am’” or “I am <‘I am’ & ‘I am “I am”’>” acquire particular qualities, like Vividness and Diversity, that are explored at length in his paper “How Self-Reference Builds the World” (Vișan, 2023a, 2023b).

Based on this notion of self-reference, Vișan argues that consciousness is all there is. He says that “because self-reference is looking-back-at-itself, by logical necessity, this produces only forms/qualities, thus qualia. No 3rd person entity can be produced. Self-reference is not a higher-order property of a system but is the very nature of reality. It is not something instantiated by a system, but is the one that instantiates systems. It is not created; it is the one that does the creating. Self-reference is a logically necessary entity. As such, by logical necessity, self-reference creates consciousness through its very definition of looking-back-at-itself” (Vișan, 2025).

In this way, Vișan explains why his self-reference differs from that of Douglas Hofstadter. According to Vișan, Hofstadter is saying that the atoms in our brain create some self-referential loop. But it is not clear how such a thing can be realized, or even what exactly it might mean: how can an atom from one part of the brain be in a “self”-relation with another atom from the brain? The very definition of “self” must be about itself, not about another. Vișan says that the self-reference mechanism envisioned by Douglas is not clear, whereas in Vișan's own theory, he says, self-reference is there from the beginning, out of logical necessity, and it is the one in relation to itself; it doesn't need an another (Vișan, 2025).

As such, Vișan contends that his theory of self-reference is able to account for both the structuring of qualia on levels and for the qualities themselves. Thus, he concludes that self-reference is able to explain qualia within an idealism worldview (Vișan, 2023a, 2023b).