The double look on complex dimension
Abstract: Based on the principle of citizens as ‘parts of a social Whole’ and the definition of ‘civilization’, I describe a universal political regime as creating a hierarchy of organization but keeping it constantly within reach of citizens. Universal in the midst of political chaos? What political regime can adapt to criteria as varied as … Read more
From the Casimir effect and other properties of the quantum vacuum, Vlatko Vedral shows that everything that exists comes from this vacuum, from a Nothing that is Everything, with infinite energy. What I see as a great illustration of the T<>D principle and double look: From the point of view of an individual (Vlatko), Everything … Read more
Abstract: The errors of top-down/teleological causality make one think that only the bottom-up/ontological has fundamental value. It is however the first which is entirely creative of our mental scenes, including by lending to reality per se its models, without having direct access to it. Bottom-up causality is fundamentally constitutive of our reality, which hovers over … Read more
Abstract: An activated synaptic configuration, as meaning, is a given distribution of probabilities among all its possible meaningful states. It thus emancipates itself from its constitution and represents a qualitative leap. New mental experience. The mind is constructed from these tiers of meanings, a vertical complexity that makes up its intelligence. To begin this definition, … Read more
‘Nothing’ is an oxymoron Let us return to the metaphysical questions mentioned at the beginning of the previous article. What is the relationship between the real per se and the mental image we construct of it? Why is there something rather than nothing? Do we have free will? Are mathematical objects invented or discovered? These … Read more
Abstract: Starting from physical, mental and abstract objects, categories of classical metaphysics, I show that they all have in common to be form/substance fusions, which opens the way to a monistic reality. Not giving in to eliminative reductionism, however, requires reintegrating all these objects into a single dimension: complexity. I briefly explain what is Surimposium, … Read more
Abstract: In a 2007 conference abstract, David Bawden attempts an equivalence between information and self-organized complexity. Encouragement to make these notions the fundamental principles of reality, while matter, energy, space and time would be productions. I am inspired by this presentation and bounce back on its limits to show how to pave the way for … Read more
Abstract: The incommensurable strangeness of the origin forces us to create commensurables to dress this ultimate shamelessness. What separates the true from the imaginary? The ability to “listen to oneself think” tends to make us project thought out of reality. There is a ‘material’ world and another ‘virtual’ one, which each of us invents for … Read more
Abstract: The concept of ‘causality’ deciphered with the Universal Philosophical Method (UniPhiM). This root concept was swept away from ontology by Bertrand Russell, then revived by different models: counterfactuals, agentism, probabilism, transfer —with in particular Max Kistler’s solution in 2003, the transfer of a conserved quantity. I show how UniPhiM makes the ontological invisibility of … Read more
