Sensorama: A Phenomenalist Analysis of Spacetime and Its Contents - Tapa dura

Pelczar's theory is an exciting addition to the debate surrounding the relationship between consciousness and spacetime. (Australasian Journal of Philosophy)

In this book, he offers an engaging, unflinching defense of an ambitious form of neo-Millian idealism ... Pelczar's argumentative approach is quite novel. (Jonathan A. Simon, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews Online)

Michael Pelczar presents an original account of space, time and conscious experience. How does the modern scientific conception of time constrain the project of assigning the mind its proper place in nature? On the scientific conception, it makes no sense to speak of the duration of a pain, or the simultaneity of sensations occurring in different parts of the brain. Such considerations led Henri Poincaré, one of the founders of the modern conception, to conclude that consciousness does not exist in spacetime, but serves as the basic material out of which we must create the physical world. The central claim of Sensorama is that Poincaré was substantially correct. The best way to reconcile the scientific conception of time with the evidence of introspection is through a phenomenalist metaphysic according to which consciousness exists in neither time nor space, but serves as a basis for the logical construction of spacetime and its contents.