The Theory of Natural Individuals

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The Theory of Natural Individuals
The McDonalds Version
Gregg Rosenberg
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The Theory of Natural Individuals

• The Theory of Causal Significance
• The Carrier Theory of Causation
• The Consciousness Hypothesis

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Russell/Whitehead View

• Russell Physics is structure
• Whitehead Vacuous actuality is not possible
• Implies Physical entities have intrinsic content
  not specified by physics

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Questions raised

• The combination problem
• How could intrinsic content exist at a middle
  level?
• Panexperientialism
• When is intrinsic content experiential, and why?
• Other peculiar features
• Unity
• Correspondence to information structure
• Subjective Instant

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The Theory of Causal Significance

• Causal Significance The constraint the
  occurrence of an event (or the presence of an
  individual) places on the possible ways the world
  could be.
• Nomic Content The properties a thing has which
  contribute to its causal significance
• Effective Properties
• Receptive Properties

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Nomic Content

• Basic tenet Considered in themselves, effective
  and receptive properties each have an incomplete
  nature.

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Nomic Content

• Considered in the themselves, each kind of
  property has an incomplete nature.
• Effective Properties Determinable properties
  that contribute to constraints on the determinate
  states of a causal nexus.
• Receptive Properties Connective properties
  facilitating the creation of causal nexii and
  enabling individuals to be sensitive to
  constraints on the nexii of which they are
  members.

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Effective Properties

• Incomplete determinable properties
• Multiple potential values
• Intrinsic relations of compatibility, inclusion,
  and exclusion

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Receptive Properties
Special properties whose instances can bind to
more than one individual at a time. Binding
creates a new individual to whom the receptivity
belongs.
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The Importance of Binding

• Determinable becomes more determinate
• Incomplete becomes more complete

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Two Fundamental Causal Principles

• Determination indicates completeness.
• Individuals seek completeness.

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The Traditional Taxonomy for Theories of Causation
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Causal Responsibility Is Not Entirely Objective

• Negative facts (starving to death)
• Figure/ground relations (cue ball on the break)

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Causal Responsibility Is Not General Enough

• Breaks down in rich feedback systems
  (Palestinian/Israeli dispute)
• Breaks down in quantum systems (EPR)

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Receptive Connections are Causal Connections

• Each receptive connection makes the world more
  determinate by reducing the possible joint-states
  of the individuals bound to it.
• Receptive connections are operators on a space of
  possibility
• The receptive connection of each individual
  filters the possibilities for the joint-states of
  its members
• Prior possible joint-states ? posterior possible
  joint states
• Posterior possible joint-states x x ? power
  set of prior possible joint states

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Definition of Natural Individual

• Base Case Any basic effective or receptive
  property is a natural individual
• Inductive Case Any set of natural individuals
  sharing a completed receptive connection is a
  natural individual.

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General Parameters Of Causal Significance

• The arity of the relation (how many things
  related)
• The kinds of things related (events, facts,
  individuals)
• Symmetry (can we distinguish between cause and
  effect)
• Directionality
• Locality

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The Generality of Causal Significance
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The Hierarchy of Natural Individuals
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Each Individual Possesses An Irreducible Receptive
Connection
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The levels of nature are strongly emergent, not
merely constitutive
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Causal Responsibility Across Levels of Nature
Final Causation
Material Causation
Efficient Causation
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The Theory of Causal Significance as meta-physics

• The theory evokes superposition and the
  measurement problem

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The Theory of Causal Significance as meta-physics

• The nature of causal significance is consistent
  with the existence of quantum coherence

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The Theory of Causal Significance as meta-physics

• The view makes non-local causation seem expected,
  rather than mysterious or unexpected

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The Theory of Causal Significance as meta-physics

• Nothing in the theory makes irreducible
  randomness a surprising feature of the world

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The Theory of Causal Significance as meta-physics

• The spacetime that we could perhaps construct
  from causal connections would clearly be
  relativistic

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The Theory of Causal Significance as meta-physics

• Like QM, the theory dilutes the special
  ontological importance of the microphysical (as
  pointed out by Lockwood)

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The Theory of Causal Significance as meta-physics

• The theorys realism about possibility is
  consistent with the ability of counterfactual
  truths to have measurable effects in the quantum
  world.

