Philosophical Speculations

There seems to be a Materialist undertones in all of these explanations about the origin of life. Science is agnostic about metaphysics but if the scientists have the wrong metaphysics then it is possible that they may be looking in the wrong place, no matter how promising it might look. But if you ...

Are theories stating that simple organic compounds assembling into more complex coalitions that could grow and reproduce were the very first life on earth incorrect ? Materialist would see this as inanimate matter becoming animate. Idealists would see this as the image of a dissociative process in c...

This is great and also quite deep. I need to spend some time assimilating it. Resistance is futile.
Thanks once again.

Anil Seth: Read more: https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg25133501-500-the-hard-problem-of-consciousness-is-already-beginning-to-dissolve "Science can solve the great mystery of consciousness – how physical matter gives rise to conscious experience – we just have to use the right approach.&q...

The best that I can come up with after further thought is that Quantum fields are the ontological primitive for materialism. But then you can't explain consciousness and are left with a dualism or the hard problem. If on the other hand you say quantum fields is actually consciousness and matter is w...

We need to differentiate between physics and metaphysics. Physics is relational as it deals with behavior. Materialism is metaphysics. They claim the ontological primitive is matter. But when you try to find this matter you end up with energy which is a mathematical abstraction. Unless I am missing ...

Excellent replies. This is why I started the discussion. I realized that materialist are hard pressed to find their ontological primitive. Naive materialist naturally assume that it's matter. But this does not address electromagnetism. Maybe energy is too generic a word but it's hard to find another...

Energy is quantity and as such cannot resolve the hard problem but it does give a better ontological primitive than matter. I use to think matter was particles then particles became properties of quantum fields which became something else. Matter is defined as a physical substance in general, as dis...

When Materialist/Physical Realists say that matter is the ontological primitive, this is strictly incorrect. The ontological primitive in a Material Metaphysics is energy. Energy is the one substance that explains everything in material metaphysics. Matter is explained in terms of energy. Not everyt...