Philosophy includes study of nature of reality {metaphysics}.
questions
How did universe begin and how will it end? Does universe evolve? Why are there universes? Is universe monistic, dualistic, or pluralistic? How many different substances, like mind and matter, are there? Is this the only possible universe? How do people and life fit into universe? Is reality more about substances or processes? Is there anything supernatural, such as God, soul, spirit, or ideals?
origins
Perhaps, God created universe, out of itself or nothing. Perhaps, universe is static and unchanging and has always existed. Perhaps, universe has continuous creation, out of nothing or itself. Perhaps, universe makes new things, from old things or out of nothing, at specific times, by pure chance, by selection, by life principle, or by spirit. Perhaps, universe is returning to original perfect state after perturbation. Perhaps, universe originated from physical processes. Universe has allowed brains to develop, perceive, and act.
physical
Matter, motion, energy, force, and space-time form one relativistic and quantum-mechanical system. Time, space, matter, and energy are discontinuous, with gaps between quanta. Universe regions can be like other regions. However, finite universes cannot be homogeneous. Universe is the same in all directions.
Essences can be specific to things {haecceity} and to no other things.
Materials {substance} have properties.
Can reality be nothing {void}?
Interactions cause different positions and momenta {change}. Interactions exchange energy, particles, or information. Particle interactions can be with other particles or with themselves.
motion
All things are always in motion. Motions use least action, follow geodesics, and are deterministic.
novelty
Only interactions can cause new effects, by perturbing system from outside to make new things or relations.
prediction
Even if determinism is true, no one can predict events before they happen, because people cannot know all positions and momenta precisely.
universe
Universe began with low entropy, unified forces, symmetry, radiation, no matter, and low potential energy, because distances were very small. Interactions caused expansion and changes, with asymmetries, matter, and potential energy.
heat
Matter motions cause collisions that tend to spread matter apart. Forces can pull matter together and change potential energy into kinetic energy. Spreading out causes cooling. Kinetic energy causes heating. Cooling allows matter to stabilize. Heating provides energy for new combinations. Relatively small complex regions can arise. In very large systems, relatively small regions can be planet size.
Universe as whole {macrocosm}| compares to human life or microscopic worlds.
Universe as whole compares to human life or microscopic worlds {microcosm}|.
Subjects and objects have a property {existence} {being} of being in nature. Being is about objects and substance, as opposed to process and change. Existences are descriptions or predicates. Existences are not object essences, names, or particular things. Laws or principles do not make existences.
First-order existence indicates that objects are real. Second-order existence indicates that objects act real. Fictional objects have second-order existence, because they are not actually real. Because signals take time to travel, particles have no clear beginning or ending of existence.
Metaphysics can study which substances exist {ontology}|. Ontology is about being and existence. Being can have different modes. Beings can be abstract, concrete, universal, or particular. Beings can occupy space and time, be outside space and/or time, be independent of other being, be parts of other being, be parts of hierarchies, or be otherwise dependent.
Copulas {is, existence} can ascribe existence to something. "Is" as copula can ascribe being {attribution, copula} as classes or categories, of which things are examples {instantiation, copula}.
Used as copula, "is" can ascribe being as a quality {copulative}|.
Used as copula, "is" can ascribe being as a class {class inclusion}.
Used as copula, "is" can ascribe being as a substance {constitution, substance} {existential}.
Used as copula, "is" can ascribe being as substitutability or equivalence {identity, equivalence} {equivalence, identity} {numerical identity}.
Substances {object, metaphysics} have modes and attributes. Objects maintain integrated structures and functions, irrespective of element changes.
Things are identical if they have same class and have same relation, or if they have same class and have reciprocal relations {identity criterion} {criterion of identity} {identity, metaphysics}.
Things {instantiation, metaphysics}| are class or category examples.
Objects {abstract object} can be not observable, have no space or time locations, have no matter, have no cause, have no effects, and exist only necessarily. Abstract objects are opposites of concrete actual physical things.
Ideals {ideal} are perfect, unchanging, and universal objects, or abstract ideas of particular objects. Extrapolation from the particular can create perfect-object representations. Mathematical knowledge is about ideals.
Objects have classes {attribute, class}.
Objects have properties {mode, property}.
Objects try to do something or are action objects {capacity, object} {object capacity}. People capacities are their mental possibilities. Contexts can prevent capacity expression.