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The Theory of Causal Significance as meta-physics

• Moral if causation works the way the Theory of
  Natural Individuals says, then it is not
  surprising that our physics looks the way it
  does.

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The Carrier Theory of Causation

• Something is a natural individual if, and only
  if, it is experiencing phenomenal individuals.

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The Carrier Theory of Causation

• Effective properties are carried by phenomenal
  properties.
• Receptivity is carried by experiential properties.

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The Carrier Theory of Causation
The Causal Connection Itself Has A Special Kind
of Intrinsic Content Complementary To The Physical
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How the experiencing of phenomenal individuals
fills the carrier role

• Nomic content
• (requirement on Carrier)
• 1. The possibility of being receptively bound is
  essential to effective properties.

• Phenomenal Property
• (feature of Carrier)
•  
•  1. The possibility of being experienced is
  essential to phenomenal qualities.

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How the experiencing of phenomenal individuals
fills the carrier role

• Nomic content
• (requirement on Carrier)
•  2. Being a receptive individual implies
  receiving the constraint of effective properties.

• Phenomenal Property
• (feature of Carrier)
•  
•  2.Being an experiencing subject implies the
  experiencing of phenomenal qualities.

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How the experiencing of phenomenal individuals
fills the carrier role

• Nomic content
• (requirement on Carrier)
• 3. Effective properties are only potential unless
  actually receptively bound.

• Phenomenal Property
• (feature of Carrier)
•  
• 3. Phenomenal qualities are only potential unless
  actually being experienced.

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How the experiencing of phenomenal individuals
fills the carrier role

• Nomic content
• (requirement on Carrier)
• 4. A receptive connection is only potential
  unless it is binding effective properties.

• Phenomenal Property
• (feature of Carrier)
•  
• 4. Experience is only potential unless it is
  experiencing phenomenal quality.

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How the experiencing of phenomenal individuals
fills the carrier role

• Nomic content
• (requirement on Carrier)
• 5. Effective properties are determinables.

• Phenomenal Property
• (feature of Carrier)
•  
• 5. Phenomenal properties are determinables.

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How the experiencing of phenomenal individuals
fills the carrier role

• Nomic content
• (requirement on Carrier)
• 6. Pure receptive connections are a kind of
  contentless openness.

• Phenomenal Property
• (feature of Carrier)
•  
• 6. Phenomenological reports of the pure
  experiencing subject reveal a kind of contentless
  openness within pure consciousness.

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How the experiencing of phenomenal individuals
fills the carrier role

• Nomic content
• (requirement on Carrier)
• 7. Relations of inclusion, exclusion,
  compatibility and incompatibility exist between
  effective properties.

• Phenomenal Property
• (feature of Carrier)
•  
• 7. Relations of inclusion, exclusion,
  compatibility and incompatibility exist between
  phenomenal properties.

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How the experiencing of phenomenal individuals
fills the carrier role

• Nomic content
• (Requirement on Carrier)
• 8. Scalar relations and relations of stipulative
  difference exist between effective properties.

• Phenomenal Property
• (feature of Carrier)
•  
• 8. Scalar relations and relations of intrinsic
  difference exist between phenomenal properties.

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How the experiencing of phenomenal individuals
fills the carrier role

• Nomic content
• (Requirement on Carrier)
• 9. Despite mutually participating in one
  anothers nature, effective properties and the
  receptivity binding of them mark distinct
  essences.

• Phenomenal Property
• (feature of Carrier)
•  
• 9. Despite mutually participating in one
  anothers nature, phenomenal properties and the
  experiencing of them mark distinct essences.

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The Consciousness Hypothesis
Consciousness is the carrier of a cognitively
structured, high-level individual.
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The End