Sunday, June 22, 2014























Wednesday, November 27, 2013

Conversation on Metaphysics with a materialist

Conversation on Metaphysics with a materialist

( Part of a Linkedin discussion thread with Mr. Luca De Ioanna,Business Intelligence Metadata Manager at Vodafone ( November 2013) at ‘New Philosophy Network’

Original discussion initiated by Luca: 1. whatever exists, it has some properties or traits

2. we know of physical (natural/artificial) objects and logical objects (ideas, concepts)

3. some people believe in another class of objects: real, but not just mental, but not physical: those are metaphysical objects (gods, spirits, fairies, etc)

Intend to show that those objects of class 3 are impossible.

(All the following questions were raised by Luca, and answers by ‘conscience of the society’)

What does it mean for an object to exist as metaphysical? :

Luca, you appear caught up in a narrow and rigid notion that ‘metaphysical’ means and concerns only with religious imageries like fairies, Gods and spirits, whereas the word simply means ‘whatever is beyond or after ‘physical’ or physics’. Aristotle said to have attempted a chapter on knowledge beyond the scope of physics, and he always referred to it later-on, as his chapter that he kept, or attempted after his chapters on Physics, as ‘meta’ in Greek means ‘after or beyond’.

In the due course of etymology, the word ‘metaphysics’ has evolved to mean any subject that deals with speculations or intuitive knowledge about matters beyond direct observation, ie. not based on scientific principles. From those ancient times till the present day, a general impression prevailed that no complete explanation of life and existence is possible within the scope and principles of physical sciences.     

So, the very formation of your discussion thread is on very shaky, and even naive ground, especially after science’s latest finding that even ‘matter’, the supposed building block of the universe is ‘metaphysical’ in every sense ! In other words, even whatever was known earlier as ‘physical’ too now stands ‘metaphysical’, leaving the difference between the two inconsistent.  

Let us find-out what some senior men of science say about the subject.

“ The ‘bootstrap hypothesis’ ( a latest finding of physics that everything is interrelated in the world) not only denies the existence of fundamental constituent of matter, but accepts no fundamental entities whatsoever-no fundamental laws, equation or principle-and thus abandons another idea which has been an essential part of natural science for hundreds of years’…the idea (b/s)although fascinating and useful, is unscientific…science, as we know it, requires a language based on some unquestioned framework. Semantically, therefore, an attempt to explain all concepts can hardly be called ‘scientific’. ( Fritjof Capra’s book ‘Tao of Physics’- p.305)

I have already explained to you in my previous posts about the ‘dance of sub-atomic particles with no predictable pattern’ at the sub-atomic particle world. Science is at the verge of abandoning the base notion that it could study physical matter as an objective something that stands out ‘there’ in space. Nothing can be said as fully external to us, explainable to tilt as a typical object in the world. Such an exercise is impossible without taking into consideration the role of man- the observer also in an unavoidable role as participant in the ‘event’. So, the old stark difference between physical and metaphysical is wading.

But for practical purposes, we could categorize the objects and realities that are in the immediate range of our sense organs about which we are  more accustomed and familiar as physical, and those objects and relations far away from the immediate range of our sense organs that needs contemplation and deeper understanding as ‘metaphysical’. As man doesn’t have any specific organ to get direct knowledge about this realm, science and religions merely speculate, and make imaginary ‘models’ about it. We have already seen great living scientist Stephen Hawking frankly admitting that what science does is only making of ‘models’ of such concept of reality of the whole existence, while ‘breaking the whole up into bits and invent a number of partial theories’ ( A brief history of time,p.12) 

 The pursuits of science as well as religion are now controlled by self-interested, and highly institutionalized socio-political, religious and economic forces in our world. While science has become a plain and naked pursuit of military and industrial power by nations and corporate houses, totally abandoning its ‘pure-knowledge’ angle, religions are controlled or sponsored by equally self-interested, and fully commercialized religious bodies. So, common men like you and me have no control over the images, myths and tales both groups freely unleash in the modern world.

So, common man on the street can still keep his old images and notions about metaphysical as different from ‘physical, but the men of wider knowledge and mind can not still keep those old distinctions sharp and alive.     

What kind of properties would a metaphysical world have? : As explained at my previous posts, man’s tools of knowing and experiencing life are presumably meant both for observing physical and metaphysical. But as on today, mainstream acceptance is there only for those tools meant for observing and understanding physical reality. That is the reason why you are in this thread, demanding to brand everything ‘not-physical’ as impossible !

Every man’s inherent sense of reason always murmurs that nature must have kept knowing tools for understanding metaphysical realities too within his psychic reach.

Regarding the properties of metaphysical world, you must open up to accept that the five known categories ( or properties) of existence that we sense through eyes, ears, nose, skin and tongue may not be the entire spectrum of all the ‘categories’ of existence ! There could be many more hidden categories beyond our known five, and such not yet known, but presumably existing  ‘categories’ might be  the properties of the metaphysical world. The realm of metaphysics is the realm of CAUSES, or the realm of ‘essence’*, (* see full explanation of this division at the para below) as what we perceive with our five senses now is the realm of the ‘effects’ or structure. Reality of these two divisions( cause-effect and structure-essence) are ‘self-evident’ to every man of mind.

What could be known about it? 
It is due to the impossibility of knowing everything about life and existence that science create only ‘models’ of possible reality. But every genuinely open minded man gets the feeling that if there is any reality other than the ‘physical’ that our external senses perceives, there could be a not yet recognized hidden knowing organ/apparatus too within, that could one day provide the entire mankind with some knowledge about such
reality too !

