CONSCIOUSNESS, MIND AND THE WORLD
AREA
4 THE WORLD AND CONSCIOUSNESS ARE IDENTICAL 5
Idealism: Unification of the Concepts of the Idea
and the Object
At
this stage of the present exploration there are still the notions of the one
consciousness - mind/idea…and the object of consciousness: “matter?”
How
shall we introduce organicity into this conceptual state of affairs? The answer
is as follows: the concept of consciousness has been reviewed and revised. The
same must be done for the concept of the idea itself
It
is usual to think, in the standard material paradigm of the modern world, of
consciousness as consciousness of an object. The content of consciousness is
the idea. On this view, the world has matter and ideas. This is not
necessarily a dualism for the idea may be a manifestation or reduction
of matter without having been explained or even being explainable in material
terms
However
if everything is a form or manifestation of idea - if ideas are real and
the original substance - then we have a clear and simple monism. This is the
form of idealism. It is simpler than materialism in that since, by our
existence, we have ideas and thus idealism does not require any further
substance or hypothesis with ontological content…and even if the having
of ideas is said to be delusion or illusion then what are delusions or
illusions if not ideas? It is an error to think that idealism is in opposition
or in contrast to materialism. It materialism is symbolized by the mountain,
then idealism is symbolized by the mountain, the wind, the clouds and mist that
surround the peak…and the valleys below…and the ground of the
mountain: the earth. Idealism requires no hypothesis. It need not be a
philosophy or a metaphysics or an ontology. It is or can be seen as the name
for experience; or one really wants it to be something more than the intrinsic
state of our existence then we could call idealism the acknowledgement of our
existence
Idealism: Objections and Responses: a somewhat lengthy catalog
Some
basic objections to idealism
1. Idealism and Power. The challenge to the paradigm
of practicality and power… It is tempting to call this the material and
or the prevailing paradigm of politics and commerce of everyday life of the
Western World…but the material paradigm is much more than a scientific
paradigm based in, say, physics and is of much broader prevalence than the “West.”
It is the paradigm of power, politics, survival, the ego and the given. Scientific
or philosophical materialism is a special case of this paradigm
2. The notion of the Idea as Ethereal and non-material,
and
3. The Challenge of Materialism. The existence of
matter and the need to satisfy the requirements of practical or everyday
materialism…and scientific and philosophical materialism6
Responses
to the objections 1 - 3: 1. Universalization, reality and simplicity; 2. There are grades of
idea…from vision, to feeling to hardness to thing-object-matter. The idea
or notion of object as not-idea is incomplete. “Objects” have very
much an ideal existence…that is fundamental, existential and experiential.
Their existence also as material objects requires an additional hypothesis or
position beyond that of the reality of experience: that of the external world. The
external world is thought - whether practically and in effect or analytically
and in fact - to be necessitated by the equation of idealism and solipsism. The
equation of solipsism and idealism follows from the isolation of consciousness
as discrete, monadic and isolated entities. Solipsism is in contradiction to
the existence of a real world with distinct individuals and distinct ideas. However,
a world of distributed and unitized - by occasional rather than continual
communication - consciousness, idealism does not imply or equate to solipsism. The
ideal world is one of individuals that are also a unity. 3. Idealism is thus
consistent with “The existence of matter and the need to satisfy the
requirements of practical or everyday materialism…and scientific and
philosophical materialism”…but is also simpler and requires fewer
hypotheses. The absence of awareness is the material case
…there
are too many posited categories that are and should be grades or shades in the
continuum of a single category. This means that the world is actually simpler…but
in no way loses its variety of forms and phenomena, in no way reduces the
variety and richness of [human] experience…and further, to be explained
below, eliminates or gives meaning to alienation - connects humankind and world.
