Minds form a Discrete Degree in the same way that the Physical has Discrete Degrees Ian Thompson Physics Department, University of Surrey, Guildford, U.K. Present address: Livermore Laboratory, PO Box 808, L-414, Livermore, CA 94551, USA Home page: http://www.ianthompson.org This talk: http://www.generativescience.org/talks/tucson2008/ Written in online abstract Mind and Physics Want: Avoid: • Constructive Theories • Just negative arguments • ‘Generative Realism’ • Just Property Dualism • Just Epiphenomenalism Then • Just Information or Mathematics • Distinct Mental and Physical • Just Nondualism • Causal Theory linking Mind • Physical Closure: and Nature every cause being physical So • ‘Anything goes’ in the mind • Laws of Mind (Psychology!) • Purely ‘simple’ minds, • Beginning of unified science Unextended minds • also: Spatial minds (!) Slogan of ‘Generative Realism’: No function without structure or form, no structure without substance, no substance without power, no power without function. Method Physics Mind & Spirit • Look at quantum physics, • Find a ‘guru’ with ‘inner’ field theory & quantum experience & rational ideas gravity as generative realism • Consider: Plato, Aristotle, Plotinus, Aquinas, Spinoza, • Take seriously substance, Descartes, Leibniz, Kant, cause via dispositions and Hegel, Whitehead, Cohen, … how they exist. • Select: Emanuel Swedenborg • Look for (1688 - 1772), who has much – Propensity, giving: personal experience of mental – Distributed Form, giving: & spiritual realms, and has presented rational ideas for – Selection Effect their comprehension. • Multiple Generative Levels: (An under-used resource!) how some things cause • He uses ‘Generative Realism’ others to exist. Synthesize!Tucson 2008 3 Propensities in Philosophy Dispositions, Powers Causation • e.g. Fragility, hardness, etc. We must Distinguish: • Dispositions • Principal Cause: – Exist continuously in time – The Disposition which operates – Manifest if Specific Condition – Manifestation is an Event • Occasional Cause – May or may not be changed – The Specific Condition after the Effect, as that Event • Instrumental Cause may be a new Specific – The Principal Cause of the Condition. Specific Condition. • Much debate: but they are • Example: dropping a pebble - – Not reducible to structures. – Not reducible to conditions. – Principal: Gravity – Occasional: Event of release • See: Harré, Molnar, Bird, Handfield, www.generativescience.org – Instrumental: My hand muscles Tucson 2008 4 Propensities in Physics Classical Physics Quantum Field Theory • potential energy field: the • Lagrangian: disposition to disposition to generate a force, generate all virtual processes in • force: the disposition to spacetime. accelerate a mass, • Virtual Particles: disposition to • acceleration: the final result. produce virtual events Quantum Physics • Virtual Events: production of • Hamiltonian (energy) operator: mass and potential energies for the energy op to generate the the Hamiltonian. wave function by evolving it in time, Quantum Gravity • wave function: the probabilistic • To be discovered: pregeometric disposition (a “propensity dispositions to generate wave”) for selecting Lagrangian and spacetime. measurement outcomes, • measurement outcome: the Notice the Generative Stages! final result. Triads of: propensity, distributed form, effect. Tucson 2008 5 Propensities in Swedenborg In the mind: Correspondences: propensities are loves. • Have alternation of principal These act in three stages: and selection causes. 1. Loves per se are substance • This will repeat itself 2. Loves entertain choices as longest if the patterns of ‘thoughts’, and so can the constituent events are choose one for action. most similar in the two 3. Loves produce action by degrees. means of thoughts. • By a sort of survival of the • Action selects future fittest, this in the long term possible choices. gives rise to similarities or correspondences of function Hence: between adjacent degrees. Derivative loves (affections) act again a similar way. Note how pattern 1>2>3 here is So result is ‘a functional image’ similar to that of physical processes. of its cause. Tucson 2008 6 Mental & Physical: Discrete Degrees Together? Main Hypothesis • Minds and Brains: together Multiple Generative Levels • Loves produce Physical Propensities by Thoughts • Physical Actions select future Loves & Thoughts. Soul Mind Body Loves Thoughts Physical Events Selections Further The Big Picture! • Each Discrete Degree exists simultaneously in its own way. • Similar dynamical principles in each Parts as in the Whole, as described by the correspondences. Examples coming! Tucson 2008 7 Mental as a Discrete Degree Consequences • Similarities (Correspondences) of Mental and Physical