Reality as Structure and Experience: A Dual-Aspect Model of Consciousness without Emergence

This paper proposes a unified model of reality in which structure and experience are not separate entities but two inseparable aspects of the same underlying process. Starting from the minimal requirement of distinction (difference), the model derives structure and dynamics as the externally observable features of reality. However, structural descriptions alone do not explain why reality appears “as something” from within. To address this, experience is not introduced as an additional component but as the intrinsic inner aspect of structure itself. This approach avoids the need to explain the emergence of experience and instead treats experience as fundamental. Complex systems organize and integrate experience into coherent forms of consciousness.