Paul P. Mealing

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Thursday 11 October 2018

My philosophy in 24 dot points

A friend (Erroll Treslan) posted on Facebook a link to a matrix that attempts to encapsulate the history of (Western) philosophy by listing the most influential people and linking their ideas, either conflicting or in agreement.

I decided to attempt the same for myself and have included those people, whom I believe influenced me, which is not to say they agree with me. In the case of some of my psychological points I haven’t cited anyone as I’ve forgotten where my beliefs came from (in those cases).

  • There are 3 worlds: physical, mental and mathematical. (Penrose)
  • Consciousness exists in a constant present; classical physics describes the past and quantum mechanics describes the future. (Schrodinger, Bragg, Dyson)
  • Reality requires both consciousness and a physical universe. You can have a universe without consciousness, which was the case in the past, but it has no meaning and no purpose. (Barrow, Davies)
  • Purpose has evolved but the Universe is not teleological in that it is not determinable. (Davies)
  • There is a cosmic anthropic principle; without sentient beings there might as well be nothing. (Carter, Barrow, Davies)
  • Mathematics exists independently from humans and the Universe. (Barrow, Penrose, Pythagoras, Plato)
  • There will always be mathematical truths we don’t know. (Godel, Turing, Chaitin)
  • Mathematics is not a language per se. It starts with the prime numbers, called the 'atoms of mathematics', yet extends to infinity and the transcendental. (Euclid, Euler, Riemann)
  • The Universe created the means to understand itself, with mathematics the medium and humans the only known agents. (Einstein, Wigner)
  •  The Universe obeys laws dependent on fine-tuned mathematical parameters. (Hoyle, Barrow, Davies)
  • The Universe is not a computer; chaos rules and is not predictable. (Stewart, Gleik)
  • The brain does not run on algorithms; there is no software. (Penrose, Searle)
  • Human language is analogous to software because we ‘download’ it from generation to generation and it ‘mutates’; if I can mix my metaphors. (Dawkins, Hofstadter)
  • We think and conceptualise in a language. Axiomatically, this limits what we can conceive and think about. (Wittgenstein)
  • We only learn something new when we integrate it into what we already know. (Wittgenstein)
  • Humans have the unique ability to nest concepts within concepts ad-infinitum, which mirror the physical world. (Hofstadter)
  • Morality is largely subjective, dependent on cultural norms but malleable by milieu, conditioning and cognitive dissonance. (Mill, Zimbardo)
  • It is inherently human to form groups with an ingroup-outgroup mentality.
  • Evil requires the denial of humanity in others.
  • Empathy is the key to social reciprocity at all levels of society. (Confucius, Jesus)
  • Quality of life is dependent on our interaction with others from birth to death. (Aristotle, Buddha)
  • Wisdom comes from adversity. The premise of every story ever told is about a protagonist dealing with adversity – it’s a universal theme (Frankl, I Ching).
  • God is an experience that is internal, yet is perceived as external. (Feuerbach)
  • Religion is the mind’s quest to find meaning for its own existence.

Addendum: I’ve changed it from 23 points to 24 by adding point 22. It’s actually a belief I’ve held for some time. They are all ‘beliefs’ except point 7, which arises from a theorem.

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