Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by strogonoff 778 days ago
If you believe in determinism, then it is likely you also believe in physicalist monism (“there is only the matter and consciousness arises/derives fully from it or is an illusion”).

Normally there is not much I can say to change your mind on that, but just note—there are other views, like idealistic monism, which unlock other possibilities wrt. free will, and which cannot be disproven or proven compared to physicalist monism (which cannot be proven or disproven either).
2 comments
namero999 778 days ago
I'll just echo this, in that monistic idealism (especially, as a personal preference, in the declination of analytical idealism) is a worldview able to supersede the incongruous, untenable and for the most part, epistemically moot physicalism/materialism, which is sadly still considered the default mainstream worldview.

As parent said, many open questions and interpretations become relatively trivial under idealism, while preserving 100% of our scientific understanding and method.

link
strogonoff 775 days ago
Could you name-drop any analytic idealists? What would be in your opinion a good starting point?
link
namero999 771 days ago
Bernardo Kastrup.

I think the best resource are his books. He also has several online interviews. The guy used to work at CERN and ASML, turned to philosophy.

https://www.essentiafoundation.org/analytic-idealism-course/

A compressed version of the same material

https://www.essentiafoundation.org/ef-keytoe-analytic-ideali...

The PhD dissertation https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9iyoiJmWvSs

Enjoy the rabbit hole :)

link
imtringued 776 days ago
The problem with any form of physicalism is that if consciousness arises from physical principles, then the vast majority of the universe consists of unobserved physical interactions. Does the universe really exist at that point? If it doesn't, how come I am here to experience it? If it does, it would be more likely that I am a disembodied boltzman brain than a human that evolved on earth, since there is no reason for the unobserved portion of the universe to not be infinitely large. You simply wouldn't know it.
link