Consciousness and apparent motion: Paradox resolved

Abstract

A perceptual phenomenon called apparent motion has been described as a paradox that challenges the notions of causality and temporal order. While the illusion has generated a passionate and often highly technical debate about the relationship between subjective experience and its objective description, no accounts so far have examined the possibility that the source of the paradox lies not in the mysterious workings of the brain but in the inadequacy of the reductionist explanation. Here, I suggest that the paradox is created by the deep estrangement between subjective and objective perspectives which has created two separate and conflicted worldviews. The illusion itself reflects a veridical perceptual experience, while its analytical explanation fails because it lacks the very qualities it is trying to account for. Although the proposed solution is controversial, it offers a simple and potentially far-reaching explanation for a long-standing problem in psychology and consciousness research.