Stuart Kauffman (Introduction)

by David Turell , Thursday, February 05, 2015, 22:12 (3578 days ago) @ dhw

Kauffman: See history of panpsychism back to Spinoza using 17th century concepts of matter, superseded by quantum mechanics.[/i]
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> dhw: Firstly, how refreshing to hear of an atheist who takes psychic phenomena seriously enough to demand an open-minded approach. Secondly, note the reference to panpsychism, -I've always been sympathetic to Spinoza's ideas, as it is from his thinking that I first came up with the idea of a universal consciousness affecting everything as Kauffman expresses below:
 
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> Horgan: Are science and religion compatible?
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> Kauffman: Maybe, in some sense, if Penrose-Hameroff Orchestrated Objective Reduction or my “Beyond the Stalemate” ideas are right, we get a wildly panpsychist participatory universe. In such a view, measurement anywhere is associated with consciousness and responsible will, and for entangled particles a coordinated version of the above, a kind of “mind of God.” 
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> dhw: The question still remains as to the origin of awareness - whether in your monotheistic scenario or my evolution through interacting energy and matter, but clearly Kauffman takes the atheistic panpsychist hypothesis seriously.-And his interest in Rupert Sheldrake, who believes in species consciousness, fits in with this discussion. The origin of consciousness is a supreme mystery. I don't believe an inorganic universe cab self-invent consciousness.