This latter result is similar to the action principle of the Gita. Alienation
is the result of the stark aspect of reflexivity. A positive aspect is freedom
and agency in transformation of self, culture and world
…the
sources of the posited categories, in addition but also in some relation to the
power principle, are the disciplinary or specialization of modern institutions
and academics…and egoism
…what
categories? Mind/matter, egoism/altruism, real/nominal, rational/empirical,
hidden/visible, inner/outer or external world, subject/object, ultimate/proximate,
pragmatism-utilitarianism/objectivism, consciousness-subjective/behavioral-psychological…
Regarding the latter it is true that we recognize the mental in others through
empathy and by behavior: action, expression and affect…but why are we
asserting that a smile is “just behavior” and not mind? So mind is
recognized by mind and this generalizes to the formal and the conceptual, the
recognition of mental process or their absence in alien mind, in computers
Reformulation
of some of the objections: But, common sense, science and philosophy teach that there’s an
objective world out there…outside of consciousness
Response: The objection refers to the
stark, discrete, central form of consciousness. There is also the less defined,
the felt, and the hard where the idea of distinction between subject and object
breaks down - where subject and object are in fusion…where the world is
in the essential nature of consciousness to the point that the statement is not
necessary, and reveals doubts of being and alienation fostered by analysis and
power - which, good or bad, is the case. What has been called consciousness is
the discrete, vivid very self-conscious form cultivated in a culture in
isolation from the conditions of its existence. What the objection labels “the
world out there” is the diffuse, dim…the outpost of the stark. The
external world is also an “idea” or concept that needs, in the
process of reconceptualization, be relabeled “hypothesis” rather
than “fact” or “established.” The external world is the
range of forms called matter, nature, society, and universe. We have discovered
the world “it is us.” The label “external world” is the
label for the outpost and the boundary of consciousness that is also imbued by
the material paradigm with the character of the central and the stark element
of consciousness
Further
reformulation of objection 1. In the twentieth century the reign of science overtly by
its overwhelming success and covertly by its power and dazzling of the
collective conscious, the democracy of numbers, and the subjection of all
institutions including that of learning to economic criteria resulted in a
minimization of philosophy. Philosophy, in the eyes of many, assumes a lesser,
auxiliary role. We contemplate the end of philosophy
Response: The situation described in the objection
is a symptom of capitulation in the face of the forces listed; it is a
collective loss of faith in reality fostered by alienation, by the same forces,
from the world and the real being of humankind. At the same time as the forces
described operate there is also a certain disenchantment with the
professionalization of the disciplines and the practical arts…a
disenchantment based in realism over method and also in the aging of a certain
energy and internal contradictions of the socialization of what was once magic
The
dazzle of the science and technology of the twentieth century, in the context
of this response, is like the fascination with the “siddhis"
in the practice of yoga. The “siddhis” are supernatural powers
experienced on the way to yoga. As such they are “dangerous” in
that they detract from the final goal of union with the real which may be
translated into knowledge of the real in the present context
Note
that to say that science as practiced by a
Exploration
of being - see Being and The Absolute - goes beyond the limitations apparently
imposed by the dominant paradigms of second half of the twentieth century
Further
objections, criticisms and debate:
4. Idealism as Tautological. But idealism, even with
reconceptualization, universalization and gradation of the idea says nothing - it
is almost tautological - the concept of the idea is merely redefined to include
matter. Materialism at least shows something - that, for example, ideas are
manifestations or aspects of matter
Response: Materialism - scientific or other-
does not show that ideas “reduce” to matter although that
demonstration may be part of a materialist program. I have discussed the issues
of idealism and materialism at length elsewhere. The simplest refutation of
strict materialism is that it does not and cannot explain experience. The form
of idealism considered here is not an exclusive idealism; it does not exclude
matter; it does not claim that matter is an illusion or a fiction; it does not
require or force a choice. It asserts that matter is a form of idea
Idealism
is most definitely saying something. One thing it is saying is that a
materialist system - based, for example, in physics and biology - will not and
cannot explain experience i.e., it will not explain the subjective aspect of
awareness and consciousness. The system of idealism that I am considering shows
why such materialist explanations cannot be given but it may also show that the
explanatory gap, though it is infinite in one sense, is transparent and easily
bridged in another. As more and more is known about matter - physics and
biology - more and more mental phenomena will be explained and understood and
consciousness - the fact but not the subjectivity of it - may well be explained.
That will be impressive and scientifically significant with further
implications and consequences in general and for physics and biology in
particular…but the materialist mode of description will not and need not
explain the subjective side of consciousness7: the explanation will be in an “as
if” mode
The
gap between the “as if” and the subjective modes of awareness or
consciousness - sometimes called the third and first person modes - may be
paper thin. I expect, however, that this will require reworking and broadening
of the concept of consciousness and the idea so that in the subjective limit
the concepts will reduce to the normal stark and very present form of
consciousness that we know well…and in the objective limit the concepts
will reduce to matter
In
this view, then, the scientific explanation of consciousness itself - the
subjective part…”the hard problem” may well be a non-problem -
an artifact of our cultural paradigms and institutions
Thus
idealism is not without content
The
idea is not redefined - rather it is re-conceptualized
Materialist
explanation does indeed have power but this is neither a refutation of idealism
nor a proof of materialism
Idealism
does not refute the existence of material being. There should not be any need
or desire to do this from an idealist perspective. Idealism gives meaning to
matter
Idealism
conflates subject and object but also gives special meaning to the object
Materialism
denies the subject as a category but may seek to explain it as an aspect of
matter
There
is a framework within which, practically, there is no reason to choose between
