CF Debate

Ontic Structural Realism

MethodologyEpiphenomenalismOntologyComputational

Overview

Our observations and science only ever identify relations between entities. Yoneda's Lemma suggests that the structure of relationships between one mathematical object and all others is adequate to fully explain that mathematical object, with no intrinsic nature to it. OSR takes these as evidence that there is no intrinsic nature to anything in our universe, including our conscious experiences. Everything is exhaustively explained by its structure of relationships with other entities.

Responses

  1. This same argument can be interpreted as identifying a gap – a need to identify some physical phenomenon that 'breathes fire' into the equations of physics, which various accounts suggest can be consciousness (Goff, Russell, Hoffman etc.).

  2. The relationships identified might still be non-computable in nature or not carry over with Turing-equivalence. See also Church Turing Thesis.

  3. According to the Standard Model, there seem to exist physical quantities whose value is not contingent on anything else, such as a field's spin or the vacuum expectation value of the Higgs field.

    BUT: This might be challenged by future refinements of the Standard Model.

Further reading