"Science" vs "scientists", and Levels: Brain, mind, being, values, free will, transcendence, spiritual

There are various levels:

  1. a brain;
  2. the information processed in a brain;
  3. a thought or concept or emotion or sensation associated to the brain-state;
  4. a sense of self, the "I" who 'understands the concept' or who is experiencing the thought or emotion or sensation.

Many scientists seem to reject the Cartesian notion of a 'mind'. They will agree that there are the first two levels, but will see level 2 as the software of the brain, which is the hardware.

In my opinion, people intelligent enough to understand philosophy but who deny the existence of a mind probably lack one. Given that a Cartesian mind is not physical, it is not part of the causal chain of physical events, and so there is no evolutionary effect on it, and it is not necessary for the evolutionary emergence of brains which process information, and so there is no reason to simply assume that all humans have minds.

5. There is a further level, for example that which is often called 'values' etc, including the notion of an absolute morality, of meaning and purpose somehow transcending that which is produced by the 'purely-physical'.

And then there is the notion 'a truly-free will' which gives rise to the notion that one is in some cases actually able to choose one's actions. This notion has no basis in physics or philosophy.

6. A further level is that of a 'transcendent' or 'spiritual' realm or being, which is invoked to provide foundation for the notion of 'absolute morality', and of the 'moral responsibility' associated to a free-will. Those who believe in the reality of this realm often see it as the source of all existence. It is also often associated with a certain category of feelings experienced by minds, those labeled as 'transcendence' or 'connecting to the unity of it all' or 'the source of all love' etc, though minds in this state do not consider themselves to be simply 'experiencing a feeling of communication/connection' but rather as "actually being" in communication/connection with a "transcendent" or "spiritual" level.

'Physics' deals only with that which is experimentally measurable, not levels 3,4,5,6. By definition, if a phenomenon is not physically measurable, it is not part of physics. On the other hand, inasmuch as any phenomenon is physically measurable it becomes part of physics, so for example the phenomena which used to be considered in the realm of the spiritual such as the 'heavenly bodies' are considered purely physical. And if physics will succeed in describing, measuring, predicting phenomena which today is considered in the spiritual realm, it will be considered part of physics.

Also, although levels 3,4,5,6 are not part of physics, physics resides in the brains of physicists, and physicists have different approaches and beliefs, and some physicists do accept the existence of some of these levels.

Physics models

Unprovable elements in a statement can be their trojan horse. That is, when one makes statements which include more than one can prove experimentally, one may be unwittingly turning it into a false statement.

For example, physicists need mental models of phenomena to make sense of them, and to develop new theories. However, afterwards it may well turn out that certain elements of the model were incorrect, or simply unnecessary. A classic example is 'the ether' (though certain Machian issues have not been fully resolved to everyone's satisfaction). Also, the notion of the 'reality' of particles between measurements.

Similarly, when we talk of 'states of reality' which cannot be experimentally measured. One can even make the case that this applies even to saying "the universe is in a state of superposition before measurement takes place", since the more accurate statement is about the mathematics which will correctly predict the outcome of an experiment, or the statistics of many experiments, and which describes the mathematical state at the time-parameter corresponding to "before the measurement".

However, the way that our thinking works is to create a mental model, and so we talk of "the universe" and its states, and what was the state of the universe before measurement....however physics takes as valid only measurement-results, and so "the state of the universe before it was measured" is just an element of a mental model in the mind of a physicist. Physicists are beings with brains which create models, and so physicists and "physics" are somewhat different. However "physics" is just a collection of concepts and facts in the brains of physicists. (Note: of course to a solipsist the distinction is mostly lost).