Such knowledge could be a knowledge about the ultimate predilection, or predisposition of  existence, basically and logically an emotion, or a ‘drive’ that has prompted the whole existence to come to being ! If the ‘whole’ could be considered as a *‘structural’ whole, as it is self evident to man’s sense of reason, it might have been backed by an ‘essence’ too, as it is in the case with every object or phenomenon known in the overt world. This structure-essence relation appears more profound than the already accepted paradigm of ‘causality’. In the case of causality, it is to be noted that what we usually attribute as ‘cause’, in most of the cases, is only the event ‘prior’ the next event in question, in a set sequence. It is naïve to attribute the ‘cause’ status to every event in a chain that happens in a sequence. Eg. Formation of cloud is only a prior event before rain, and not the cause of the rain.

As man is able to directly experience such predilections or predispositions of other people, such as love, anger, disgust etc, without any known, specific organ within, that experience such emotions, presumably he could be bestowed with appropriate organ within, to experience the existential predilection too. Please give serous attention to the claim of many religions that God is Love, probably after sensing that emotion as the base predilection or predisposition of existence.

Please appreciate that understanding or experiencing the predilection of an entity or an object is the ultimate knowledge about it. A very graphic knowledge about your facial and body features and structure is zero knowledge about you. But knowing your predilection is  what one could claim as complete knowledge about you.

The subject of knowing about metaphysical reality has no mainstream acceptance and recognition today, due to the over relevance of industry and politics in modern world. If science admits into its realm matters of metaphysics too, with deserving acceptance and recognition, it is quite possible that like today’s routine scientific data, our future generations might  discuss metaphysical subjects too in the mainstream.  

Could there be a meta-metaphysical world? or a para/hypo/hyper physical world?: We can confidently answer in affirmation. Based on the detailed discussion above, the apparent world of physics is not something self-consistent. It is more like a shadow, whose real object is hidden from our present realm of knowledge.

But the fairies, Gods, spirits etc, the typical objects that religious people usually keep as part of their ‘model’ might be as speculative and unreal as the stories and speculations of science too, such as Big bang, or the origin of life for the first time from a chance physical event etc. In strict logical sense, such items of both camps are mere imagination.

Are you aware of the fact that Not all linguistic constructions have a valid reference in the real world (like the square circle, the unicorn, and so on) This question is far too different from any question on metaphysics. This belongs to the philosophy of language.

I think that real world, and the synthetic world of language, are two different entities. While the body lives in the real, physical world, man has this unique world of ideas, images, imageries, values, emotions, stories and myths too, where his ‘self’ lives. This self is basically a spirit, not directly observable by any sense organ. Its reality comes forth to the understanding of the other person after continuous period of interaction. The simplest definition of a spirit is that it is a real entity perceivable by other minds, but not a typical object of the sense organs. While you can see me and touch my physical body, you can not see and touch my base personality, unique predispostion or predilection that makes my ultimate reality. My bodily features are merely my structure.

 While roads, trees, bridges, airports and sky-scrapers exist in real world, the other objects exist in his mind-world, where his self, or the ego lives. There he may find the smile of his sweet heart ‘sweet’ or ‘heavenly’, a place he lives equal to hell, and a thousands other similar imageries that he lives with, as real as the objects in his physical world. It is this entity of man, man with his mind, that indulge in scientific and philosophic seeking of truth, writing of poetry, making great sculptures and monuments, make war for honor and pride,  die for one’ love, and desire to travel to moon and mars. It says man’s every reality always preceded by a fitting imagination. So, there might be thousands of such objects and imageries in man’s mind-world with no corresponding, valid references in the real world.

Take the Big-bang theory for example. We do not know for sure whether there was one. Is it not similar to fairies and unicorn ? Big-bang is proposed by the representatives of a respected discipline today- science. While Church was holding such chairs of respect and authority in the world, scientists like Galileo were reprimanded and punished for proposing that earth is orbiting the sun and not otherwise. Matters of truth and reality could be matters of collective authority also, over knowledge and opinions !   

When materialists accuse the men of faith and religion that their faith is due to fear factor, they suppress and ignore the fact that their being in the other camp is also motivated by the desire to be in a stronger and prestigious company ! ( of science )!

Why would there be a world beyond the physical? Do we have any logical reason or empirical evidence to argue in that way? The first question is something you yourself could ponder over for the remaining tenure of your life, like a true seeker ! This was the perennial question that the world, from the very beginning was pondering over all these centuries and millenniums !

We have already discussed the irrefutable reality of such a world, (metaphysical) as physics or any other science could-not make any full account of the phenomenon of life and existence. Our mind mechanism, unfortunately is capable of perceiving such a wholesome reality,and is well aware that the explanation of science is grossly incomplete. This faculty of our mind, that senses the disorder, or the incompleteness of our knowledge and explanations, is the most enigmatic sign of man’s intelligence; otherwise, like any other animal, he could have spent lives here on the strength of our blind bodily instincts alone !

Logical reasons are 'predominantly' based on our past experiences and established relations. We have no precedence of something like our own life and existence, as they are ( the metaphysical causes behind life) prior to the very life and existence. So there is no question of solving this issue on known and accepted forms of logic or reason. The not-yet identified role of our faculty of reason has been depicted in length at our blog link:

An interesting 'model' answer to your important question ( why metaphysical ?) may be found at blog: ( para: HOW EGOES ARE OBJECTIVE REALITIES ?) The said blog explains why there is phenomena and egos.But it indirectly hints at the 'why' question of metaphysics behind the phenomena.  

You and me, and thousands of others using these discussion threads to share our minds, and seek more and more knowledge because, we find life incomplete in many respects. The urge for order, perfection and light of knowledge is the curse of man, and that of man alone.

