vandermude
“I’m not trying to argue away the existence of ideas/concepts as being part of reality. I’m saying that the physical objects are part of reality as well. Are we going around in circles?”
No the point is more subtle. The physical objects are what they are. In Quantum Mechanics, they are the Schrodinger wave equation. The problem comes up when you perceive reality. Emergence is a perception – it is not the underlying reality.
In my work, I am arguing that the emergence comes out of the wave function collapse, which is where ideas come from. If you are holding a swim bladder or a block of ice or a crystal in your hand, what you are doing is primarily on the conceptual level. The underlying Tao of physical reality is much more subtle.
So this is not going around in circles so much as a warning to have an “epistemological humility”. The reason I am making a big deal about this is that if you consider emergence to be part of the physical world, you run the risk of confusing your understanding of reality with reality as it is.
Kant described this as the difference between phenomena and noumena. Emergence is a phenomenon.
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This reply was modified 2 months, 1 week ago by
vandermude.