Explaining Consciousness

A theory of consciousness has two aspects to it. One is to explain the sensory data that we experience. The sights, sounds, sensations of temperature, smells, etc, without which consciousness would not be possible. I believe that this has been sufficiently explained from a philosophical standpoint in Objectivism: The Philosophy of Ayn Rand by Leonard Peikoff and Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology by Ayn Rand; and it has been explained by modern science in terms of light waves and sound frequencies. For this reason I won't go into too much detail regarding the senses. I think that it is not too difficult to understand how the senses work in purely physical terms.

What I'm going to write more in detail about is the other aspect of consciousness, particularly human consciousness, which is what the mind does with these sensations: differentiation, abstraction, reason, volition and so forth. These are not quite as easy to think of in purely material terms, especially since we cannot point to some physical property of the brain and say that this is what is responsible for free will. However, I do think that with the current state of modern biology and with Rand's epistemology, I can show how it is possible to relate every mental faculty with a corresponding physical aspect of the brain.

Ayn Rand and Materialism

Given that all there is is matter and motion (materialism), and that motion is as much a fundamental part of reality as matter or entities are, we can begin to see a very basic framework for understanding the mind.  Consciousness is not a thing, it is not an item, it is a process.  Since we cannot have actions without entities, the thing acting in this case is the physical brain.  Since we cannot have entities without actions, the action in this case is consciousness.

Ayn Rand was against materialism, with a good reason:  Most philosophers and intellectuals have used materialism in a way to deny the reality of the mind and free will, and the principle vehicle for doing this was determinism.  I'm very sympathetic to Rand and Objectivism, and one of the points I differ with her on is that materialism is not a denial of the mind and it does not have to lead to determinism.  I think that materialism is an explanation of consciousness, not a refutation of it.

Materialism

My theory of consciousness is based on materialism.  I submit that we cannot understand consciousness while believing in any sort of 'immaterial' or 'spiritual' realm.  All that exists is matter, it is all that has ever existed or been described by science or philosophy.  The 'spirit' realm or an actual entity such as a soul has never been proven or observed.

It would be perfectly rational to maintain materialism on the grounds that no one has ever presented any evidence of any other kind of existence or type of entity.  However we can be sure that the immaterial doesn't exist for the same reason that we can know God doesn't exist:  It is a concept that defines itself out of existence.

Spirit - the spirit realm, the soul, ghosts, God, whatever that is immaterial - is only defined in terms of negatives.  No theologian or philosopher has yet to tell us what spirit is, only what it isn't.  To paraphrase George H. Smith in 'Atheism: the Case Against God', without a definition of a concept we literally don't know what we're talking about.  We cannot even claim to not believe in the immaterial - in the same way that we can claim to be skeptical of elves - because we don't know what the idea refers to in reality. 

The other reason we have to believe that materialism is true, in a more specific case, is that we have a similar problem with 'the soul'. The soul supposedly exists outside of your body, it persists after your physical body dies.  But what is your soul?  It must be assumed that it is your mind, your awareness.  The idea is that you can be aware, conscious, without your body.  What else can the idea of a soul mean?  What significance would a thing that does not include our consciousness, our experience of reality, have for us? If our 'soul' goes to hell to suffer for eternity, but we will not be aware of it, what do we care?

The soul is clearly a reference to the mind.  The idea is that we will continue to be aware without our eyes, our skin, our ears, without any sensory input.  We will also be able to think and feel without our brains.  Have the believers in immaterialism ever explained to us how this is supposed happen? 

We will not be able to explain consciousness so long as we entertain the idea of immaterial
entities.  This will only get in the way of any understanding.