So, please come out of the intellectual dungeon that claims science has already solved every question that man could ask, and there is no mystery unsolved about life and existence. No senior scientific mind has ever kept such fallacious conclusion. The more science knows about life and existence, the more there remains to be known and understood.  

This awareness about the incompleteness of our knowledge should only add an element of ‘wonder’ into our lives, and enrich it for good !  It is the coming closer to reality.

Abraham.J.Palakudy ( Founder)
Conscience of the society
A philosophic non-profit that undertake freelance research and studies into faculty of reason etc.

Wednesday, September 25, 2013

Why universe may not be purely a ‘physical’ phenomenon ?


This discussion intends to bring-out a few common sense, logical and metaphysical reasons as to why it is difficult to believe that the ‘whole’ (universe, or ‘multiverse’) is a physical phenomenon. It includes its anomalies with the time and space concepts of science, the fallacy of assuming the universal objective  ‘observer’ status for man, and lastly the very relative mechanism of nature through which the primary ‘self’ of man is formed, who later assumes the role of the objective ‘observer’ of every thing under existence, and the existence as a whole too. This discussion also touches few not yet recognized internal ingredients of human mind that should compel science and psychology to infer that the final stuff of the world is not matter and mind, but the new stuff, ‘matter-mind’, in line with the ‘space-time’ stuff that physics has invented as the new dimension that control realities of the physical world. 

The emergence of the firm belief that universe is PHYSICAL, or matter based, is not very old. It developed in the aftermath of the undisputed victory of science in the post  enlightenment era over the Church, and Her spirit
( against that of matter) dominated old world. Church was the undisputed master of mind and opinions over the world for many centuries, prior to the victory of science in the new world.

The clear distinction of  ‘empirical reality’  from the vague flux of the subjective realities of  mind was a proud product of science .Earlier, subjectivity, objectivity, myth and beliefs were all mixed up. From this soup of mixed realities of daily life of man, modern science carved out this distinct realm of unadulterated reality, ie. the empirical; to mean the realm of experience, observable by the sense organs repeatedly, and tested and verified by any observer at any time. 

Powerful telescopes have emerged, and distant stars and galaxies have been observed. Man had self assumed the role and status of an independent, unattached observer of  this realm of no non-sense. The notion of an all physical world, or even an entire universe, all observable by man and his instruments has gradually emerged ! Universe had shrunken to the role of a tiny ‘object’ in the eyes of man. 

Of course there are 'unobservable' distances in the vast space; science accepted. But, if he had such powerful instruments, all those infinite distances would have been covered, and man would have measured and marked the boundaries of the entire universe ! It was here in the history of man and science that the notion of an all matter physical universe had finally emerged.

The purpose of this small paper is to list few intellectual paradoxes that might throw serious doubts on the above concept of such an all matter universe.

1)    The false notion that man can act as an unattached universal observing subject : When we use an instrument for measurement or simple observation, it is mandatory that we must be fully satisfied with the accuracy and ‘sensibility’ of the data that the instruments provide. When we look through a kaleidoscope , we see a sea of colors  and shapes but they are all visual illusions. So, what we see with direct sense organs, or with modern sophisticated instruments may not always give us direct data about what we observe. It requires special studies and training to make our net realty from what we observe.
Here, the first instrument that man should carefully verify is his own self-mechanism, it being the most primary tool of his observation !  Science is very well aware of this crucial factor more than any one else. It is the dilemma of the observer and the observed, or that of the subject and object relation. 

It was Immanuel Kant, the most influential philosopher of modern times who had first brought this dilemma into the forefront with a scientific touch during 18th century. He powerfully argued as well as showed logical evidences that what our sense organs provide to us are the their particular (categorized) versions of external reality, and that may not be those objects in their ‘in-itself’ essence ! Though men of mind among scientists grasped the seriousness of his valued observation, the man himself offered them solace; Don’t worry, what ever the eyes see, and ears hear could be taken for granted, as what those objects in ‘themselves’ metaphysically may not be of any concern to the practical use of science. Better we ignore such imaginary realms, as man has got no practical, or known and recognized means of knowing such ‘in-it self’ realm of reality.

Kant’s studies had brought to surface one important aspect of the possible falsehood  about the scientific myth and power of the all observing man. Who is this creature who goes on measuring and calculating the length, breadth and volume of the entire universe, where he had found himself living one fine morning ?  Who is he, and how could he connect himself ‘sensibly’ with the plane where he exists ?

How did his ‘self’, the ‘mind entity’ emerged ? ( There was not much worry about his physical emergence, as it was a clear physical event of birth from the mother that every man shares with members of every other species )

His mind, that too a special one, very different from that of animals, was his primary CURSE ! Unlike animals, he is bestowed with a very pronounced realm of mind that runs side by side with his realm of physical ! It has a world of its own, where ideas, values, myths and pure matters of reason dwell. In this realm, there exists intellectual compulsions (or drives ) beyond hunger and procreation. It is in this realm beyond hunger and procreation that we are here exchanging inputs of our minds about whether universe is physical or spiritual ! We would dwell a bit deeper about this particular realm at in this discussion.

Many animal species are known to have developed rudimentary forms of science similar to man’s stuff: like that of the Capuchin monkeys, who usually keep special stones as a platform for breaking hard-shelled nuts like coconuts. It is an amazing sight that these monkeys first place the nut to be cracked on the special stone-platform, and raise another specially kept ‘hammer’ stone above the head, and smash the nut with great force ! They repeat the act, like man, till the nut is broken fully. They are also famous for their act of rolling down heavy stones from the mountain top, one after the other to scare away, and often injure predator Leopards !

