Philosophical musings on Quanta & Qualia;  Materialism & Spiritualism; Science & Religion; Pragmatism & Idealism, etc.

ENFORMATIONISM

A philosophical worldview or belief system grounded on the 20th century discovery that Information, rather than Matter, is the fundamental substance of everything in the universe. It is intended to be the 21st century successor to the ancient worldviews of Materialism and Idealism. An Update from Bronze Age to Information Age. It's also a Theory – of – Everything that covers, not just matter & energy, but also Life & Mind & Love.

11. Phenomena vs      Noumena :
    “According to Kant, it is vital always to distinguish between the distinct realms of phenomena and noumena. Phenomena are the appear-ances, which constitute the our experience; noumena are the (presumed) things them-selves, which constitute reality.”
https://pressbooks.cuny.edu/philosophyashorthistory3/chapter/immanuel-kant-experience-and-reality/

12. Imperfect Perception :
    “Evolution by natural selection has not endowed human beings with perceptual systems (sensory apparatus) that give us an accurate picture of fundamental reality. This is because seeing reality as it is would provide no fit-ness advantage. Instead, we see only what our conscious-ness requires in order to survive and reproduce.”
https://medium.com/@Vatche/the-perplexing-user-interface-theory-of-donald-hoffman-160b2ba87a43

  Post 131.  August 28, 2023

  Creative Mind and Cosmic Order

     Phenomena vs Noumena

In his chapter on Realism, Pinter describes that sense-trusting philosophical position as “the belief that the external world is exactly as we see it”. But then, he turns around and says that the appearances reported by the senses are a “necessary deception”. That warning about deceptive appear-ances harkens back to 18th century philosopher Immanuel Kant’s distinction between physical Phenomena and meta-physical Noumena¹¹, and is similar to 21st century cognitive psychologist Donald Hoffman’s provocative Interface Theory of Perception¹², in which nature has placed limits on our ability to see the complex inner workings of the world. This is not an intentional disinformation campaign on the part of Mother Nature, but merely the pragmatic effect of evolutionary mech-anisms that select organisms for biological Fitness instead of for intellectual curiosity. Survival & reproduction do not require creatures to understand the multiplex microscopic inner mechanisms of reality, but merely to negotiate & manipulate the macro-scale elements of the world. Yet, a species of arrogant big-brained naked apes has evolved beyond the minimum requirements of life, and are now probing into the guts of reality in search of intellectual understanding.

Pinter’s book also has a chapter discussing the Mind vs Matter debate in modern philosophy. Regarding the materialistic bias of modern Science and Philosophy, He says “the most widely shared opinion today is that mental phenomena are subject to physical law, and can be fully explained by the principles of physics”. Ironically, that presumption is more of a hopeful belief than a settled science. Neuroscience remains an immature discipline in search of evidence for its own core belief : the physical or “neural basis” of Consciousness (i.e mind & self) . However, few philosophers today would argue that mental and intellectual phenomena (appearances) exist super-naturally in an ideal realm. So, he asks the pertinent question, “if sensations are not physical, then in what sense can we say they exist at all?” After briefly mentioning two alternative theories, Realism & Idealism, he raises the possibility of a third perspective : “a higher science which is inclusive of both physical reality and cognitive phenomena”.

He refers to that alternative science as Functionalism. “The essence of functionalism is that all that matters is the way the tasks interact globally as a system”. An ancient name for that non-Western non-reductive way of thinking is Holism¹³. But a more scientific label for the same approach to understanding complexity is Systems Theory¹⁴. But for my own personal philosophical purposes,  I call it The Enformationism Hypothesis. It’s intended to explain both physical Phenomena and meta-physical Noumena, as merely different forms of a single essential causal Force : EnFormAction¹⁵. That’s why I call it the BothAnd philosophy, based on the quantum physics principle of Complementarity, which is similar to the ancient Yin/Yang concept.

      Blog Post 131 continued  . . . . click Next             

13. Holism :
  “The theory that parts of a whole are in intimate interconnection, such that they cannot exist independently of the whole, or cannot be understood without reference to the whole, which is thus regarded as greater than the sum of its parts. Holism is often applied to mental states, language, and ecology.”
Oxford Dictionary

14. Systems Theory :
   “By taking a holistic view, systems theory attempts to explain how different parts of the system are inter-connected and how they influence each other. Feedback loops, closed systems, and the role of components in larger systems are key concepts that help elucidate this interconnectedness.”
https://www.structural-learning.com/post/systems-theories

15. EnFormAction :
   The creative power of Nature to enform; to cause transformations from one form to another.
https://bothandblog2.enformationism.info/page29.html

Appearances
can be
Deceiving