Causal closure & naturalism
Posted: Tue Jan 22, 2013 2:03 pm
In contemporary science there is a widely held idea of "causal closure" which posits "that any mental and biological causes must themselves be physically constituted, if they are to produce physical effects. It thus gives rise to a particularly strong form of ontological naturalism, namely the physicalist doctrine that any state that has physical effects must itself be physical." (http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/naturalism/)
Having pondered this for some years I've come to wonder a few things, but we'll start with one point.
- If language and cognition of it is at least partly non-physical (the qualia of it), then we have a non-physical causative force, no? For instance, if someone suddenly announces they will kill you in a language you do not understand, there is no increased heart rate, but then if someone says it in a language you understand, there are numerous measurable physical reactions that result. There is nothing inherent in the sound waves reaching the ear that prompt this reaction. It is the experience or qualia with respect to cognized language that prompts the physical bodily reaction.
This of course assumes language is non-physical and not encoded in the brain as might be suggested. Clearly the brain as an organ has a part to play in reception of the data, but then the experience and projection of language at a distance (such as issuing an order and another person physically responding to it), at least as I see it, are not material processes.
If causal closure is rejected, then it opens up the space for all kinds of non-physical causes acting on physical processes. I think this is important as Buddhist because Buddhist traditions throughout history have all rejected materialism in whatever form it held and moreover it is a prevailing ideology in our present day at odds with basic Buddhadharma like karma and rebirth.
Having pondered this for some years I've come to wonder a few things, but we'll start with one point.
- If language and cognition of it is at least partly non-physical (the qualia of it), then we have a non-physical causative force, no? For instance, if someone suddenly announces they will kill you in a language you do not understand, there is no increased heart rate, but then if someone says it in a language you understand, there are numerous measurable physical reactions that result. There is nothing inherent in the sound waves reaching the ear that prompt this reaction. It is the experience or qualia with respect to cognized language that prompts the physical bodily reaction.
This of course assumes language is non-physical and not encoded in the brain as might be suggested. Clearly the brain as an organ has a part to play in reception of the data, but then the experience and projection of language at a distance (such as issuing an order and another person physically responding to it), at least as I see it, are not material processes.
If causal closure is rejected, then it opens up the space for all kinds of non-physical causes acting on physical processes. I think this is important as Buddhist because Buddhist traditions throughout history have all rejected materialism in whatever form it held and moreover it is a prevailing ideology in our present day at odds with basic Buddhadharma like karma and rebirth.