metonymy4u

There are two possible solutions to the problem of human consciousness. One solution is to assume that the phenomena that we call life and non-life are representations of two distinct properties manifesting themselves to us in our awareness. This assumption is called property dualism. The problem that comes with property dualism is that it reminds us of our mortality. For if life is something fundamentally different from non life then we are faced with the notion that when this life ends the I that life created also ends. The traditional response to the anxiety of property dualism has been to posit the immortality of the I that is attached momentarily to the physical body. This leaves us with the unfortunate sense that life as we are living it is unreal and insubstantial, because the true reality of life everlasting lies elsewhere. An alternative to property dualism is the single world assumption. The single world assumption holds that we live in exactly one world with only one set of properties, however multifarious they may appear to us in our experience. Imagine walking around an object and seeing it from various perspectives. Each aspect that you visualize is slightly different but you don’t therefore conclude that each aspect represents a distinct and separate object, do you? Likewise experience may appear to us from time to time under different aspects, but on what rational basis do we justify a conclusion that this indicates different worlds within worlds? The odd thing about the single world assumption is that I am led to embrace all objects, from the hottest supernova to the most solitary flower as my brothers and sisters. And I know that whatever happens to this body at the time that we call death, my atoms will always be a part of the universe.