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dc.contributor.author | Gries, Werner Hugo![]() |
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dc.contributor.other | University of Pretoria. Dept. of Physics | |
dc.contributor.upauthor | Gries, Werner Hugo | |
dc.date.accessioned | 2019-03-04T08:27:31Z | |
dc.date.available | 2019-03-04T08:27:31Z | |
dc.date.issued | 2019-02 | |
dc.description | This is Essay 5 of the Collection of 'Essays on Cognitive Physical Science' in the repository UPSpace of the University of Pretoria. | en_ZA |
dc.description.abstract | Quantum physics has a long history of interest in consciousness, stemming from the conviction, seeded by famous names, that consciousness is "fundamental to nature" and is, thus, somehow contributory also to quantum events. One of the more recent ideas (by Stuart Hameroff and Roger Penrose) is that the brain is a quantum computer and that a particular component of neurons acts as a quantum object responsible for the emergence of consciousness. In the 2017 New Scientist monograph Your Conscious Mind the present scientific vision is summarised as "We still don't know whether it [consciousness] is real or an illusion". And it is speculated "that physicists will [one day perhaps] identify consciousness as a distinct kind of matter". This odd suggestion calls for physicists to bring systematic classical thinking back to the subject of consciousness. In the past, such thinking, based on the well-tested Ansatz approach, has failed miserably for consciousness, because of a self-reassuring mainstream orthodox paradigm about the function of consciousness, viz. that consciousness, assisted by the "unconscious" state, is in charge of Man's reasoning and behaviour. The new approach pursued here is the opposite thereof, viz. it is based on the new unorthodox paradigm that the nonconscious (not unconscious) state of mind is in charge of human reasoning and behaviour, and that what a person's mind becomes conscious of has previously been entirely worked out and put into action in the nonconscious state. On this basis, the author has derived a purely classical self-compatible description of the nature and function of consciousness. The key proposition is that general consciousness derives from self-consciousness, which in turn is posited to be a mental sensation of organism-wide wake state feedback from local cellular metabolism. The details have been written up here in a first short form. In a postscript it is also shown how the age-old problem of 'free will' is solved in terms of the new vision of consciousness. | en_ZA |
dc.description.librarian | hj2019 | en_ZA |
dc.identifier.citation | Gries, W.H. 2019, 'Consciousness from a classical physical-science perspective based on a new paradigm', Essays on Cognitive Physical Science, Essay 5, pp. 1-25. | en_ZA |
dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/2263/68543 | |
dc.language.iso | en | en_ZA |
dc.publisher | The Author | en_ZA |
dc.rights | Copyright with the author | en_ZA |
dc.subject | Anaesthesia | en_ZA |
dc.subject | Animal consciousness | en_ZA |
dc.subject | Ansatz approach | en_ZA |
dc.subject | Autonomic system | en_ZA |
dc.subject | Bioelectric signals | en_ZA |
dc.subject | Bioelectric language | en_ZA |
dc.subject | Cambridge Declaration on Consciousness | en_ZA |
dc.subject | Cellular metabolism | en_ZA |
dc.subject | Cochlear implant | en_ZA |
dc.subject | Conscious free will | en_ZA |
dc.subject | Default-mode activity | en_ZA |
dc.subject | Default-mode video-in-the-brain | en_ZA |
dc.subject | Conscious dream | en_ZA |
dc.subject | Free will | en_ZA |
dc.subject | Fundamental state of life | en_ZA |
dc.subject | General consciousness | en_ZA |
dc.subject | Hemineglect syndrome | en_ZA |
dc.subject | Least effort principle | en_ZA |
dc.subject | Local tissue damage | en_ZA |
dc.subject | Local wake state | en_ZA |
dc.subject | Movie-in-the-brain | en_ZA |
dc.subject | Multiple local wake-state messaging | en_ZA |
dc.subject | Nocisensor | en_ZA |
dc.subject | Non-autonomic system | en_ZA |
dc.subject | Nonconsciousness | en_ZA |
dc.subject | Nonconscious free will | en_ZA |
dc.subject | Nonconscious mental processing | en_ZA |
dc.subject | Nonconscious self-awareness | en_ZA |
dc.subject | Nonconscious memory | en_ZA |
dc.subject | Orthodox paradigm | en_ZA |
dc.subject | Pain generation | en_ZA |
dc.subject | Parietal lobe | en_ZA |
dc.subject | Person-to-person communication | en_ZA |
dc.subject | Physiology | en_ZA |
dc.subject | Quantum consciousness | en_ZA |
dc.subject | Reticular formation | en_ZA |
dc.subject | Self-consciousness | en_ZA |
dc.subject | Sensory neuron | en_ZA |
dc.subject | Somatosensory cortex | en_ZA |
dc.subject | Tissue damage | en_ZA |
dc.subject | Tissue-damage sensor | en_ZA |
dc.subject | Tissue fluid | en_ZA |
dc.subject | Unorthodox paradigm | en_ZA |
dc.subject | Video-in-the-brain | en_ZA |
dc.subject | Vital function | en_ZA |
dc.subject | Wake state | en_ZA |
dc.subject | Wake-state sensor | en_ZA |
dc.title | Consciousness from a classical physical-science perspective based on a new paradigm | en_ZA |
dc.type | Text | en_ZA |