Abstract: Everything that exists in the universe at
this instant, all matter, energy, fields, life forms, everything we perceive, remember, imagine or do, can be rationally assigned to one of four mutually exclusive, metaphysical
classes of extant entities: These four
classes are: a) the physical universe, b) life forms, c) mental activity in the
minds of higher order animals and d) beings and actions in an unseen spirit
realm. Each has its own characteristics,
and each can only be described and explained with its own particular form of
analysis and language framework, viz. physics, biology, psychology and
metaphysics or religion, respectively.
Introduction: All roads in philosophy lead back to the mind
as their natural starting point. Rene Descartes
published his Meditations on First Philosophy in 1641, not long after Francis
Bacon published his Great Instauration in 1620.
The latter precisely described the scientific method in English, while
the former clearly and concisely describes in Latin the ultimate nature of
one’s mind. Descartes translates his own
phrase, “I think therefore I am”, to a more useful “I am a thinking thing”.
As thinking things, living social animals, we try from birth
to make sense of the world and its constant stream of perception. Instinct guides us to dive right in with the
task of fitting in with those who raised us, mimicking them as best we can,
eventually learning one or more disciplines in order to make a living. Reality is confined to the present. The past no longer exists, except in our
records and memories, and the future exists only in our imaginations, e.g.,
science fiction.
Many moderns living in industrial societies pursue knowledge
and a profession in one or more major scientific disciplines. Note that in the 400 years since Bacon and
Descartes dropped their Enlightenment bombshells on the world, these
disciplines have grown into multiple, distinct branches of science and inquiry,
each with its own language framework used to describe and ultimately explain its
chosen phenomena and ideas.
No longer can a philosopher like Descartes claim to have an
expert knowledge of all the intellectual pursuits of their peers. These lines of modern specialization between
the various intellectual pursuits, in particular, physics, biology, psychology
and metaphysics or religion are a reflection of the four fundamental categories
of being which I describe herein.
Such an effort at categorization is accurately called an ontology,
in this case a metaphysical scheme of four definite categories needed to
sensibly separate and describe all possible entities extant under the general category
of Being and Nothingness. All entities
in the universe at this instant, observable, remembered or imagined, can be strictly
accounted for in this four-part ontology.
Thus, the metaphysical problem of universals is neatly resolved.
The first category
is the immense universe of physical entities such as energy, matter, fields,
quarks, et al plus their physical attributes such as motion and inertia. As near as physical scientists can determine,
the laws of nature within this category apply uniformly, regardless of time, location
or inertial frame of reference. Many of
the blessings of modern life clearly stem from our ever-improving understanding
of the physical universe.
The common context for us “thinking things” in this physical
aspect of the universe, is Euclidean space (up, down, sideways, etc.), the
so-called 3 dimensions, containing entities which are constantly moving in predicable ways, as
expressed by our concept of time. Human
understanding of this first category and its entities seems clearer and more
definite, less mysterious than the other three.
The experts in this category are physicists, chemists, material
scientists, engineers, etc. They each have
their own language framework to use when discussing matters within their
respective disciplines. If you sit in on
a Zoom meeting with a conclave of particle physicists discussing the daily news
from CERN, most of us could not keep up; we are unfamiliar with the language framework
they routinely use.
The second category
is the more limited universe of life forms.
Obviously, life forms consist of physical materials, carbon, water,
etc. It's called biomass and our planet is blessed with it. Individual lifeforms have attributes such as heat, momentum,
etc., just like other entities in the physical category.
But they are also fundamentally different and display characteristics
unlike those found among inorganic entities.
They grow, reproduce and evolve in ways unknown to physicists. Compare organic chemistry to its inorganic
relative and note that Biology uses completely different methods of analysis
when studying life forms, and a different linguistic framework.
Part of the mystery of life forms is their origin. Because modern scientists are confirmed
materialists, they cling to the belief that life is unique to planet Earth and
somehow life began through an accidental combination of matter and energy. They imagine a primordial soup of the right
ingredients, struck by lightning and coaxed in action. **
However, a close examination of the most primitive
single-cell life forms, bacteria powered by heat or light, we note they contain
internal structures and processes so complex they defy complete description,
let alone explanation. They are encoded
with precise information that suggests an intelligent design and thus an
original designer. This design includes
a specialized facility for evolution.
Every generation exhibits diversity, by design. It’s quite possible that long ago, a sentient
being created life as we know it on Earth, perhaps after that same being
created the entire universe, even existence itself. It stands to reason, IMO.
**It’s possible the first life
forms came to Earth from an external source (Panspermia), sometime after our
planet cooled down and its hydrosphere condensed into standing water.
The third category
consist of those entities produced by and contained in the minds of high-order
animals. Mental activity is every bit as
real as massive physical bodies moving through the interstellar medium. The so-called problem of universals is a by-product
of materialists refusing to accept Descartes’ dualist claim that there is such a
thing, your mind, which has a different kind of “substance” than physical
matter, separate from the body which hosts it.
