Beyond the Subjectivity Trap

Martin O'Dea

Description

Beyond the Subjectivity Trap challenges the paradigm of the hard problem of consciousness by contesting the relevance and primacy of human thought. By tracing the evolved egocentricity of the 'I' as an entrapping limitation on our thinking the book argues that once the Subjectivity Trap is understood and escaped we can appreciate the non-existence of the mind-body divide, the pure functionality of the brain, and the limitlessness of our potential.

Sujets

• Philosophie et théologie
• Philosophy of mind
• Philosophy of science

Informations

• Publié par: Andrews UK
• Date de parution: 01 juin 2015
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781845408329
• Langue: English

Extrait

Title page
Beyond the Subjectivity Trap
Martin O’Dea
imprint-academic.com



Publisher information
2015 digital version by Andrews UK Limited
www.andrewsuk.com
Copyright © Martin O’Dea, 2015
The moral rights of the author have been asserted.
No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form without permission, except for the quotation of brief passages in criticism and discussion.
Originally published in the UK by
Imprint Academic, PO Box 200, Exeter EX5 5YX, UK
Originally distributed in the USA by
Ingram Book Company,
One Ingram Blvd., La Vergne, TN 37086, USA



Prologue
There are some issues we encounter where we debate and argue different sides, become involved emotionally, and perhaps refine our position over time - we would never say in truth that we are absolutely and unwaveringly certain on these issues. There are other issues where, when practicable, we would state with confidence that we are as certain as we can be - or, at the very least, we are not going to return to our earlier position. One might look at gaining understanding of the spherical nature of the planet, or that the moon does not walk specifically with an individual or that certain fairytales and stories adults tell us when we are kids are just that. These are instances where we at some point put away such ‘childish thoughts’ not to return.
This is how I feel towards some issues that I wish to discuss here. My understanding of consciousness and thought is that these are mere functional biological processes that can be comprehended entirely through their physical manifestations, and are no more special than a dog’s bark, an ant’s progress, or the growth of a tree, or the orbit of a rock! These may seem big claims (or at least they are potentially controversial for a lot of readers, and require a lot of support) - hence, this book.
There will be minimal scientific content or mathematical concepts used in this book. There may be sections that become convoluted and complex conceptually. My intention is to express the key points as succinctly as possible; this may not be the result, though, such is the topic under consideration. However, there is so much great stuff written already and digestible, by anyone who is curious - no need to be a specialist or in a relevant field - that I would suggest you use the wonders of the internet to read and watch talks, lectures, and debates in any area I mention that may not be very familiar.



