What is IER?
Informational Experiential Realism is a physicalist theory of experience. Its central proposal is that experience is identical with the operation of a physical system as a Unified Experiential Field, or UEF.
A UEF is not a representation, a mental workspace, a computational output, or an extra subject hidden inside the physical system. It is a temporally extended physical regime whose possible continuations are integrated and constrained by the organization of the system itself. On this account, the operation of the regime and the experience are one occurrence described in two ways.
What does the project study?
IER asks which physical organization, if any, constitutes a unified experience belonging to one subject. It develops this question through accounts of temporal extension, intrinsic constraint, admissible continuation, system boundaries, persistence, qualitative structure, subjecthood, ownership, agency, and authorship.
Book 01 records a compact statement of the theory. The working papers frame the identification problem and develop the positive identity claim in a form that can be compared with neighbouring work in philosophy of mind, consciousness studies, dynamical systems, and related fields. Teaching materials that situate the research programme in philosophy of mind are available on PhilPeople. The project source is maintained on GitHub.
Where IER lives
IER is available as theory sources, working papers, books, and teaching materials. Each serves a different purpose.
- Public repository: IER/ contains theory sources and orientation material; apps/ contains exploratory applications and studies; examples/ contains non-canonical illustrations and analogies.
- PhilPeople publications: the seed book and working papers, with scholarly records and download routes through PhilPapers.
- Teaching materials: Quick Start, Précis, the philosophical reading map, The Stapled Net, and The Billowed Sail.
- The published seed book: download it free, buy it on Amazon, or find its library record on WorldCat.
The Specification and explicitly scoped canonical definition owners in IER/ control the theory's commitments. Applications and examples retain their stated limits. Books and papers present particular editions or revisions; teaching materials guide learning. NKI Press provides publication identity, catalogue information, and access routes. Publication venue and public visibility grant no additional theoretical authority.
A second edition of the seed book is in development. Publication details will be announced when the edition is ready. It is not yet available.
Author and publisher
IER is written by Michael Lehotay in Toronto, Canada. Book 01 is the published seed book from Non-Kitten-Item Press; a second edition is planned.