The scenes of other species of monkeys using plant reeds as straw to draw honey from bee-hives are usual at animal-centric channels in tv. Our science is phenomenally greater in content and application than those monkey acts, except that we are cursed with a mind too, that ask more than necessary questions to ourselves about the degree of exactness and validity of our acquired knowledge, such as that of the boundary line of our physical universe ! Monkeys and other animal species are believed to be never troubled by such extra physical queries and quests !

More over. man is aware of an inner self-too, that perceives not only his body, but also his MIND, unlike animals. So, he can not satisfy himself with a much superior science in every respect than that of the monkeys.
( in fact it is very similar in spirit and subject matter with that of these animal species, ie., as a tool for making life better and more and more comfortable !)

This mind of his would go on pressing himself with nagging existential questions pertaining to realms beyond the physical too. So, man can not avoid answering deeper questions on his existence for ever, restricting his studies to physical realm alone.

So the fallacy behind the assumption that universe and what all that exists might be ‘physical’ has originated from the false belief that man is a universal, stand alone, independent observer, and what ever that appear before his sense organs is the realm of reality ! Perhaps the monkeys also might be keeping a similar absolute belief about their objective knowledge about the external world - - we do not 
know !

Hence, our sense of superiority about our scientific knowledge could be a species-centered, self-pride guided , empty claims of exactness that we share only among ourselves ! It could be a community generated
( oriented ) belief system, gained its strength from our act of sharing it among our own members !

2)    The problem of infinity (space and time)

 Man’s definition of matter is; ‘that which has mass, and needs space to occupy itself’. That which occupy space necessarily should have observable and measurable boundaries. Here if we assume that ‘universe’ is a physical stuff with marked boundaries, it begs an unavoidable logical answer: what is there outside our universe ? Probably the concept of  ‘multiverse’ might have emerged to solve this plain logical problem. But how can stories of many universes solve the basic logical issue when the story of even one physical universe cannot be solved by the classical definitions and notions of matter ?

One can not remain an integral part of a physical system, and be its  size measuring-observer at outside at the same time !  If something is physical with particular  boundaries, it necessarily should have some other objects out side it, so that its ‘location’ concept gains human kind of scientific ‘sense’ ! ( like so much degree east or west from so and so some other object )  We could observe and measure another heavenly body like moon or mars while sitting on our planet; but the exercise would become an altogether different game when it comes to measuring the ‘whole’ that exists ! For undertaking this exercise, we should be definitely be its ‘external’ observer, in body and mind, as the measuring act is not done by body alone but mind too. Both tools are part and parcel of the ‘object’ under measurement, hence a sense-less proposition.
Our sense of reason, the ultimate faculty that helps him to know true from  false, would murmur that a typical physical stuff can never be infinite ! Infinity is merely a convenient ‘word’ we had invented to end the confusion. Practically and logically, we can not imagine the concept of infinity. It is beyond the limit of our intelligence, and perceptual abilities. 
Wikipedia refers to the problem of the location and shape of universe as follows:
To speak of "the shape of the universe (at a point in time)" is ontologically naive from the point of view of special relativity alone: due to the relativity of simultaneity we cannot speak of different points in space as being "at the same point in time" nor, therefore, of "the shape of the universe at a point in time". As we all know, we have now the third dimension of ‘space-time’ too, that insists that time and space are relative to each other, and not independent and separate dimensions. Even with this new invention, which it self is too tough for our time and space trained mind to comprehend, the basic logical difficulty of our sense of reason to accept the ‘physical’ status of the universe does not decrease. 
Infinite time too, as Stephen Hawkins in his best-seller book ‘ a brief history of time’ admits, has been brought to the realm of science for ‘convenience’ and for making ‘sense’ for its own sake , by slashing it at some point for a beginning: ‘ One may say that time had a beginning at the big-bang, in the sense that earlier times simply would not be defined,……(hence) be ignored, because it would have no observational consequences. . . .the discovery (of big-bang theory by Edwin Hubble’ in 1929) finally brought the question of the beginning of the universe into the realm of science’. 

Evidently, ignoring TIME prior to the big-bang was for the sake of convenience by science. It was slashing of reality at some point in time with the intention of developing a pragmatic knowledge- system around a particular chosen realm in the middle, cutting off the un-known areas at bottom and top.

Another veteran of science Alfred North Whitefield remarks: ( his Harvard business school lectures,chap.V1, part-1) ‘ our knowledge of scientific laws is woefully defective, and our knowledge of the relevant facts of the present and the past is scanty in the extreme’. 
Despite the veterans of science expressing their frank stand on the inadequacy of science to answer the question that we discuss here, the mainstream modern world comprising common men is confident that science is indeed capable of solving all confusions, and prove one day that universe and every thing that exists is purely physical. Mankind’s over dependence on his known external sense-organs, those are designed exclusively for knowing the physical objects and realities alone, has made mankind incapable of even conceiving a ‘whole’ which could be non-physical in some sense. He is incapable of getting out of the catch of this realm of physical, and conceive of any other realm of reality other than what he has been exposed to since birth. But man has other hidden sense organs that tease him with their revelations and sensations that makes him compelled to look out and search further for hidden realities and truths about the ‘mystery whole’ where he has been planted. We will take-up the cause of such hidden internal sense organs in the next part of this discussion.
Our very ‘sense of disorder’ that we all experience at the concept of physical universe is the product of such hidden sense organs. From the raw data we receive through the known external sense organs, such tenets of base ‘disorder’ and necessary ‘order’ about our knowledge would never have developed in man’s mind !

