A philosophical worldview or belief system grounded on the 20th century discovery that Information, rather than Matter, is the fundamental substance of everything in the universe. It is intended to be the 21st century successor to the ancient worldviews of Materialism and Idealism. An Update from Bronze Age to Information Age. It's also a Theory – of – Everything that covers, not just matter & energy, but also Life & Mind & Love.
“If matter, in all its forms, were nothing but mindless substance, then of course it would follow by mere definition that conscious material is impossible. But that is specifically the "question-begging presumption" I was referring to.” ___Janus
Post 147.November 25, 2025
Right Stuff to Evolve Consciousness
From Matter to Mind
The philosophical worldview of Materialism, as described by the ancient Roman poet, Lucretius, presumed that the world was exclusively Concrete, Corporeal, and Material ─ described simply as “atoms moving in the void”. Yet this fundamental hypothesis included three components : a> tangible substance [matter], b> causal change [motion], and c> empty space [void]. His description of Nature specifically excluded any supernatural or spiritual elements. But the poet-philosopher made no attempt to explain in detail how Life & Mind could emerge from a random convolution of atoms in void. Ironically, Lucretius’ Greek predecessor and inspiration, Epicurus, had already seen the need for an organizing force, or directional vector, in this formula. So he introduced the notion of Clinamen (swerve, course change) to allow tiny independent atoms to interact, forming larger lumps of matter. Yet that mysterious & random & unpredictable change of direction was also supposed to allow for free-will and animation. Consequently, we now have four elements to work with : a> Matter [bricks]; b> Void [3D space] ; c> Time [4D change] ; and d> Inclination [intention, tendency, design, non-random direction].
To this day, Mind/Matter arguments tend to take the other elements for granted; especially the last one. The intending, observing & knowing Mind itself is the “question-begging presumption” that needs to be explained, in order to under-stand how subjective Mind could evolve from objective Matter. Materialism simply takes the potential for mental phenomena for granted, without offering any evolutionary explanation for how Things could become Thoughts. Therefore, the scientific question being begged is by what process massive-space-occupying Matter¹, was able to produce weightless-spaceless-shapeless Mental Noumena² such as the ability to verbally communicate ideas from one mind to another. Hence, a more philosophical question arises : what is the "right stuff"* for making Mind from Matter?
Philosophical Dualism is based on the assumption that mundane Matter is a different kind of thing from spiritual Mind. Hence some supernatural intervention was required to combine them into a living & thinking organism. Yet staunch (anti-spiritual) Materialists³ will admit that multi-form Matter per semust possess some unspecified causal potential for Mind. But it's a "question-begging presumption" — a philo-sophical hypothesis — lacking step-by-step evidence or theory of how mundane lumpish matter became Mindful⁴. Without an account of the steps & stages of that fortuitous emergence, it's a circular argument. So, we ask a hypothetical question : what is the "right stuff" for evolving living & thinking Matter?
1. What is Matter? : Matter is the physical, tangible stuff of the universe, governed by the laws of physics, while mind refers to the non-physical realm of consciousness, thought, and experience. This distinction is central to the philosophical concept of dualism, which holds that mind and matter are two fundamentally different substances—one physical and one mental. https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=what+is+matter+as+contrasted+with+mind
2. Mental Noumena : "Mental noumena" refers to the unperceivable, "thing-in-itself" aspect of reality that lies beyond our senses, as conceived in Immanuel Kant's philosophy. While we can only know the phenomena (how things appear to us through our minds and senses), the noumenon is the object as it exists independently of our perception, making it unknowable through experi-ence but conceptually necessary to posit as the cause of our perceptions.
3. Ancient Materialism : The philosophical belief that the fundamental reality of the universe is matter and that all pheno-mena can be explained by material causes, rejecting super-natural explan-ations. Key figures include preSocratic Greek philo-sophers like Leucippus & Democritus, who proposed that the world is made of atoms, and Epicurus, who built on atomism to argue that everything, including consciousness, is com-posed of matter. This perspective emphasizes observation and denies the existence of immaterial souls or a spiritual afterlife.
4. Mindful : This is not a reference to meditation, but simply to a material object that has become aware of itself and its environment. How this state came to be is implicit in David Chalmers’ Hard Question of philosophy.
Continued on Next Page
Clinamen : Inclination Epicurus understood that his Atomic theory would be static and stagnant without some outside force to shake things up. His notion of Inclination has later been associated with Chaos and Creativity. It could also refer to the Causal energy necessary for physical change.
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