Tomess, I appreciate your probing thoughts and all that I can offer are my own assumptions with some explanations as to why and where they evolve. Previously, I have been critical of what amounts to an anthropocentric mindset that gives us this reverse notion of mind or intelligence first. i.e. an extraordinary intelligence existed unsustained before any material constituents of the universe. Now perhaps we can only accept this premise or reject it but we can also claim we don't know or that the premise itself is incorrect. I hold the view and there has been a virtual consensus among many philosophers and scientists for years, that the universe is essentially physical where if all matter were to be removed from the universe, nothing would remain ...... no minds, no vital forces and no entelechies. (i.e. from telos meaning end, purpose, completion, and echein meaning to have).

Materialism holds that everything in existence is reducible to what is material or physical in nature. It is opposed to dualistic theories which claim that body and mind are distinct, and directly antithetical to a philosophical idealism that denies the existence of matter. John W's article covers this point quite well.

On a materialist view, all codes of conduct must ultimately be human-made or socially constructed in that there are no objective moral laws existing independently of sentient beings in the way that laws of nature do. Tomess, do accept this belief? If not then just how does your belief system function?

I might add that rather than a materialist view, I prefer a new understanding of determinism, where determinism encourages us to seek answers and knowledge, while indeterminism says there are none and maintains ignorance. I may also say that determinism and indeterminism both seem necessary to our survival BUT there needs to be a connection and it is this connection/relationship that counts. BUT do you think someone’s all-powerful teddy has confiscated it?

Dear Keiran,

Thanks for the kind words and detailed response.

Sorry I've taken so long to reply.

You refer to the consensus among many philosophers and scientists, that the universe is essentially physical. As I understand it that's only (in western thought at least) since the eighteenth century. Before then, going back to time immemorial, all the greatest minds (eg Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Boethius, Aquinas, Hooker) seem in consensus that there is more than the physical universe. And even in the modern era, there's Einstein, a theist of some sort.

Your point that 'if all matter were to be removed from the universe, nothing would remain ...... no minds, no vital forces and no entelechies. (i.e. from telos meaning end, purpose, completion, and echein meaning to have)' doesn't seem to exclude a supernatural mind still animating the universe, from its outside at least.

You later remark that materialism holds 'that there are no objective moral laws existing independently of sentient beings in the way that laws of nature do'. That's an interesting statement, because as I understand it 'natural law' originally referred to a moral law. I don't accept it. I believe that through reasoning, we articulate a moral law that exists independently of ourselves. A TV set articulates a TV signal that originates independently of the TV. You can improve the TV set by fine-tuning it, or you can throw a brick at it and destroy it if there's crap on TV. Similarly, it seems that reason exists independently of us. We can improve our articulation of reason, or 'reasoning' by practice or reading, just as we can also hinder it by getting drunk. In each case reason itself remains independent of us. I hope I've addressed your question as to how my belief system functions.

When you state that you prefer a new determinism, how can determinism encourage us to seek answers? Doesn't it say that our reasoning is totally determined by circumstance? If so, doesn't determinism discourage us from seeking answers? As to the determinism/indeterminism point, I'll have to think more about that one.

Kind regards,

Tomess