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Don Salmon's avatar

For a philosopher, a remarkably clear, accessible essay.

Now, let's do some playful exploration of this.

How to communicate the limits of "materialism"?

I joined Bernardo Kastrup's online forum in 2013, about 3 years before he published his first breakthrough public essay. Do you know it was not until 2019, that he fully realized how confused people were about the meaning of the word "matter" in philosophy (even philosophers and physicists were completely confused about it). Let's look at the physicist's definition first, then the everyday person's idea of it, and then step into philosophy

(1) According to physics: Matter is anything that takes up space and can be weighed. In other words, matter has volume and mass.

(2) the everyday meaning; It's what we touch and see and feel in our body and all around us

(3) ?????

Wait a minute, don't philosophers have a definition? Well, just about 100 years ago, after physicists clearly demonstrated that matter was not the ontological fundamental they thought it was (What the heck does that mean? The fundamental "thing" in the universe, from which all else is "made" or from which all is emerged - in other words, the God of the modern secular philosopher).

So they said, "Ok, we're not materialists, we're "physicalists."

But there was a huge problem with this. Nobody could decide what "physical" meant as an ontological primitive (you know, the basic "thing" or "stuff")

I was a member of a naturalist Facebook group for 6 months. I asked only one question: "What does 'physical' mean?" People were outraged by this question, yet nobody could answer it. One philosophy professor was among the most outraged, and yet kept dodging it for 4 months.

I think it was actually about the 5th month in, after another slew of outraged, irrational dodges showed up, the professor stepped up and wrote, "you know, Don is right. nobody has any idea how to define "physical" as the primary stuff of the universe.

I just said, Thank you."

So back to Bernardo. He realized that almost everyone was simply mixing up the three definitions I wrote above of "matter' or "physical". If you try to have a discussion about materialism or physicalism, watch this. If you're confused when you read what you think is a strong argument FOR physicalism, ask yourself - what are they talking about.

Before I move on to major problems with the concept of "idealism," one last suggestion. I wrote back to the professor in the naturalism group and said, "you know, there really is a consistent definition of "physicalism" that works for all the arguments back to the 1920s. It's this: "I have absolutely no idea what the fundamental stuff or basis of the universe is. But as a (scientist, philosopher, atheist, or just plain curmudgeon) I can tell you absolutely for sure, without even one scintilla of the possibility of a doubt: The foundation of the universe is NON conscious, NON sentient, NON intelligent, NON rational.... and, well, you can guess where I'm going with this. i don't even have an idea about how to have an idea about what the basis stuff is, but I can tell you with more certainty than the Pope has about whether he's Catholic, THAT is what the basis of the universe is - NON any of that stuff."

Now, idealism.

I have what may seem to be an unrelated question for you:

Do you have the direct experience that you, YOU, are holding the stars together? That you are responsible for the stability of the so called laws of nature? If you so desired, could you dissemble all the "material" stuff in front of you and reassemble it to what you want?

(In case it wasn't obvious, those were rhetorical questions)

Back when I joined Bernardo's forum 11 years ago, there were about a dozen of us who actually had backgrounds both in theology and philosophy, East as well as West. We tried to tell Bernardo that his "Mind At Large," which evidently has only phenomenal consciousness (meaning, the ultimate has the mental capacity somewhere between a slug and a tadpole), has been thoroughly refuted for well over a century in critiques of Schopenhauer.

Ironically, schopenhauer built his philosophy on the most basic, fundamental and thorough misreading of the Upanishads.

So let's look at the Upanishads (whose outline of the nature of things is wholly consistent with that of the Kabbalah, the greatest Christian and Sufi mystics, much if not most of Tantra, and a great deal of Tibetan and Tantric Buddhism)

Matter is the appearance of SCA (Sat Chit Ananda, Existence-Consciousness-Bliss) to the Supreme Consciousness of the universe (which is infinitely beyond both mind and matter)

Prana or Life is the movement of that same Supreme Conscious Energy

Mind is the principle that provides form to matter and life. In itself, it does not have the capacity for understanding

Vijnana - Gnosis, or as translated by Sri Aurobindo, Supramental Consciousness - is the Isvara, God, Infinite Intelligence, the Word through which all comes into being, which manifests in matter as the stability of laws of nature, in animals as instinct, in humans as understanding, imagination, intuition, inspiration and all forms of genius in general

SCA is the highest the mind can comprehend of this Supreme Reality, which is both infinitely multitudinous and One, and beyond BOTH the One and the Many, both Being and non-Being, and ultimately, as is indicated by the Kabbalistic term G_d, incapable of being understood at all by the human mind.

This is so so so so far beyond "pure conscious experience" as expressed by Kastrup or Schopenhauer.

If you would like to see what is perhaps the most masterful philosophic exposition of this, in India, or perhaps, in all of history, read Sri Aurobindo's "The Life Divine'

On the other hand, you don't need to read any books.

Here's how to realize this directly:

1. Step back entirely from the activity of the body, emotions and mind. You do this unconsciously every night of your life when you go to sleep, so this is not necessarily some terribly advanced contemplative process. You simply need to do it consciously. Your thoughts will come to an utter standstill, and you will be as if you were fully awake in Stage 3 sleep, when the mind is utterly asleep.

2. Open to that Supreme Intelligence, that Supreme Existence Consciousness, Bliss, which is BOTH personal AND impersonal, and ask that you may be shown the nature of things.

As the kids say, "Easy peasy"!

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