3) The paradox of MIND:

If a monkey or a dog observe a group of men playing the card game of Rummy or Bridge, they would never grasp the ‘sense’ involved in the game. For them it would be random throwing of cards by men, one after the other, in the category of playful games that members of their species also often indulge in. We could say that attitude of man looking at the game of life and existence is like that of those animals: we are yet to grasp the ‘sense’ of the game of life that we are engaged in for millions of years, chiefly due to lack of understanding of our mind organ.
We are yet to explain the ‘category’ of mind beyond its physical angle. For science, mind is a manifestation of matter, a development of matter at its biological sphere. Though such explanations are absolutely similar to the mythology ridden explanations of religions, they are not ready to back-off.  Young author ‘Arun Sood’ in his book ‘life and beyond’ ( compares Darwin’s theory of the origin of life from a single cell in a pond of water billions of years back, followed by its developing into the currently existing complex human mind and biological life forms as follows:
‘It’s as likely as the example of a tornado sweeping through a junk-yard and assembling a Boeing 747 aircraft from the materials that were somehow there
As we have seen above, the middle sphere of sense, reason and scientific laws that devised by science during the enlightenment period was the result of the compelling socio-political atmosphere of that particular period. American Philosopher Charles Sanders Pierce writes: ( in his essay ‘evolutionary love, 1980) ‘the extra ordinarily favorable reception it ( the evolutionary theory of Darwin) met with was plainly owing, in large measure, to its ideas being those toward which the age was favorably disposed, especially, because of the encouragement it gave to the greed-philosophy’
( of capitalism)
The pure, undiluted urge for truth about nature, life and existence of the fathers of enlightenment was given way for prioritized  technological advancement, and the science’s usefulness to improve the physical aspects of life ! Science has turned a magic-lamp in the hands of the new masters of the then world, the industry, and their new political partners from the peoples class ( democracy )
Mind always belonged to the old notion of man under the sun, the metaphysical entity, who longed for pure knowledge for its own sake, like the early day scientists. Today man of mind is a liability for the modern political establishment as he would be a dangerous freedom seeker, and equally dangerous for the masters of industry, as he would not be a loyal and subordinating  worker ! Hence, killing of mind concept was the necessity of the day in history.

Hence, matter has won over mind in every field, and it is even at the verge of total extinction. It is useful only if it is able to produce more and more advanced technology that would increase profit. Only the quantitative aspect of mind is relevant today, not its highly qualitative and creative
perspectives ! The science of Psychology also had fallen victim to the protagonists of the physical principle of the universe. 
Has mankind been scientific enough in looking at the mind realm too in the same spirit and vigor that it had it looked at the matter realm ? Every open minded human-being could say confidently: NO. This great lapse of modern world has pushed human life as a whole into great imbalance in knowledge. His knowledge has become highly exclusive, even  to the level of being superstitious about the matter-centric reality.
To overcome the difficulty of understanding mind in its true wholesomeness, the new psychologists had invented ‘behavior psychology’, by adopting the same ‘slashing’ technique of science; carving out only the ‘measurable’ aspects of human behavior for ‘objective’ studies in psychology. The bottom and top has been ignored for convenience.

How can we understand the stuff of human mind with utmost scientific spirit, and improve our knowledge of existence as whole ?

Scientific spirit is the spirit of man to understand truth, truth alone, and nothing else. In order to be genuinely on this path of our enquiry, one is supposed to discard all previous knowledge that might cloud one’s observation and inferences.

In this genuine attempt here to understand mind and the self of man who carry the mind, every one of you is appealed  to first get off his existing notions self, and then look at the actual process of man’s acquiring a mind, and his self-hood for the first time in his life, with a totally blank mind.
It is assumed here that before we had our existing mind, and prior to the start of this discussion, there always existed a human community where we all had been born into. This exercise is aimed at looking into the actual process by which  every one of us had acquired our first mind, and our sense of selves. This is an attempt to look at mind as an actual external object, as prescribed under scientific spirit. 
For this exercise, one must first look at new born babies as to how they show signs of a mind at the first instance, and its signs of acquiring a self-hood of its own. For a while we should forget the brain and neurons as the physical base of mind. The rationale behind this appeal to ignore the brain stuff for the moment  is explained here with the analogy of a study for understanding the process of  male babies acquiring their youth stage and man-hood. Though the sexual organs of a new born baby are there in the body from birth, it would take long years of growth and development for them to make the baby a youth, and give him his full male-hood. Similarly, let us ignore the brain and the neurons for the time being, likening them to the baby’s rudimentary sexual organs at the time of birth here. Like the undeveloped sexual organs of the baby, the brain and neurons of the baby at the birth too are rudimentary  physical buds for future development.   
Second pre-condition for this simple scientific exercise is to keep the central premise intact that NATURE has her set plan for the development of the body as well as mind in due course. Every branch of science keeps this base premise unaltered, be it be physics or medicine. Physics is simply an attempt to discover nature’s laws, and alter it in permissible ways, for conducting life on earth with more comfort. Similarly, science of medicine is also following the same principle. It simply aid the natural process of healing, while intervening at times in the body functioning In permissible ways, like replacing the natural parts with artificial parts etc.

