Leiden University Student Repository

Kuijper, Vincent (2025)

The Irreducible Subjectivity of Consciousness and its Metaphysical Consequences

Master thesis | Philosophy (MA) (60 EC)

This thesis examines how contemporary metaphysical frameworks address Thomas Nagel’s challenge regarding the subjective nature of consciousness. His claim that subjective experience—what it is like to be a conscious being—cannot be fully captured by objective, third-person descriptions suggests that consciousness may consist (in part) of irreducible first-personal, subjective facts. Responding to this, several philosophers have proposed frameworks within what can be termed first-person realism, each offering a unique approach to integrating subjective facts as irreducible aspects of reality. Through a comparative exploration of these frameworks’ arguments, I evaluate their ability to preserve the privacy and irreducibility of subjective experience, and what the metaphysical consequences of doing so entail.

Author

Kuijper, Vincent

Faculty

Faculty of Humanities

Specialisation

Philosophy of Knowledge

Supervisors

Van Der Schaar, M.
Lipman, M.

ECTS Credits

20

Language

en