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Summary points for Week 2
Chapter 4 - We need a better idea of ‘substance’
á Realistic basis need for all kinds of things
á The power/propensity/dispositions of objects
á Concept of mental substance
Substance, Form, and Dynamics
There are three categories of terms in science:
á formal terms about the structure & static properties of what exists now
á existential terms about what exists, what is. Is it unknown?
á dynamical terms about what would happen, in new or hypothetical conditions.
o Only by dynamics can we make predictions.
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Form |
Existence |
Dynamics |
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shape, number, form, relation, configuration, function, field, oscillation, wave, flow, vibration point, length, area, volume, amplitude, vector, matrix, Hilbert space, ratios, probability, relative frequency. |
particle, material, matter, corpuscle, body, fluid, ether, substance, actuality, reality, world, universe. |
cause, propensity, power, disposition, capability, energy (kinetic and potential), mass, charge, field coupling, force, pressure, momentum, impetus, elasticity/rigidity.
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Mathematics |
Ontology |
Science of Causes |
New idea: ‘Dynamic substance’
á Try to derive ‘existence’ from ‘dynamics’ (ontology from causes)
á Substance of a thing is its propensity (to do some thing)
á Examples: ‘electromagnetic force field’,
o ‘potential energy field’
o ‘matter is a form of energy’
o quantum wave function is a ‘propensity field’
¤ propensity to interact, or
¤ propensity to choose actual outcome
á Remember: propensities still present even if not acting
o Do not need to know more ‘existence’ than this.
o Maybe not that original!
¤ Aristotle and Newton used something similar
Quantum Physics
á There are probabilistic (random) events.
o From a wave function spread out in space
o Wave function from an equation about energy
Now:
á the wave function is the form of propensity
o The propensity for probabilistic events
o That propensity is substance of quantum objects
á No particles, only ‘waves of propensity’
á The propensity is the substance, wave is the form
Bad ideas about Quantum Physics
á Shut up and calculate (physicists)
o No reality
á Physics just for actual outcomes, not reality (Bohr)
o No propensity or substance
á Parallel universes (Everitt)
o No actual outcomes
á Hidden classical particles (Bohm)
o Quantum waves are not substances
á Selection by consciousness (Wigner)
o Propensities are for selections. But maybe ‘when’?
Mental Substances (minds)
á Works for minds too:
á Not something ‘we know not what’!
á Mental substances are the propensity for mental actions
á That is: loves, desires, etc. are mental substance
á Even materialists (eg Gilbert Ryle) agree that ‘minds are dispositions’.
o but now we take them as real substances.
Bad ideas of mental substance
á Immaterial Form (Aquinas)
á Rationality (Descartes)
á Matter (materialists, physicalists)
á Information (Bohm?)
á Quantum vacuum (Laszlo)
á Consciousness (what does it do?)
Chapter 5 - Generative Levels
Better idea of ‘multiple degrees’ of existence?
á Like ‘dimensions’ or ‘planes’, but better
á Examples from physics
á Examples from psychology
á General principles: generation & selection
Degrees in Galileo’s experiment
á Remember how a ball rolling down a hill is accelerated by gravity (Galileo’s experiment)
á Newton’s second law: F=ma
o So: acceleration (a) = force (F) / mass (m)
o But: acceleration is present only if mass is there!
o So: force = disposition to accelerate a mass (if finite mass present)
á Presence of inertial mass is occasion for motion, but not principal cause
á Multiple degrees in Newton’s physics
á Ball rolling down a hill is accelerated by gravity
á Gravitational energy:
o Force depends on the slope
o Changes in gravitational potential energy produce the force
Two stages in Quantum Mechanics
á Propensity wave generates the actual measurement
o according to Born’s Probability Rule for |Ψ|2
á Actual measurements = selections of alternate histories
á Energy operator generates the wave function,
o according to Schršdinger’s time-dependent equation
á So: ‘Energy’ and ‘propensity waves’ are two kinds of propensity
á Neither are mental propensities!
Multiple degrees in psychology
á In deliberate control of hand movements
o Deliberate (rational) intentions (D)
o Monitoring of moving hand, by eyes (P)
o Control of muscles (M)
Recognizing Discrete Degrees
á Quantum mechanics:
o Energy → Propensity → Actual Selections
á Classical physics
o Potential energy → Forces → Acceleration
á Psychology of motor control
o Plan → Guidance → Motor impulse → Physical act
á All these are example of Discrete Degrees or Generative Levels
Principles of 2 Discrete Degrees
Consider: A → B
A generates further existence of B
Which new B is generated by A, and is selected by previous B
Twin processes of generation and selection
á Generation is from the ‘higher’ degree: ‘principal cause’
á Selection is from the ‘lower’ degree: ‘occasional cause’
If only two degrees like here, we have ‘occasionalism’:
á For God, this is philosophy of Nicolas Malebranche (1638-1715)
á An attempt to understand God-world relations.
Principles of 3 Discrete Degrees
Consider: A → B → C
A generates further existence of B, and B of C
Which new B is generated selected by previous B,
Which new C is generated selected by previous C.
Examples of 3 Discrete Degrees
á Have from quantum physics
o A: principle / energy
o B: distribution / form
o C: final effect
á Just like in the mind:
o A: desire
o B: thinking
o C: action
Quantum Field Theory: Propensities for Virtual Processes
á TWO linked sets each of three generative levels
o both with (broadly) corresponding processes,
o i.e. still in pattern ‘Energy → Wave → Effect’.
á Virtual processes (in some way) ‘generate’ the terms of the Energy Operator: the Hamiltonian. (Kinetic & Potential energy)
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