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MIND: a property of matter

First, the approach known as ‘reductive physicalism’, which requires that mental states are suitable for study in the physical sciences, can be ruled out as a viable possibility. 

This is because:

Publications in Philosophy

"Consciousness and memory", Journal of Consciousness Studies, 16, 5, 2009

MIND: a property of matter, Ionides Publishing, 2018

(available on Amazon)

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There are three key results relating to the nature of mind in this book.

Second, we know from introspection that, when choosing between actions with consequences that cannot be directly compared, we examine the way we feel about those consequences.  So the ability to experience mental states, feelings, is necessary to enable these decisions to be taken. 

This suggests that the role of consciousness is to enable such decisions to be taken effectively, thus enhancing the probability of survival.

it is a fundamental tenet of physics that all its experiments can be reproduced by other people; this means that all the facts studied in physics must be perfectly communicable between people linguistically; and,

we know from introspection that we cannot communicate exactly what it feels like to experience something, such as tasting truffle, to someone who has not had that experience.  

So, mental states are not suitable for study in the physical sciences and reductive physicalism cannot hold.

This means that if mind is related to matter there must be another property of matter besides those studied in physics.

Third, the choice of an action involves identifying which of the available actions seems likely to lead to the 'best' outcome; it involves a maximising  procedure akin to cost-benefit analysis.

The laws of physics, at the macro level, are linear, taking the form "if A then B, given the circumstances".  Physics does not do cost-benefit analysis.

So, if mind derives from some property relating to the fundamental particles, as seems likely since that is the case for all the other properties of matter, there should be a maximising procedure associated with some aspect of fundamental particle physics.

Perhaps this thought will enable physicists to take the initial steps towards discovering the fundamental nature of mind.

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