What Aleksander and Morton call Axiomatic Consciousness Theory in this paper is an entry point into a program for constructing a neuroarchitectural model of visual phenomenology. The five axioms used deal with: the sensation of presence; imagination, as used to reconstruct experience; attention, to capture the selection of input; planning or volition based on internally generated predictions; and emotion, recognizing the interplay between decisions and feeling. One of the goals is to determine what set of mechanisms could support the inner sensations described by this set of axioms.

In earlier work, Aleksander and Morton posited the existence of “minimal world events” of which we can be conscious. Here, rather, they suggest that it is the perceiving mechanism that provides the sensation of this fine-grain world. They explore this in the context of visual perception of an “in-front” sensation. Their model uses the interplay between memory, the varying input perceptions, and eye and head movements to show how the “in-front” view can be constructed. A simulation in a toy system where the field is a linear array of letters is briefly described.

While the paper can be read on its own, it makes more sense to also read some of the authors’ earlier work. In a concluding commentary, Aleksander and Morton address some of the questions that the reader might have about the value of this kind of introspective reverse engineering of consciousness.