Descartes’, “I THINK THEREFORE I AM” might be the most profound sentence written.
It is a quintessential crystalized conception regarding our human condition, our psychology and our introspective human mind — but, it has zero to do with the physical biological world that we are embedded within, that created our body/brain, which in turn produces our mind full of thoughts.
Think about it, Descartes lived and died before real sciences existed! Descartes and his philosophy is embedded within the theological world dominated by the Catholic Empire, which he bowed to.
Today, David Chalmers is a genius professor of that intellectual tradition. A tradition that can’t seem to see past the bubble of our human mind. Chalmers and supporters insist that biology will never bridge the gap between matter and thought, at least not without admitting some metaphysical something.
For support of their Hard Problem belief, they have beautiful arguments with opinions and words piled on top of words, insisting the gap between matter and thinking cannot possibly be found upon 100% pure physical biological, scientific evidence, it requires …, well it requires something extra, they insist.
Then they look for consciousness within the brain and neurons, without explicitly recognizing that our introspective mind is but the extreme end of the consciousness spectrum.
Human introspective consciousness would be impossible without the support and substance of all those older lower layers of consciousness, that permeate our body, but that we aren’t directly aware of.
Serious science has been busy learning about these revelations and sharing with all who are curious.
We live in a new world reality, scientists have evidence mitochondria communicate and coordinate with each other — and they are within each cell! Intercellular awareness and communication is also a documented thing. Research into independent single celled creatures, are recording the same behaviors being documented in complex animals.
There has been a paradigm shift in biological sciences that smashes through all those quaint medieval Ego-driven notions of human exceptionalism, that theological and philosophical thinking are built upon.
Physical science has even unraveled the mystery of “Vitalism” and it isn’t sprinkled down upon Earth by God or anything else. It turns out to be a product of Earth herself!
“Vitalism” was invented over four billion years ago by chemistry, in partnership with Earth, time, and it is found in the Krebs cycle, where quite literally, geology and chemistry figured out how to harness electricity, thereby inventing biology. That is what life sprang from.
For details, read Nick Lane’s Transformer and his previous books. Further sources shared at the end.All of this requires a modern philosophy brave enough to blast through the entrenched faith based platitudes. Learning to vocally grapple with our Human Mind ~ Physical Reality divide, and to begin appreciating all that unfolds from that recognition.
Within our body, each of us possesses a genetic heritage going back over half a billion years. Our body is the product of all those untold successful generations piling one on top of the previous one, living, learning, surviving one day at a time, leaving offspring behind to take up the gauntlet. As they, in turn, turn heritage into legacy.
The science is making it clear that the best way to understand consciousness is as the inside reflection of our body communicating with itself.
When are those realities going to start getting enthusiastically discussed within philosophical circles?
Here’s an introductory scientist author’s list
Robert Hazen: Mineral evolution on Earth, preparing the ground for biology
Nick Lane: Geology and chemistry harnesses electricity to create biology.
Writer of the most excellent summary of “SELF”
Jack Szostak: The Early Earth and the Origins of Cellular Life
Michael Russell: On the Emergence of Life Through “Negative” Entropy Trapping
Arthur Reber: The “Cellular Basis of Consciousness” proposal — CBC
Michael Levin: Bioelectricity in development and regeneration, exploring cellular cognition.
Biology together with time, and chemistry and geology, that is Earth’s processes created creatures and environments and competition, in short, evolution.
Pageant of Earth’s Evolution, Index of noteworthy YouTube videos
Mark Solms — Regarding the Source of Consciousness
Antonio Damasio — Self Comes to Mind: Constructing the Conscious Brain
Robert Sapolsky — Behavioral Biology with a Primatology background
Honorable mention, author David Quammen’s The Tangled Tree of Life, a front and center history of the ‘70’s genetics revolution, that ushered in this golden age of biology.
These are some of the leading lights, though I never forget they require the support of thousands to help this work move forward.
Further reflections, Considering Things Science Can Explain About Consciousness
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