Epilogue.
On the Foundations of Metaphysics in the Mind-like
Background of Physical Reality
That the basis of
the material world is non-material is a transcription of the fact that
the properties of things are determined by quantum waves, - probability
amplitudes which carry numerical relations, but are devoid of mass and
energy. As a consequence of the wave-like aspects of reality, atoms do
not have any shape - a solid outline in space - but the things do, which
they form; and the constituents of matter, the elementary particles, are
not in the same sense real as the real things that they constitute. Rather,
left to themselves they exist in a world of possibilities, "between the
idea of a thing and a real thing", as Heisenberg wrote, in superpositions
of quantum states, in which a definite place in space, for example, is
not an intrinsic attribute. That is, when such a particle is not observed
it is, in particular, nowhere.
In the quantum phenomena
we have discovered that reality is different than we thought. Visible order
and permanence are based on chaos and transitory entities. Mental principles
- numerical relations, mathematical forms, principles of symmetry - are
the foundations of order in the universe, whose mind-like properties are
further established by the fact that changes in information can act, without
any direct physical intervention, as causal agents in observable changes
in quantum states. Prior to the discovery of these phenomena information-driven
reactions were a prerogative of mind. "The universe", Eddington wrote,
"is of the nature of a thought. The stuff of the world is mind-stuff".
Mind-stuff, in a
part of reality behind the mechanistic foreground of the world of space-time
energy sensibility, as Sherrington called it, is not restricted to Einstein
locality. The existence of non-local physical effects - faster than light
phenomena - has now been well established by quantum coherence-type experiments
like those related to Bell's inequality. If the universe is non-local,
something that happens at this moment in its depths may have an instantaneous
effect a long distance away, for example right here and right now. By every
molecule in our body we are tuned to the mind-stuff of the universe.
In this way the quantum
phenomena have forced the opening of a universe that Newton's mechanism
once blinded and closed. Unintended by its creator, Newton's mechanics
defined a machine, without any life or room for human values, the Parmenidian
One, forever unchanging and predictable, "eternal matter ruled by eternal
laws", as Sheldrake wrote. In contrast, the quantum phenomena have revealed
that the world of mechanism is just the cortex of a deeper and wider, transcendent,
reality. The future of the universe is open, because it is unpredictable.
Its present is open, because it is subject to non-local influences that
are beyond our control. Cracks have formed in the solidity of the material
world from which emanations of a different type of reality seep in. In
the diffraction experiments of material particles, a window has opened
to the world of Platonic ideas.
That the universe
should be mind-like and not communicate with the human mind - the one organ
to which it is akin - is not very likely. In fact, one of the most fascinating
faculties of the human mind is its ability to be inspired by unknown sources
- as though it were sensitive to signals of a mysterious origin. It is
at this point that the pieces of the puzzle fall into place. Ever since
the discovery of Hume's paradox - the principles that we use to establish
scientific knowledge cannot establish themselves - science has had an illegitimate
basis. Hume was right: in every external event we observe conjunction,
but infer connection. Thus, causality is not a principle of nature but
a habit of the human mind. At the same time, Hume was not right in postulating
that there is no single experience of causality. Because, when the self-conscious
mind itself is directly involved in a causal link, for example when its
associated body takes part in a collision, or when the mind by its own
free will is the cause of some action, then there is a direct experience
of, and no doubt that, causal connections exist. When this modification
of the paradox is coupled with the quantum base, a large number of pressing
problems find their delightful solutions.
Like the nature of
reality, the nature of knowledge is counter-intuitive, and not at all like
the automatic confidence that we have in sensations of this phenomenon.
The basis of knowledge is threefold. The premises are experience of reality,
employment of reason, and reliance on certain non-rational and non-empirical
principles, such as the assumption of identity, factuality, permanence,
causality, and induction. Where do these principles come from? Neither
from an experience of external phenomena, nor from a process of reasoning,
but from a system program of the self-conscious mind. By being an extension
of the mind-like background of nature and partaking of its order, mind
gives the epistemic principles - those used in deriving knowledge - certainty.
Since they are not anchored in the world of space-time and mass-energy
but are valid nevertheless, they seem to derive from a higher order and
transcendent part of physical reality. They are, it can be assumed, messengers
of the mind-like order of reality.