Functions, • Detailed Correlations between mental and neural processes Causal Interactions • Mental (& Spiritual) Development depends on physical actions by brains/bodies for permanence, • Interaction between Minds and Brains is a delicate balance of Propensities from mental Loves and Constraints by selections of past physical processes. Tucson 2008 8 The Bigger Picture Each Level has the Same Triadic Structure inside it. • Love: dealing with motivations, thoughts, actions • Thoughts: of love, of ideas, of actions • Physical: of dispositions, of forms, of effects. SOUL MIND BODY Each of the sublevels LOVE THOUGHTS PHYSICAL should have further Triadic sublevels! Celestial Adult (Loves) Deep Causes Spiritual Is there Evidence? Youth (Intellect) Field Theory -from Physics? Spiritual- Childhood Object Effects -from Psychology? Natural (Actions) Swedenborg ’s names Tucson 2008 9 Discrete Degrees in Physics: The Physical Ennead (=9) We see patterns of Discrete Degrees repeated through Physics. I call this a system of Multiple Generative Levels, in nested triads. ‘Disposition’ ‘Distributed Form’ ‘Selection Effect’ ‘Principal 9 ‘Pregeometry’ 8 Q.Gravity Processes 7 Forms space Cause’ ‘Distributed 6 Field 5 Virtual Q. Fields 4 Virtual Events Cause’ Lagrangian ‘Actual 3 Energy 2 Propensity Wave 1 Actual Events Effect’ Operator Final Effects influence later processes by Selection. Tucson 2008 10 Discrete Degrees in Minds Jean Piaget has Described Stages of Cognitive Growth • These can be described as discrete ‘layers’ of cognitive structures. • Links (semantic nets) within each layer, • ‘Generative Grammars’ link one layer to the next (not fixed nets, but something procedural). • We assume ‘post-formal’ stages after Gowan and Commons. Discrete Cognitive Structures Developed in Piaget’s Stage During ages Stage n forming n by relating n 1 6 meta-theories, paradigms creative (after Gowan, Commons) 17 5 plans, models, formalisms formal 12 16 4 classes, series, numbers operational 7 11 3 single relations intuitive 4 6 2 sentences preconceptual 2 3 1 objects sensorimotor 0 1 0 sensory and motor systems (initial biology) 0 Tucson 2008 11 Cognitive Discrete Degrees • Stages of Cognition should parallel (⇔) physical discrete degrees, remembering: – Dispositions ⇔ Loves – Distributed Forms ⇔ Thoughts – Effects ⇔ Actions • Piagets’ 5 Stages of Cognition needed to ‘understand’: – Actual events ⇔ from knowledge of objects (sensorimotor) – Object dispositions ⇔ from sentences (preconceptual) – Energy conservation ⇔ from single relations (intuitive) – Virtual events ⇔ from reversible operations (operational) – Virtual particle fields ⇔ from formal structures (formal) Tucson 2008 12 The Cognitive Ennead • Arrange Piaget’s Stages into a ‘Periodic Table’ As suggested by Gowan & Commons, later from Swedenborg. You I, Me It, They ADULT Gowan- 9 ... 8 40+ yrs 7 26-40 yrs Motivation Swedenborg Wisdom Reformation Conscience YOUTH 5 13-17 yrs 4 7-12 yrs Piaget- 6 18-25 yrs? Formal Concrete Thought Gowan Creativity operations operations INFANT 3 4-6 yrs 2 2-3 yrs 1 0-1 yrs Piaget Sensations Intuitive Preoperational Sensorimotor • Should also link corresponding affections and cognitions. Tucson 2008 13 The Biggest Picture The Physical Ennead is the final triad (effects), The Mental Ennead is the middle triad (exterior mind), And a New Ennead is the first triad (spiritual mind/soul), of this Big Ennead. SOUL MIND PHYSICAL love thoughts effects Adult (Loves) Reception of Mental Effects Celestial Quantum Forming Wisdom Reformation Conscience Pregeometry gravity Space Youth (Intellect) Field Theory Spiritual Virtual Virtual Creative Formal Operational Lagrangian Particles Events Spiritual- Childhood (Actions) Quantum Mechanics Natural Energy Wave Selection Intuitive Intuitive Sensorimotor Operator dispositions Events Mental Ennead Physical Ennead Tucson 2008 14 What is Mental Space? • Any Space defined by extensive relations. – Physical or Pregeometric or other. • Some ‘space’ is needed to individuate minds, to allow interactions M⇔M and M⇔P [see eg Kim]. • By present Hypothesis: – Loves are related by ‘what functions they would do’, – So: there is a Mental Space based on quality of function. It is Distinct from Physical Space. – Some functions are about Relations in Physical Space: These are Images that can be Perceptions. • So: – Minds are not in Physical Space, but in their own space. – Not at points in physical space. – Loves produce Physical Space – So: can be said to be ‘everywhere they act’ ⇒ “extended” Tucson 2008 15 Conclusions By method of ‘Generative Realism’: • We see Discrete Degrees in Quantum Physics – These form Multiple Generative Levels. • See also Discrete Degrees in Psychology – In Cognitive and Affective Stages • Mental & Physical: Discrete