idealism and materialism because in a specific practical sense there are no
consequences to that choice. Even though idealism is simpler, more inclusive
and more direct it is only when broader frameworks are considered that the
choice is significant
5. Consciousness as Biological the obsolete dualistic
Cartesian categories of mind and matter should be discarded and consciousness
should be recognized as a material or biological phenomenon
Response: At issue here are [1] the more
basic divide between subject and object, between internal and external. These practical
dualisms are the foundation of the metaphysical Cartesian dualism. Treating
consciousness as a biological phenomenon elevates the practical divide to a
metaphysics or ontology. The present idealism bridges the divide and implies no
change for the use and utility of material explanation which goes through in
the “as if” mode. [2] In the immediate realm the introduction of
idealism as described here introduces conceptual consistency but no practical
advantage, [3] In the global or long term the idealism provides the consistency
described above, maintains the practicality of biological and material
explanation in their known domains of validity, shows a way to completed
understanding and integration of the disparate and incomplete of our modern
cosmologies
6. An Idealist Metaphysics cannot be established
Response: It should not be in the nature of
idealism to be scientific or provable empirically. The claims of idealism are
not empirical - not verified by looking at the world. Rather the claims are about
the place of “looking.” Idealism is therefore not to be proven
inductively. Nor is the assertion of idealism - that the character of the world
is that of the idea - analytic
Idealism
is not a fact in a universe of facts
Idealism
addresses the nature of the world. It is about the whole of being and the
distinctions within being. It addresses a distinction of convenience: world and
being, the object and the idea
The
idea behind idealism is the integral nature of world and experience
It
is a statement regarding the whole of being and therefore neither empirical nor
rational
A
statement or view regarding the whole of being is not empirical in the sense of
being known through experience nor would one expect to prove an assertion of
this type for proof is relative - to primitives and so on. Rather, such an
assertion would be one of integration, recognition, economy
It
is a-hypothetical. It is the nature of the world that follows from making no
assertion
When
that is spoken it is idealism
However,
idealism is not without content. We walk in the world and live in it without
projection without assertion and therefore without distortion. It is the final
economy. Materialism, pragmatism…say something about the world… And,
valuable though this may from various points of view to say something is to
distort. The silence of idealism is positive. It is the ultimate mental
discipline…to leave the world as it is
But
in a world where there are many voices it is necessary for that which needs no
voice to be spoken
Idealism
is not without content as noted, also, in the foregoing discussion. Further its
intrinsic content is the self-recognition of being. It is very close to being
saying “I Am” and saying no more. It provides context, clarity,
simplicity but not reduction. To what will we reduce the whole of being?
A
minor objection relates to the issue of simplicity. The content of the
objection appears to be about the unfamiliarity of the content. However, it is
simple in relation to the degree of assumption or hypothesis being made, the
number of categories required or even categoriality itself, the closeness to
experience and the synthesis of the content of experience with the content of
the material mode of description. Although idealism is made to stand in
opposition to materialism and sometimes to empiricism it is not so
7. The Separateness of Experience. My experiences are mine
and are separate from the experiences of others
A
related distinction: death and birth are absolute
Response: The response will be aphoristic…and
by pointing to exception
The
atomic elements are elemental and transmutation is impossible
The
world does not disappear at night
Sight
is sight and sound is sound. This is violated by synesthesia
Shared
delusions
Twins
Husband/wife
Poetry
Music
The
social taboo against bonding
The
cult of individuality
An
experiment… Connect or graft the eyes of one organism to that of another
of the same species
A
question… In enculturation, culture conditions what is perceived. A
perception is made. Whose perception is it?
8. But consciousness is localized
This
objection has been addressed in the discussions above. I revisit it because I
want to point to an old analogy
Response: We notice the air [usually] only in
its perturbations - the breeze, our breath…but not in its pervasion of
the atmosphere
It
is certain forms of consciousness that are localized
This
analogy to the form of matter… Matter is localized in particles. But
particles are not points. And the fields of interaction among “particles”
also partake of the form of matter. Some of the confusion in modern quantum
mechanics - though certainly not all - is due to applying old distinctions and
models
9. The Reconceptualization of Consciousness is Another Name
for Matter could it be that in “re-conceptualizing consciousness” I
am merely renaming matter?
Response: Perhaps the motivation for this
objection is the trap of the old terminology and viewpoints
In
the re-conceptualization the realm of consciousness expanded. Perhaps awareness
or some other perception-relation word would be better with consciousness, as
discussed above, as a special case
Note
that relation is another word that refers to something grounded but is made
tepid by projection of alienation-detachment and anti-grounding onto the world
by the politics of power and symbols
Matter
remains a special case. It is materialism, not matter, that is rejected…and
not because it is “inferior” but because it is more hypothetical
and is contained by idealism
The Issue of Materialism in the Form of Atomism
If I
say “everything, each particle, is awareness” that immediately
raises the question “What is a particle?” This is considered in the
essay Being and The Absolute
A
motive to idealism is in the following dual: 1. The inadequacies of materialism
in explaining experience, and 2. Revision of the concept of the idea. One may
argue, however, that materialism will grow to include experience - in primal
form and that the revision of the concept of the idea is too far from the
natural meaning of the idea. It may be replied that the generic concept of
materialism excludes experience and that the revision of the concept of the
idea is faithful to its grounding in experience, in the mental and is
also sufficiently broad to provide foundation for a metaphysics. And so, the
debate, the dialog, the conversation may continue
An
alternative that cuts through the dialog, permits founding in the given
categories, is non-dogmatic, allows for discovery, includes the fullness and
mystery of being and the imperatives of materialism is a suitably interpreted neutral
monism. One approach to this is the theory of being of the third circle