Gour Sundar Mitra Thakur

Part-whole relations in representation raise a question about whether a larger system can be self-represented through the representational capacities of one of its parts. This paper develops a modest naturalistic account of that question by distinguishing direct subject-level self-representation from derivative system-level self-representation. Direct subject-level self-representation occurs when a conscious subject represents itself as itself, or represents features of its own embodied, cognitive, or experiential condition. Derivative system-level self-representation occurs when a subsystem generated within and sustained by a larger system represents that larger system or significant aspects of it, so that the larger system exhibits a mediated form of self-representation through the subsystem. On this basis, the paper formulates a bridge principle connecting system, subsystem, and content-bearing representation. Applied to conscious organisms within the natural universe, the principle yields the thesis of local cosmic self-representation: the universe may be locally, partially, and derivatively self-represented through conscious subsystems that arise within it and represent the natural order to which they belong. The view does not defend panpsychism, strong cosmopsychism, theism, intelligent design, or global cosmic consciousness. Its aim is instead interpretive and metaphysical: to clarify how conscious representation can have part-whole significance without attributing mentality, agency, or subjectivity to the whole.