It seems obvious that computers are an analog of our minds. Most neuroscientists believe that all mental
activity can be directly traced to action by a neuron, which is no doubt true. That claim implies we are not in control of
our activity, no free will, just electro-mechanical responses to stimuli. Cartesian dualist like myself, maintain there
is more to mental activity than a mere collection of neural actions.
Homo sapiens’ recent invention of a worldwide network of
connected computers has revealed cyberspace, which exists inside these
computers. Cyberspace is a perfect analog of the separate “substance” Descartes called his
mind. Such is the mystery of mental
activity.
Like our minds, cyberspace behaves in ways its builders don’t understand, particularly in the sector called “learning machines”. It is a perfect analogy to the mind, a model for cognitive science. Unlike the machines we’ve created, the mind is alive, it is constantly moving, observing, thinking and deciding. Our ability to make independent decisions is fundamental to free will and inherent in being a living higher-order animal. Our free will, including our conscience, is the crux of mankind's collective assessment of the nature of our minds, in my opinion.
So where does that leave those of us who are curious about
the real-world nature of individual minds?
First, we must recognize the inner workings of an individual's mind are
hidden behind privileged access. Other
than our own introspection, first-person reports are all we have for observing
the mind, this is what psychologists have to start with in their analysis, along
with observed behavior.
Physics, chemistry and biology are of little help. Neuroscientists are trying their best to
relate behaviors to neural activity and I predict they will succeed in a few
years by being able to read an individual’s raw feels like anger, jealousy,
deception, etc. Very useful, but still
far from understanding a subject’s stream of consciousness bouncing around,
dwelling on memories, making decisions on what to do next. Only the “thinking thing” knows its own
thoughts at this level. Only
psychologists, using their primitive methods and linguistic framework, can help
those who cannot help themselves maintain a semblance of mental health. The rest of us well-adjusted members of
society must do our best to maintain a steady course in life. Sorry, but that’s all we have, it's part of
the human condition.
The fourth category,
the spirit world, is so controversial it can hardly be described without
heckling from materialist disbelievers.
An examination of it rightfully starts with the so-called big bang, the
beginning of all matter, energy and space itself, in real time 13.8 billion
earth years ago. Physicists believe
before the big bang began, its singularity was surrounded by, and likely
preceded by, Nothingness, the opposite of Being.
Most major religions explain this inferred inception of the
universe as caused and designed by a sentient being, an immortal Creator. Religious adherents typically believe the
Creator maintains order in the universe and occasionally intervenes in its
history. Even ancient religions, dating
back to the Paleolithic era, recognized this spirit world, if not a single
creator and caretaker.
Materialists, of course, categorically reject the reality of
entities assigned to this fourth category.
According to their scientific, positivist principles, if you can’t experience
and measure it directly, on demand, it does not exist, it is pure imagination, in
their opinions, its non-existent. According to Aristotle's logic, they are on fairly firm ground.
Conversely, religious people, modern and ancient, actually
perceive supernatural phenomena such as visions, healing miracles and
possession by spirits. Ancient Shamans preceded Hegel's "Phenomenology of the Sprit" by thousands of years. These spirits,
good and bad, seem to work strictly through human minds. We can safely assume other higher-order
animals are too focused in their minds on the 3Fs, feeding, fighting and
fornicating, to take notice of supernatural phenomena.
So which is it? Is
religious belief mere superstition, or are believers on to something that is outside
the interest of materialists and beyond the immediate reach of the scientific
method. We can’t know for sure, that’s
the nature of the real or imagined entities in this category of being.
One area of interest to investigators are the accounts of
exorcists, people who actively confront demonic spirits which supposedly have
invaded the minds of hapless victims.
They report all sorts of supernatural phenomena like cold rooms,
levitating bodies, poltergeist-type flying objects, etc.
One particular exorcist’s account I read supports the idea these demonic powers have limited ability to move the physical world, but they can trick the minds of observers into perceiving paranormal phenomena. One demon referred to these phenomena as “parlor tricks”. In one recent exorcist’s account, when the demon took over the possessed person’s consciousness and spoke in a peculiar voice, it distorted her face to look just like the head of a serpent. Several witnesses reported this marked effect, but when they played back the video tapes taken for liability purposes, the effect was absent.
In
every case reported by Catholic church authorities, the demons were only able to overcome the victim’s natural defenses
by being “invited” in. One’s involvement
in communing with the dead, playing with Ouija boards, etc. leave you open to
possession. Some people even seek out
the Devil. Scary.
I for one am a believer in the religious account. There are just too many credible reports of
miracles and interventions by angels and encounters with demons to ignore. I have personally witnessed phenomena of the
angelic type. For me there is no other
rational explanation. Also, the
accumulated knowledge of physics and biology clearly indicates there is far
more to the universe than we little humans can understand. For every new discovery in astrophysics and
particle physics, a dozen new questions arise.
If the religious account is unfounded superstition, it’s a harmless
one in most respects. In the meantime, this fourth category is a convenient place in my ontology of Being, to park such
entities as are claimed to exist in the spiritual realm.
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