Book One
Chapter One: Consistent Hidden Revolutions
There have been a number of well-known instances through history where large swathes of the then widely held worldview, or what was ‘known’ by humanity, were completely revolutionised and largely dismissed. There is, of course, a natural accumulation of knowledge also, but in many cases the context in which things were understood was turned on its head. The flat world and the Sun orbiting the Earth (which is not at the centre of the universe), the absoluteness of time, or the influence of cleanliness on illness were all major shifts that took time to move from discovery and proof to widespread acceptance. In each instance the ideas were resisted and seen as heretical - they were resisted so strongly that from this perspective it might be worth pondering why new ideas of large significance meet such strong resistance - and this, in fact, is something that will be discussed later on when we take a look at modern theories and understanding of mind; and, particularly, at certainty.
When Albert Einstein became world famous and the ‘masses’ tried desperately through a plethora of analogies to get to grips with the ideas of relativity, a gap perhaps first emerged between what the students of fact or scientific seekers of truth were presenting and the general public’s ability to absorb what this meant for them. It could be argued that through the next century that gap has been repeatedly extended and, unfortunately, seems to not be bridged too often. There are discoveries and theories abroad now that are revolutionising our understanding of ourselves and our place in the universe that are much more significant than anything from before, the ramifications are much more far reaching, but the changes that are required from our traditional worldviews are greater also.
The hope of this book is to present and discuss some of the fundamental understandings that underpin the increasingly rapid development of new possibilities; to explore latest views of the world around us and within us. To begin to question the concept of thought, itself, and to look at the whole range of incredible repercussions of what we now know and are doing and trying to do, most having the potential for great improvements and great tragedies for humanity.
The genuine hope is that you may at times see the world from a different angle, though very little of what you know or hold dear need change, but the context in which you know these things will. While we may appreciate relativity and quantum mechanics we do not factor them in when driving a car. Nor indeed do we feel queasy at the thought of a spherical world as we walk towards the horizon. So it should be if we can dismiss the primacy of thought!
To get the most from this journey you just need to park as much as possible your current understandings of the world you find yourself in, and what you see to be ‘real’ or certain. Don’t fret, they are retrievable... Read devoid of the bias of all the impossibilities and limits you always thought certain, assess the implications and possibilities that our new understandings point towards - all with nothing but your ability to reason.
It is understandable through studying evolutionary biological terms (as is almost everything else - and this too will be revisited) that our internal world representations are central to our sense of ‘self’. You may already be aware, for example, that we see things in 2D (like a TV) and that we interpret depth, but this interpretation gains in significance as our ancestors approached the edge of a sheer drop or estimated how far off a beast sits. Our worldview is based on certainties in many such instances. Furthermore, we can really only approach something new with our current worldview and its inherent prejudices, and it is incredibly difficult for us to accept major disagreements with our interpretation of reality.
To change these interpretations, in fact, we need to rewire our brains and how they process images. As we will also see later this requires the things you would think, like education, concentration, and consideration; but it also involves repeat exposures. It is, as we will see, a physical alteration when we ‘change’ our minds. We need to endure some reality-shifting and therefore baffling scientific findings a number of times before we begin to enjoy them and eventually accept them. Sometimes they counter our intuition so much that no amount of exposure seems to do the trick! It will most likely sound weird but many times as I read an account of relativity or the dual slit experiment in quantum mechanics, I got a real kick out of the fact that my brain tried desperately to find explanations other than those provided by the leading physicists of the last hundred years - just to protect my understanding of ‘how things are to me’. There I was in my first few books picking holes in Einstein’s and Bohr’s work! Eventually, though, we can agree that something is credible, if difficult in some sense to accept. We can, at least, see why other ideas do not stand up by comparison. The thing to undermine is not the specific breakthrough or the fact that we believed hand on heart in something a year ago that now we don’t - we must attempt to understand the reasons for and the limitations of our certainties.
We should, though, be confident as amateurs that we can appreciate anything with enough exposure and explanation. It is a worry that children are told in their early school years that they are weak at something and then do not bother to exercise their neural networks in this general field, and so we get a self-fulfilling prophecy. It is essential to keep in mind the value of our own reasoning ability and to not be afraid to disagree. The only thing to be avoided, as history shows, is certainty. Perhaps an example of human reasoning winning out over experience lies in the oft-cited flat vs. spherical world debate. Eratosthenes, a Greek scholar who lived 275–194 BC, heard that on a summer solstice day the Sun is reflected perfectly in a deep well in Syene. But at the same time and same day, in Alexandria, the sun wasn’t reflected perfectly in the same type of well. Why? It occurred to him that the only way that could have happened is by the curvature of the Earth. Easy said, I guess, but this is a stunning piece of deduction. Imagine the Sun directly above a point and no shadow of a stick in the ground being cast at all, yet elsewhere the shadow can be seen.
It is important to bear in mind that there was absolutely no reason for him to imagine that there was anything other than a flat world and a whole range of very strong reasons (not falling off the edge, for one) to see it as everyone else did. So the trigonometry was impressive but the thinking was really amazing, and the benefits of questioning assumptions through deductions are obvious.
With that healthy dose of uncertainty promotion, I want to present a run-through of some of the understandings of the world around us that have been bequeathed to us.
Chapter Two: The World Around Us
THE BIG
The first task, I think, in trying to get a good understanding of our environment is to try to get an idea of size - in truth this is an impracticable task but still fun to try. We’ll begin by concentrating on the big, lookin