For a world where mind really matters 1

[last edited 8 August 2008]

Ask where are the contents of conscious experience just as the thoughts, emotions, sensations and sensory perceptions one can have? And the answer could be that these subjective experiences cannot be found anywhere in the body or the world experienced. So the thought might be that to experience one's body and the world there would somehow need to be more than anything that can be found anywhere in the world experienced.

Then consider how the findings of modern science can be thought to indicate that all the causes that could be found to act universally in the world experienced that includes one's body, are of a kind that can be described as pushing or pulling objects as they produce their effects. These are causes that have all been called forces, including those that could be described as surrounding objects as forces of attraction or repulsion and that have also been called fundamental interactions.

The scientific findings have also indicated matter in general, as the atoms and molecules of the elements and compound of inanimate matter and so, also, all living organisms, consists almost all of the space between its component parts that have been called electrons and atomic nuclei. And the powerful charge force that produces electrical and magnetic effects could be measured to attract electrons towards nuclei and repel between electrons. So that all matter as atoms. molecules and living organisms could be thought to remain in their physical forms despite the action of all the forces. And one can also ask: given, it seems, just the charge force acting within all such matter as it surrunds electrons and and nuclei, what causes matter to be in all its various and particular forms as the elements and compounds of inanimate matter and the species of living organisms that include human beings?

So for matter just to remain in all these forms as atoms molecules and living organisms, it may be reasoned that, somehow, a cause would need to act universally and constantly in addition to all the forces just so as to maintain or conserve all the forms and organisation of matter. This would be a cause that could not be described as pulling or pushing or attracting or repelling objects. So that by not being such a push or pull force, this further cause would have no strength of effect that could be measured to decrease or cease with increasing distance between objects. And such, it may be thought, could be a cause of an effect that has been called quantum entanglement. This is a kind of effect that could be measured to occur at a distance between objects that include electrons as the subatomic components of atoms.

Thus, unlike the effect of any force, quantum entanglement could be described as arising just from a fixed relationship between certain forms of behaviour of objects that can be measured as a correlation. So that between matter particles that include pairs of electrons such behaviour can be described in terms of different directions of spin. And the measured relationship could be called spin-up in one component and whereby the other component would be measured to be in the opposite spin-down direction.

Hence although the entanglement effect has no measurable strength the thought could be that for it to be measured, a cause would need to act so as to maintain or conserve the fixed relationship of behaviour between the objects measured. And, by producing effects that have no measurable strength that reduces or ceases with increasing distance between objects, such a cause could not, like all the fundamental interactions, be described as producing its effect as it surrounds objects. The conclusion can be, therefore, that if the effect of quantum entanglement has any cause, this could not be described as acting in the world experienced.

Also, given that the quantum entanglement effect could have a cause that does not surround objects, this could also be true of quantum wave behaviour. So that, while the entanglement effect can be regarded as evidence of there being a distinct cause that maintains the organisation of the behaviour of subatomic components in relation to each other or one another, the wave property of electrons could maintain the overall form of atoms and molecules.

So what of all living organisms including human beings? Could there be an invisible cause acting in addition to the forces so as to maintain or conserve their material organisation and overall physical forms? And could this be the cause of conscious experience? And then what of a cause that could be thought to act universally upon matter from outside the world experienced, how could this be so?

See related blog.

From mind problems to a matter problem...

There may described, on the one hand, physiological, biochemical and electrochemical states of the brain which can be observed or directly detected, and on the other hand, states of mind as thoughts, emotions, sensations and perceptions that, just as subjectively experienced, can't be observed or directly detect by examining anything in the body at all. Although, from the physiological evidence of the brain, it could be assumed that for every mental state there is a corresponding brain or bodily state that produces it.

But then you can ask how do brain states get to being mental states? So how can any brain process that may produce the smell of coffee be transformed or translated into the smell of coffee itself? And also while you may able to detect and identify the brain process that produces the coffee smell you can ask where in the body is this smell that one has of coffee, just as a mental state? Or where is the experience of the colour red, the pain in the foot, the feeling of optimism or despair and so on?

So for such reasons that neither mental states nor, indeed, anything the may be called the mind, self or experiencing subject that may possess these states, can be observed or directly detected anywhere in the body, the thought can be that there at least needs to be something invisible and immaterial that makes the states of mind possible, and so is not itself a bodily state.

There is, however, a quite simple argument against any idea that there is anything invisible and immaterial in addition to the body that accounts for any states of mind or conscious experience in general.

So the above idea is that there would need to be something that can’t be observed because it’s not made of matter, and would need to have a certain distinct general property or some such properties so that brain states are changed into mental states.

But then it can be pointed out that there are already such things that are unobservable, just as such, and so that they can only be described from their effects, which may be called forces that act at a distance or fundamental interactions (it has been fond that such forces can be described as resulting from an exchange of virtual particles but these virtual objects have never been observed or directly detected). And as generally described from their effects these forces each only has one identity. So it doesn’t make sense to say there are many forces of gravity or of electromagnetism (unless there is the idea that there are many universes each with different properties of the forces). Yet it would need to make sense to say there are many immaterial minds in each of many individual human beings or other creatures.

And then even if it is supposed that each immaterial mind could have a property that is unique to each individual, it can be pointed out that essential to there being many minds is that each individual at least has a unique perception of the external world from the point of view of a particular body, so how could this be explained by individually differing immaterial mental properties?

But then this problem of mind could be considered in the context, first of all, the experimental findings of matter on the very small scale of atoms, molecules and their subatomic components. And from this evidence the question can arise as whether there is a universal problem in explaining the existence of matter, and which cannot be sufficiently resolved by any means, or at least not by considering any of the small scale findings alone. This problem can be considered to originate from the results of experiments first carried out in 1909, and concerns the question of how matter can persist as atoms and molecules, and while consisting almost all of the space beween its subatomic components.

Then also, this question of how matter can remain in its naturally organised forms as the atoms and molecules of the elements and compounds of inanimate matter could also be asked of the whole material form and natural organisation of all the species of living organisms including human beings.

Although when considering whether there might be a universal causal explanation of how matter can remain in its natural material forms and organisation the conclusion could easily be that nothing could be described of any such universal cause from its effects upon matter.

Or alternatively, especially from certain kinds of experimental evidence found of matter - as well as the energy it radiates - on the the very small scale, reasons may be found to consider that an invisible cause could act so it would possess properties that are quite different from those of all the known forces, and including the fundamental interactions such as gravity and electromagnetism...