A Circular Ontology of Matter, Information, Consciousness, and History (Toward a Self-Referential Theory of Existence)

This paper proposes a circular ontology that unites matter, information, consciousness, and history within a single self-referential framework. It challenges the linear causal models that dominate both physicalism and idealism by suggesting that existence operates through recursive and autopoietic processes. In this view, material structures generate information; informational organization gives rise to consciousness; consciousness produces historical transformations; and history, in turn, reshapes material reality. Drawing from metaphysics, philosophy of mind, and systems theory, the paper argues that these four domains form a continuous feedback loop rather than separate ontological layers. This circular model provides a conceptual bridge between scientific and philosophical understandings of emergence, self-reference, and temporal becoming. It aims to contribute to ongoing discussions on how consciousness and matter co-evolve through recursive dynamics inherent in reality itself.