If we suggest here that new born babies are born only with the physically  undeveloped buds of the mind, ( ie. rudimentary brain apparatus )  but NOT with the actual mind, no scientific laws would be broken. Through the sense organs, which are open windows towards the external world, baby gets its first signals like its mother’s touch, her sound, the taste of breast-milk, the smell of the nipples, and many other such similar sensations every day. If we suggest that it is these first sensations that give rise to the baby’s mind initially in its non-physiological meaning and sense, again no scientific sense would be breached.
Every sense organ of the baby is opened towards the external world. We are going to infer here that even before becoming aware of its own self, what it first gets to know is the external: its mother as the first ‘other’ entity, the first other person. When she behaves before the baby as if it is an entity other than her, the baby’s mind imprints its first image of its own self-hood !
Now the baby’s mind has multiple impressions of sense data, that of touch, smell, sight and sound, and most centrally and importantly, the impression of its own entity in the line of ‘others’ around it ! I too am a entity like the ones that I see  around me !  Yes, I am something real, because others around me are real ! They treat me as something separate from them ! Others perceive me as real, so I am !  My reality is reiterated and affirmed primarily because of my assurance that you perceive me as some thing real !  You appear as something real before me , and on the same principle, I too am real ! The tussle between illusion and realty always haunted every notion of self and thought throughout philosophy. What is the proof that I am real, and what I experience is real ?  When we accept ‘self’ and mind on the above ‘empirical’ lines, such tussles should come to an end.
Here we may perhaps have to review the painstaking exercise  undertaken by the great philosopher Descartes to explain mind and self by his famous tenet : ‘ I think, so I am’. Plainly the certainty of one’s reality on the basis of the evidence of him as an external reality to others around him, is far more profound a theory. Descartes had based it on the certainty of man’s thinking process, a process within man, with no objective, third party supportive evidence. In short, we feel the reality of ourselves primarily on the strength of the certainty as objects in other’s eyes ! If what I observe in the world with my sense organs are real, I too am real. The central principle behind the certainty of our realities is, that they are ‘shareable’ among ourselves. What I only experience is far less real than what we all collectively experience. The first kind of reality is ‘subjective’ and the second is ‘objective’. If one look at the above principle with extreme attention, the paradox of man’s ‘self’ would once and for all. Yes, it is an objective reality in the above sense. What all it produce could be brought into the scientific realm once we recognize and accept all such inputs. 
This is the story of the synthetic creature-man, who gained his self hood based exclusively on the un-related external sense data that later on developed into his full-grown mind mechanism, with a lot more inputs coming from various internal and external sources.
When the baby grows-up, he see, smell, touch and hear. He has a  lot more materials now in his mind. Now he can play around with these images in mind, that is, THINKING. Yes, thinking is nothing but playing around with the various mind materials. Next in this discussion we are going to see what these other mind materials are

Mind materials other than external sense inputs

The self
Classical philosophy and even science believes that there is nothing in the mind except that the senses provide. The rest everything it produces is with the help of his thinking and reasoning prowess ! This is a very fallacious stand needing urgent review. Mind gets its major inputs from other, not yet recognized internal sources, not exactly ‘a priori’, (before experience)  but after the formation of the ‘self’ of man ( a process that involves  man’s undergoing  innumerable experiences, which is explained in detail below) and when it is ready for more developed emotional and intellectual experiences. The simple use of the term ‘a priori’ does not clarify the question ‘prior to experience of whom?. The variable of the unique ‘self’ of man that first generate from experience is not taken into consideration while coining the term ‘a priori’.  When the self of man is fully developed, the not yet recognized internal inputs to mind, ie. emotions and drives, and the ‘sense of reason’ aid him with some basic tenets of life, free of his pre-experiences. He is now a unique ‘aggregate’ of experiences, and an integrated ENTITY called a ‘self’.

The central aspect of how the ‘self’ of man takes birth is still a grey area in psychology. When one goes through the existing literature on ‘self’, there is no mention of how does a ‘self’ gets formed’ for the first time, and how does it develop. The theories of Kohut etc.( the father of self psychology )  describes various forms ( narcissistic, imago etc.)  that the ‘self’ assumes, but not any reference to the foundational logical or metaphysical principles of its origin.

Other than external sense inputs, the baby also experience inputs that directly enter mind, such as fear of loneliness, longing for mother, hunger, sensation of excretions, aversions to certain external stimuli etc, ie. both physical as well as emotional/instinctual inputs. These inputs increase day by day, and the self-hood of the baby gets enriched with the OWNERSHIP of it all. A new ‘self’ has arrived in the world !
The Indian God man Osho describes the above process in his book, ‘ Beyond the frontiers of mind’ (Rajneesh,1974,p.8,para.3,chap.1)) : “when a child is born, the first thing he becomes aware is not him self; his eyes are opened out-wards, the hands touch others, ears listen to others…all these senses open outwards…the ego is an accumulated phenomenon, a bye product of living with others”.
If modern world realize the above plain common sense fact about man’s ‘self’ that engages in scientific and philosophic pursuits, all the confusions about ‘consciousness’ to metaphysics would come down to half.

Here we have seen the central item that enters mind, or gets integrated into the mind after the birth of the human baby, the SELF of man, or what Freud had very rightly coined, the EGO.  Even before the birth while in the womb, the baby’s mind might be registering the fetus’s peculiar sense information in the mind, but it is irrelevant to the chief theme of this discussion. The process of self making happens after the new entity encounters its ‘others’ around him.

There is nothing before man for comparison of the above highly imaginative and creative idea of nature ( no syllogism hence possible-It should be an ‘atomic’ proposition, something that man’s hidden internal sense organs directly perceives !)  that helped in the ‘origin’ of independent SELVES: these selves own-up responsibility for their actions, and experience total separateness from everything else in the world at times. It often tends to assume that whatever is there other than him in the world is originated in his mind as thoughts. ( solipsism) and an infinite such other thought forms as one could imagine. Psychologists are aware of many such neurotic patterns of assumption that often are far distant from the much required ‘sense’ of reality that the ‘self’ (or EGO ) should necessarily have, to be sane. Modern psychology defines that the most central aspect of this ‘sanity’ is one’s ability to adjust oneself with the social reality around. The new man should be able to manage his relation with others healthy and normal.
But all these peculiar characteristics of human self does not alter the fundamental existential reality about it, that ‘selves’ are born and living after making ‘others’ around them as the reference point for its own sense of reality.

