Participatory Cosmology Observation, Consciousness and the Self-Articulation of Reality This paper discloses a participatory cosmology within the framework established in the preceding sequence on Number Ontology, Structural Ontology, World Ontology, Coherence Ecology, and Total Ontology. The central claim is that observation is not external to reality, nor a merely epistemic relation imposed upon an independently completed world. Rather, observation is a structural operation internal to the coherence order through which reality becomes articulated. On this basis, consciousness is treated not as an accidental byproduct of material organization, but as a coherence function implicated in the production, stabilization, and disclosure of articulated worlds. We argue that cosmology cannot be completed by an inventory of objects, laws, or background structures alone. A sufficient cosmology must include the conditions under which reality appears, differentiates, and becomes accessible as a structured order. This requires a shift from a merely descriptive cosmology to a participatory cosmology. Participation, in this context, does not mean anthropocentric projection or subjective idealism. It denotes the fact that articulation, observation, and conscious registration are themselves real operations within the ontological field. The paper introduces the observer-function as a structural operator of articulation, distinguishes it from consciousness while preserving their deep relation, and shows how participatory operations enter cosmology without reducing reality to private experience. Reality is thus understood as self-articulating: the cosmos is not only what is, but what becomes manifest through ordered participatory operations within the coherence ground. We then outline the consequences of this framework for ontology, cosmology, epistemology, and the place of intelligence within reality.
Philip Lilien (Mon,) studied this question.