Whatever reality is, our understanding of it has to account for the succession of events. Any claim to freedom of the will forms a contradiction of the notion of reality in which the necessity of the succession of events exists. ANy quintessential quality is a god of the gaps to fill any thing we can't account for. That does not mean that any inference can be drawn from what is nothing more that a metaphysical concept. Why should we not simply except that consciousness is a property of matter and energy in time and space which exists in particular circumstances?
On Apr 5, 9:06 pm, Robert <[email protected]> wrote: > The following is a re-written and condensed form of my earlier draft > It will hopefully clarify my proposition. > Please comment. Thank you. > > Quintessence Revisited: > What is Reality Made Of? > > Conscious Free will is quintessential: > The universe cannot exist without it. > > Physics has observed four fundamental building blocks, so to speak, of > the universe. They are matter, energy, space, and time. Everything > that science observes can be described in terms that require at least > one of these four basic concepts. > > They are the modern version of what ancient scientists called the four > essences, except that their four essences were earth, wind, water and > fire. > > The ancients found the need to recognize a fifth essence, the > quintessence. In their case, that essence was what composed the > astronomical objects they saw in the sky. > > Likewise, we also must recognize a quintessential component of > reality, a fifth fundamental building block of nature. This fifth > essence is composed of three stages: life, consciousness and free > will. > > Of these three, consciousness is the easiest to discuss, because no > conscious person can rationally deny that consciousness exists. > > Consciousness represents a fifth essence of the universe because it > cannot be explained in terms of the other four. Life can largely be > explained in terms of biophysics, but consciousness, as we experience > it, cannot. And when it comes to the apex of consciousness, that is > to say, free will, not only is physics unable to explain it in terms > of the other four essences, it actually forbids free will unless we > accept it as quintessential. > > Free will is the monkey wrench in the standard model of physics, the > 800 pound gorilla in the room that science strains to ignore. > Consciousness is the ocean in which that fish, physics, swims. So > pervasive is consciousness, and its ultimate expression in free > will--- so pervasive is it that we tend not to notice it. > > Okay we notice it, but only in passing. Physics is the conscious > understanding of reality by scientists exercising free will. But free > will is far more than just another element on the periodic table, > vastly more important than the discovery of exotic phenomena such as > dark matter, and exceedingly more strange than the singularity in a > black hole. > > Free will can be described as, among other things, a non-random, > purposeful, uncaused cause. > > Such a concept must shake the conventional study of physics to its > foundations. For in conventional physics, every observed event is the > result of a preceding cause, and that cause, even if it is randomness > itself, forces the observed effect. > > But the concept of free will posits the idea of an independent agent > in nature, a truly volitional creature, one that can break free of the > chain of cause and effect, and so to speak, rewrite part of the script > that nature has up to then been following. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Epistemology" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/epistemology?hl=en.