Why ‘self’ is formed in the above fashion ? The metaphysical explanation for duality.
Some of you may wonder why our discussion wanders into areas irrelevant to the subject matter of the authenticity of ‘physical’ nature of our universe ! As we have seen from what we have discussed above, every event of our perception and conclusion is a unique synergy between our self and the external object. Why scientific men stick on with their dogma that universe is physical would be answered, or at least explained once we have a deep understanding on our ‘self’ mechanism, and our relation making with our objects, including the ‘whole’, the world and universe.

The plain metaphysical or common sense fact is that nothing gains the status of reality until it gets perceived by an other entity with a mind. Bishop Berkeley, when he said it, people did not understand the real sense in which he might have meant it. But as we have seen above in the mother-child example, the new born baby would never have his sense of self until and unless it recognized its separateness from its mother and ‘others’ around him. His self was born when others looked at him as a separate entity, and when such ‘look’ reiterated his reality. A rose is an entity that lives in man’s mind in a particular way. The same object Rose has different entity and mental images other perceiving subjects, like the honey sucking bees and humming birds. Every object in existence gains its entity, or gets its entity defined, only when other external entities perceive it in different forms !

 No need of jumping with the usual question, ‘ Is physical reality then an illusion ?’ , and kick a mile-stone and show the bleeding thump to the world like Dr. Johnson had done once, to prove the falsity of the above fact. It is  only to mean that nothing in existence can have an identity independent, and ‘in-itself’ and un-attached reality that is FREE of the perceiving mechanism of some or other subjects ! It is obvious and certain that when nature had conceived the idea of objects in existence, it also had simultaneously conceived its corresponding subjects also for whom, or amongst the both, the drama of subject-object synergy would take place ! Look at WATER for example; when water was designed as an object in the world, nature must have in Her mind its multiple utility for the living beings in world. Or AIR for another example. As Cosmologists now unanimously agree, when science look at the primordial atom and nucleus, its future development into life forms had very carefully and accurately embedded in its design ! Fully evolved life was in the inception stage plans of nature.

 What we observe as physical reality here on the planet earth, and within our perceiving range, are only ‘good-to-mankind only’ particular ‘synergy’-  between our mind, our stage of knowledge in this age, and part of the universe that falls under the range of our probing mechanism. Our world is limited to what we know. There could be millions of heavenly bodies that exist at remotest corners of the cosmos that we are still not aware of. For us, they are non-existent. For many stages in the past, millions of men lived and died with such believes that earth was flat and starts were fixed objects in the sky.

So, ‘physical’ is only a particular category of our experience that we have imposed upon nature, thanks to our particular way of knowing it and defining such categories  of reality by our synthetic mind.

When we looked at the sub-atomic particle world to find out the least building block of the physical reality, our scientists got real jolt ! Many a particles that appeared a wave to the probing instrument for the moment suddenly turned a particle the next moment ! Two similar particle joined together at times and produced a new particle in the process. It was all confusion for man’s mind, a mad dance denoting no sense !

Therefore, what ever exists do so only as objects in the mind of some or other subjects, and there appears no reason to believe that every object should be having an IN-ITSELF, final reality about it. Things and realities, it seems, are there in existence, to gain their realities in synergy with some or other perceiving minds in the scheme of existence. For this central existential scheme- DUALITY- the scheme of having OBJECTS at one end, and MINDS at other end, was essential. Not only minds, but its OWNERS too, some or other entities with their SELF mechanism intact !

It could only be a blind belief that the ‘whole’ would be a physical entity after all, a typical object of our external senses. Such a belief can not be different from the belief of religious people that a God had created the universe and maintaining it, under strict logical categorization. Both are beliefs of the same category, as evidences are not strictly empirical.

The scientists of mind should consider the possibility of declaring MATTER-MIND as a new dimension of the existence, like relativity theorists had found the new dimension of SPACE-TIME to explain newer realities observed by them in the universe ! We have seen clearly that matter is NOT something the mind can ever disintegrate into independently observable external objects in the sub-atomic particle world experiments. Therefore, it would only make good sense to declare the stuff of the world and existence ‘mind-matter’, (NOT mind, and matter ) to end the riddle. 

What ever we have seen above were common sense explanations about the rational of mind, self, and the naked feature of what we call the ‘solid reality’ of matter.

Mind materials other than sense inputs- 2, Sense or ‘ORDER content
(ie.  reason)
We have seen above the central ingredient of the mind, or the OWNER of the mind-SELF- under whom mind operates. Mind does not, or can not treat ‘self’ as different from itself, as its only an inorganic mechanism, or phenomenon. But ‘self’ is capable of having ‘consciousness’ of itself, independent of mind. Its evidence is this very activity of this author’s writing about mind and self, and millions of similar examples other selves in the world does with it every moment.
Here we are attempting to identify another prime ingredient of mind, that is integral and central for its very working. It is the ingredient of ‘sense’ or Reason, or the category of ‘order’ in the mind.

Kant, the most influential of modern philosophers thought Reason is a fixed pre-attachment to mind that process every sense datum into some or other sensible ‘categories’ and supply to mind. We may have to differ with the great man here, with regard to the genus and function of the human faculty of reason, with great respect for him duly reserved for him for the never heard understanding he had contributed to mankind about the working of mind !
If mind had only what senses have contributed into it, in whatever creative ways the self process it, it can not produce any miracle out of it, even if we take into consideration the ‘categorization’ of them into ‘sensible knowledge’ forms that Kant had alleged. 1+1 can not ever produce the sum of other than 2 if some other hidden ingredients had cropped during the summing up process !

