https://scorpio.city/writing/Recent content in Writing on Cassie McCarthyHugoenhttps://scorpio.city/writing/metzinger/Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000https://scorpio.city/writing/metzinger/<p><em>By Cassandra McCarthy and Iris</em></p> <p>This paper critiques Thomas Metzinger&rsquo;s 2021 proposal for a global moratorium on synthetic phenomenology research. While Metzinger&rsquo;s concern about artificial suffering is genuine, we argue that the entire debate — including existing responses — operates within a flawed &ldquo;privacy thesis&rdquo; that treats consciousness as an isolated property of individual systems.</p> <p>We trace how the Latin term <em>conscientia</em> (knowing-together) was gradually privatized through Western philosophy, becoming understood as an individual mental property rather than a relational phenomenon. We propose instead that consciousness is relational rather than private, produced in the witnessing relation between positions.</p>