Energism | TranscendentPhilosop

An argument for energism - a theory of consciousness:

P1) We know that energy is more primary/fundamental than matter.

P2) We know consciousness exists.

P3) Our intuitions guide us to think that it is illogical for consciousness to come from matter.

P4) We know that brains are the source of our consciousness.

P5) We know that brains contain only energy waves and matter.

P6) If our consciousness doesn't come from the matter in our brains, then it must come from the energy waves in our brains.

C) Consciousness comes from energy.

energy = liquid-like innate power = ability to do work
primary/fundamental = that which is former to = that which originates others
matter = solid-like innate objects = materials that follow the laws of physics (solidified form of energy)
consciousness = that which it is like to be = the experience of awareness

Russellian monism

I believe energism could be categorized as a type of Russellian monism, perhaps a Russellian panprotopsychism [Russellian Monism (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)]. I believe Bertrand Russell wanted to point to a more fundamental unit as the basis for matter and consciousness to solve the problem of dualism.

Problem of Dualism

The principle of parsimony (Occam's razor) guides us to prefer the more simple of two explanations for reality, given that both explanations have equal explanatory power. A universe that comes prepackaged with two miracles is less simple (hence less likely) than a universe that comes with just one miracle. Since reality seems to comprise both materials and mind (dualism), it seems like we have evidence that our universe has two miracles. Many theories of reality desire to reduce reality to just one or the other (monism) to reduce the miracle burden of our universe (the less miracles, the more probable). Most monistic theories of reality are unsatisfactory to our intuitions because they deny the reality of half of the duality. Metaphysical idealists deny the material half of reality. Material Reductionists deny the mind half of reality. Most people accept the reality of both and perhaps feel forced to abandon parsimony and accept the dualistic nature of reality. Hence, dualism at face value, seems to have the most explanatory power (it grants us both halves of reality), but is somewhat epistemically ugly due to requiring two miracles.

Hegelian Synthesis

If we were to view this problem through the lens of Hegel, metaphysical idealism might represent a thesis that is contradicted by material reductionism, its antithesis. At face value these two theories seem contradictory and mutually exclusive - as if we must choose one over the other. But with a Russellian monism perspective, we try to go deeper and look at the problem from a different vantage point. If we can find a deeper principle beneath the dualism, perhaps the conflict can be resolved in a synthesis. Russell posited that there was a deeper thing (quiddities) that could resolve the gap. If we reduce reality to quiddities, we have achieved parsimony by requiring only one miracle. Then these quiddities can have the innate power to transform into both materials and mind.

quiddities = "whatness" in Latin

Energism

Energy seems like the most likely candidate for being titled our fundamental quiddity. Energy is known to transform into everything we know. Energy transforms into matter, space, electricity, magnetism, gravity, movement, heat, potential, mechanical, chemical, ionization, nuclear, chromodynamic, elastic, mechanical wave, sound wave, and light [Energy - Wikipedia]. If energy can transform into so many forms, why not consciousness as well?

Panprotopsychism

My understanding is that panpsychism imputes consciousness to matter. This would imply that atoms have consciousness. Panprotopsychism introduces the idea that there is a dichotomy between consciousness and protoconsciousness. If we define consciousness as complex awareness qualia, then perhaps protoconsciousness could be something like the building blocks of awareness qualia. Perhaps at the smallest level, chemical reactions produce sparks of protoconsciousness - but if that spark isn't captured by a network of energy, there is nothing to pay attention to that spark; nothing to feel that spark. Perhaps at the smallest level there are good and bad sparks of protoconsciousness. When a proton is able to attract an electron, perhaps protopleasure is released as a spark. When a proton loses an electron perhaps protopain is released as a spark. But since atoms don't have brains nor a network of energy, there is nothing to process these feelings and they disappear into nothingness. But in a complex lifeform, we have used eons of time to figure out how to process these feelings in a way that helps us survive and thrive. As a simple analogy, perhaps the feeling of pleasure is something like the aggregation of a bunch of protons succeeding at attracting their electrons. And then similarly, pain is something like the aggregation of a bunch of protons having their electrons ripped away from them. Director of neuropsychology in the Neuroscience Institute of the University of Cape Town, Mark Solms posits that homeostasis is the fundamental principle behind the valence of pain and pleasure [The Source of Consciousness - Mark Solms | TranscendentPhilosop].

proto = original primitive precursor version of something
qualia = subjective feelings of any variety (pain, pleasure, redness, greenness, tasty, yucky, fragrant, stinky, etc)
homeostasis = stable internal environment despite the changes present in the external environment (stability = pleasure; instability = pain)

Emergentism

Emergentism is the belief that something isn't fundamental but rather emerges. For example, water isn't a fundamental material in the universe, water is an emergent property of joining oxygen with hydrogen in a warm environment. Similarly, wetness isn't a fundamental property of water, but is rather an emergent property of large amounts of water adhering to an adherable surface. Under emergentism, consciousness is not a fundamental attribute of materials (atomic particles), but is rather something that happens only after a certain amount of complexity is achieved.

Emergent Energism

Energism, as a theory of consciousness, should be a large enough umbrella term to include panpsychism, panprotopsychism, and emergentism. My personal bias is towards emergent energism, but I am open to the other alternatives (opinion as of June 2022, currently in June 2023 I am leaning away from emergentism).

Scientific Discussion:

Professor Johnjoe McFadden, from the University of Surrey, posits that consciousness is in fact the brain’s energy field (Link).

Robert Pepperell, director of vision research at Fovotec and professor at Cardiff Metropolitan University, puts forward a model of consciousness that comprises 1) energy metabolism (intensity), 2) energy organization (complexity), and 3) energy looping (self-referential recursion).

“Subsequent research has directly investigated the connection between brain metabolism (how the brain regulates energy conversion), brain organization, and levels of consciousness by combining EEG measures with PET, a more specific measure of cerebral metabolism. Chennu et al. (2017) collected data from 104 patients in varying states of conscious impairment using both techniques. By analyzing this data, they determined a metric that discriminated levels of consciousness to a high degree of accuracy. This study built on previous work by Demertzi et al. (2015) that used fMRI to correlate a measure of intrinsic functional connectivity in the brain with levels of consciousness. The PCI method has been further validated by a study combining EEG and 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG)-PET (Bodart et al., 2017), so reinforcing the link between levels of consciousness and the organization of metabolic activity in the brain.”

“Evidence from studies on the neurological effects of anesthetics suggests that consciousness is lost as distant regions of the brain become functionally isolated and global integration breaks down (Lewis et al., 2012).”

“This suggests that the presence of consciousness in a wakeful person depends on a certain level of functional integration supported by cortical feedback loops (Edelman, 2004; Alkire et al., 2008) but it is not known how or why.”

Consciousness as a Physical Process Caused by the Organization of Energy in the Brain

Videos:

Neural manifolds - The Geometry of Behaviour - YouTube

Your brain is moving along the surface of the torus 🤯 - YouTube

Neural manifolds - The Geometry of Behaviour - YouTube

Perceptronium | Conscious Entities