[lit-ideas] Popper and Grice on Upward Causation

From: Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx
To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Wed, 15 May 2013 18:14:06 -0400 (EDT)
OK. _This_ shd be my last (and not just latest) post today.

Thanks to D. McEvoy for his response in "Popper and Grice on  cause".
 
I find the first Google "Wiki" hit for "upward causation" as per  below.
 
Which may lead us to further considerations.
 
Or not.
 
Note that by allowing World-3 items to exercise a causal power extends the  
scope of the discussion, as presented by A. Goswami below.
 
Or not.

Cheers,
 
Speranza
 
----
 
Amit Goswami writes:

"The current worldview has it that everything is made of matter, and  
everything can be reduced to the elementary particles of matter, the basic  
constituents — building blocks — of matter."
 
"And cause arises from the interactions of these basic building blocks or  
elementary particles; elementary particles make atoms, atoms make molecules, 
 molecules make cells, and cells make brain."
 
"But all the way, the ultimate cause is always the interactions between the 
 elementary particles."
 
"This is the belief — all cause moves from the elementary particles."
 
"This is what we call "upward causation.""
 
"So in this view, what human beings — you and I think of as our free will  
does not really exist."
 
"It is only an epiphenomenon or secondary phenomenon, secondary to the  
causal power of matter."

"And any causal power that we seem to be able to  exert on matter is just 
an illusion."
 
"This is the current paradigm."
 
"Now, the opposite view is that everything starts with  consciousness."
 
"That is, consciousness is the ground of all being. In this view,  
consciousness imposes "downward causation.""
 
"In other words, our free will is real."
 
"When we act in the world we really are acting with causal power."
 
"This view does not deny that matter also has causal potency — it does not  
deny that there is causal power from elementary particles upward, so there 
is  upward causation — but in addition it insists that there is also 
downward  causation."
 
"It shows up in our creativity and acts of free will, or when we make moral 
 decisions."
 
"In those occasions we are actually witnessing downward causation by  
consciousness."
 
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[lit-ideas] Popper and Grice on Upward Causation

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