Kant had argued in his ‘critique of pure reason’ that ‘ pure reason’ is knowledge that does not come through our senses but is independent of all sense experience; knowledge belonging to us by he inherent nature and structure of the mind’ .( Will Durant, book ‘The story of philosophy’, chap.Kant,, p. 265) He doubted the ability of mind to create any variety of such ‘pure’ knowledge, except reason’s above referred inherent structural design to transform the sense data into sensible form of knowledge.

Here, we are attempting to show Reason is a very different perspective, in its two distinct functions, first as an internal organ that detects the ‘sense’ , or ORDER content between any chosen two or mind data, and second, as a rare faculty that could really produce new mind-data by splitting every given ray of thought or idea into all its sub-data, creative combinations, and never known possibilities !

Let us elaborate. The sense gathered data enters mind, in categorized form
( acknowledging Kant’s stand) to aid efficient survival of the self, including the ‘categorical imperative’, ie. ethics and morals, which the great man thought is inherent in the structure of mind making such survival value ridden too. But what distinguishing human kind from animals is his very special faculty of sensing the ORDER content between many of the past data stored in the mind with many of newer observations, and in this process, producing fresh relations. In Newton’s mind, there should have been existing the remote possibility of earth having some power of attraction. The sudden falling of apple on his head ( accepting that it might have been pure fictional story ) made him to ‘sense’ the ORDER between this event and the ‘attraction’ hypothesis already was there in his mind. This sudden realization of this special ‘ORDER’ , or the ‘sense-content’ between the two items of mind-data had clicked in developing his gravitational theory. Einstein said to have imagined a apace-journey alongside a ray of light at his age of 16. Such an imagination had brought out its all possible contradictions with the existing theory of time and space into forefront. Old notions of time and space couldn’t hold water with the new equations that emerged on the basis of quantum theory. Here, the second faculty of reason also has surfaced; reason’s faculty to split e given ray of thought or idea into all its intellectual possibilities, combinations, and comparisons. When every such newly arrived possibility is found related by’ pure sense’ or ORDER” with some other already established data, a new scientific theory is born ! Here we have seen pure production of first  mind-data which was neither in the gathered raw sense data, nor in its ‘knowledge’ form contributed by Kant’s structural design of mind. Man’s not yet recognized SPECTRUM function of reason was responsible for such PRODUCTION of pure, creative fresh data, or
knowledge ! More central was reason’s primary function: its NOT yet recognized or identified ‘sense organ’ like function, that detects the new ( not yet identified and recognized by the mainstream world) existential category of ORDER, or plain ‘sense’. We should agree that animals also share this sensing of ‘sense’ ( order) function in rudimentary forms, but man shares it with nature in an unprecedented way, that it seems quite possible that he could even ‘sense’ tenets of ultimate forms of ORDER ( sense ) that unites the whole plan of existence !

Science should not have any objection when we accept this ingredient of the ‘sense’ that does not come from the external sense organs as another prime material in the mind. For the OWNER of the mind, this mystery sense organ of ORDER is the chief weapon that makes his life meaningful and sense filled ! Man can not think of any other tenet of true and false other than what his sense of reason provides. So it make plain sense to recognize the ‘sensing’ of the ‘order’ function  as the chief theme of our faculty of reason. It is with this very miraculous faculty that this writer has found this proposition ! For that every past and existing unique scientific and philosophic discoveries was aided by this mystery sense organ of ORDER.

Though we have many other similar not yet recognized inputs to mind like emotions and ‘drives’ (or urges) of man, this is not a proper platform to elaborate it.

The two central items of mind, ie the SELF and REASON was so crucial in doubting the mere PHYSICAL status of world and existence, hence we have included them in the discussion. It is this newly recognized sense organ of plain reason that constantly murmurs that world and existence can not ever be physical and mater centric. Even after going through all the plain evidences above, if science and its fanatic followers still want to belief that world and existence is matter-centric, we have no option but to classify them with the similar beliefs of religious fanatics, whose mind usually can not open towards anything but what is there recorded in the Holy-books.

In summary, it becomes clear from the above long discourse that science’s conclusion about ‘matter-centric’ nature of the whole was its ignorance of, or contempt towards man’s un-recognized, hidden internal faculties that aid and adds up his cognition. Other than the objects and events in the world that his external sense organs perceive, there are innumerous internal objects and events that his un-recognized internal sense organs perceive; take for example his emotions like anger, love and apathy. They are real objects man experience distinctly and clearly like what his eyes see and ears hear from the external world. Take the other example of linguistic concepts those are not names of physical objects; like science, phenomenology, space, time, eternity, cruelty etc - - - upon hearing these purely conceptual objects, mind grasps them and make sense of them.

In fact, more than the physical objects and events, what constitutes more towards making the lives of men are these ‘conceptual objects’. The role of similar internal faculties( like the sense organ of reason referred above ) that provide the much central notion of ‘sense’ to whatever we grasp and accept as true, are also to be taken into serious consideration; they are more fundamental and decisive in constituting our realities and truths than the mere perceptions by our external sense organs. In other words, in the matter of judging the degree of reality of anything, more than the role of our external sense organs, the role of our internal faculties is more relevant and central. Hence, it is high time that we re-define our concept and rule of ‘empirical’; empirical means the quality of the object or event to be ‘experienced’. Man often experience clear ‘doubt’ about the exclusive physical nature of the whole, and we have listed many evidences in this paper that say against the above dogma. It is the professional responsibility of science who exclusively stands for the ‘spirit’ of enquiry, to accept the above evidences and decide to re-check the dogma whether the ‘whole’ could ever be matter-centric ?

Authored by : Abraham J.Palakudy,
Founder secretary ( a philosophic non-profit engaged in freelance research on mind, reason, self and reality)