In the same way,
moral principles. Traditional societies based their social order on myths
and religious explanations. By assuming a purpose in the world, they told
people why things are the way they are, and why they should act the way
they were supposed to act. In the "animist ontogenies" values and knowledge
derived from a single source, and life had meaning in an "animist covenant"
as Monod called it. By destroying the ontological base of the animist explanations,
- their astronomy, physics, and chemistry, - science also destroyed the
foundations of their values. In this process Monod saw the origin of the
contemporary sickness in culture, das Unbehagen in der Kultur: on the one
hand science is the basis for our power and survival; on the other, it
has broken the animist covenant, rendered life meaningless in the process,
and disconnected the world of values from the world of facts.
The sickness of
spirit and the concomitant erosion of moral standards are the great danger
for the future of mankind, already apparent in the public adoration of
violence and debased behavior. At its roots is the unsolved question, on
whose authority are the moral principles to be based now that the authority
of the animist myths has been found lacking? For those who are willing
to listen, the answer is: on the authority of mind.
In the same way that
the self-conscious mind grants certainty to the epistemic principles, it
invests authority in the moral principles. Like the former, the moral principles
are non-empirical and non-rational, - not derived by a process of logic
nor verified by experience - messengers from a higher reality beyond the
front of mass-energy sensibility. Epistemic principles give us a sense
of what is true and false; moral principles, of what is right and wrong.
The former establish the certainty of identity, permanence, factuality,
causality; the latter, of responsibility, morality, honesty. By the same
process that allows us to accept, without possible verification, the epistemic
principles, we can also accept the authority of the moral principles. Violation
of any one of them will put us in contrast to the nature of reality. If
the nature of the universe is mind-like, it must be assumed to have a spiritual
order as well as a physical order. As the epistemic principles are expressions
of physical order, the ethical principles are expressions of the spiritual
order of physical reality. By being an extension of the transcendent part
of the nature and partaking of its order, mind establishes the authority
of the ethical principles.
The challenge of
reality and the ability to explore it are wonderful gifts to mankind. Understanding
reality requires refinement of thought. That is, it has to do with culture.
It requires an effort, is not afforded by automatic, intuitive reflex.
Making sense of the world takes the response to a challenge, not the complacency
of common sense. It is one and the same as striving for the moral life.
An important part of it is the need to become aware of the specific character
of human nature, to recognize "the human mystery" as Eccles called it:
the mystery of how mind and body interact, how self-conscious human beings
with values emerged in an evolutionary process supposedly based on blind
chance and brutality. The evidence is growing that there is more to human
nature than the laws of physics or chemistry, more to the process of evolution
than blind chance and brutality; that evolution is more than, as Monod
wrote, "a giant lottery, and human beings live at the boundary of an alien
world that is deaf to our music and indifferent to our hopes and suffering
and crimes".
The barbaric view
of reality is mechanistic. It is the easy view of classical science and
of common sense. In epistemology mechanism is naive realism, the view that
all knowledge is based on unquestionable facts, on apodictically verified
truths. In physics mechanism is the view that the universe is clockwork,
closed, and entirely predictable on the basis of unchanging laws. In biology,
mechanism is the view that all aspects of life, its evolution, our feelings
and values, are ultimately explicable in terms of the laws of physics and
chemistry. In our legal system, mechanism is the view that the assumption
of precise procedural technicalities constitutes perfect justice. In our
political system, mechanism is the view that the assertion of finely formulated
personal rights constitutes the ideal democracy. In our public administration,
it is the view that responsible service manifests itself by the enforcement
of finely split bureaucratic regulations. All of these attitudes are the
attitudes of barbarians.
The quantum phenomena
have taught us that, without naive realism, knowledge is possible. They
have taught us that, without naive animism an ethic of knowledge, as Monod
has called it, and a life with values are possible. Principles exist which
are valid even though they cannot be verified. The discovery of the quantum
phenomena has established a new covenant - between the human mind and the
mind-like background of the universe - one that provides a home again to
the homeless and meaning to the meaningless life. Whether or not the human
mind is separate of the brain, as Sherrington and Eccles thought, I do
not know. But I do not doubt that it is human only in some parts, and in
others shares in the mind-like background of the universe. It is now possible
to believe that the mind is the realization of universal potentia, a manifestation
of the essence of the universe. Therefore, the only good life is in harmony
with the nature of reality.
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