Perhaps, higher existences or processes can form from lower existences or processes {emergence}| [Beckerman et al., 1992].
combination
Parts can combine by aggregation or by configuration. Aggregation adds parts to make larger things. Configuration relates parts to make new thing, such as wheels. Emergent phenomena are larger and more complex.
emergence
For emergence in systems, parts or event eliminations must affect other events or parts (J. S. Mill). Chemical reactions can be emergent when reactants combine into new configurations. Reactant elimination prevents configuration.
new substances or properties
Emergent phenomena make new properties or substances. Combining non-round parts can make something circular. Combining reactants can make new molecule types. New substances and properties are new configurations, not sums of existing physical properties. Emergent phenomena are not existing-property value changes. Summation is not emergence. Becoming warmer is not emergence. Beat frequencies and wave interference patterns result from wave summations and are waves and so not something new. However, emergence does not make new fundamental properties or substances. Low-level quarks, leptons, and their properties do not change.
physical laws
Emergence does not make new physical laws. Emergence applies physical laws. Emergent properties, objects, and events are theoretically predictable from physical laws. However, they may be too complex to predict.
no emergence
All physical phenomena are physical-component interactions according to physical laws. True emergence requires that new substances and properties be not explainable by lower level laws, substances, and properties. Therefore, there is no real emergence in the physical world, unless physical laws themselves emerge.
examples: evolution
Evolution makes new species and biological properties. However, evolution processes are not new. Evolution results from low-level feeding, reproductive, and defense activities of varying species members in competitive environments. Physical laws cause species evolution. Evolution theory is an abstract way of looking at survival. Evolution theory is shorthand for complex physical-law actions. No evolution-theory principle is an evolution requirement.
water and molecules
Hydrogen and oxygen can combine to make water. Water has new physical properties that are not sums of hydrogen and oxygen physical properties. However, chemical laws are not emergent. Chemical laws are shorthand for complex physical-law actions. No chemical law is a requirement for chemistry.
mind
Biological parts and configurations have combined to make larger and more complex brain structures and functions and so mind, which has new properties. Mind appears to be a whole and a new thing. Perhaps, complex physical-law actions make mind. Perhaps, mind is not directly explainable from brain parts, events, and properties and requires something truly new in universe.
Perhaps, objects have underlying, fundamental, and defining characteristics {essence, metaphysics} {essentialism}. Essence categorizes objects. Essentialism includes realism.
There are different possible worlds {modality} {modal realism}.
types
Modality can be certain or eternal {epistemic modality}; depend on current, past, or future {temporal modality}; or be necessary, impossible, or possible {logical modality}.
comparisons
If something is necessary, it is true in all possible worlds. If it is possible, it is true in at least one possible world. If it is impossible, it cannot be true in any possible world.
time
World can be different at different times. Something can be true at all possible times. Something can be true outside time.
accessibility
Models and interpretations can allow people to know possible worlds.
Perhaps, other universes {possible worlds}, with different substances, exist. Example is fictional things.
Events can relate to make processes. Relations and events cause object-property transformations. Objects are always changing properties or property values {process philosophy}. Since no properties persist for significant periods, processes and relations are more important than matter, time, and position.
Past events cause current events {determinism}| {necessitarianism}. Determinism relates to fatalism, logical determinism, and predestination.
strong
Past events logically determine all events, and so events are necessary. There is no purpose. Freedom is only feeling, because people cannot detect action causes {strong determinism}.
weak
Laws, which act through cause and effect, govern all events, but events are not logically necessary {weak determinism}.
effects
If human actions are deterministic, there is no free will, hope, feelings, moral responsibility, right or wrong, attitudes, real knowledge, choice, or use for deliberation.
problems
Universe is not mechanistic or determined, because fundamental-particle behavior has randomness.
Perhaps, physics allows masses and energies that were not in systems at previous times to enter systems later {indeterminism}|. Gravitational forces allow singularities. Singularities and infinities terminate determinism.
types
Perhaps, acts and wills can have no causes, and humans can make free choices using minds or wills {strong indeterminism}, so different futures are possible. Perhaps, humans can originate acts and wills inside themselves and to this extent have self-determination and free choice {weak indeterminism}, so different futures are possible.
ideas
Indeterminism includes libertarianism, quantum probabilities, random events, miracles, and human free will.
Perhaps, Actions are free, people have will, and people can originate ideas and actions {libertarianism}.
Perhaps, all events are already determined and unalterable {fatalism, determinism} {logical determinism}, and no human action can have any effect, good or evil.
Perhaps, God has decreed all events by his will and knows all outcomes, and God's will is final {predestination}|.
Perhaps, matter is the central reality {naturalism, metaphysics}|.
Perhaps, all physical processes are fundamental particle movements {reductionism, metaphysics}|.
Perhaps, world is only mental construct {anti-realism}.
Perhaps, universe is a living thing {philosophy of organism}.
Perhaps, reason or mind is the central reality {rationalism, metaphysics}.
Perhaps, reality and physical world are just mind constructs or models {solipsism}|. Perhaps, people can only be sure that self exists. They cannot know if anyone else exists.
problems
However, people cannot then use "I" or "my", because they have no relation to outside world or other minds. Brain seemingly needs outside information to perceive and cannot create all perceptions using only its own resources. People rarely create coherent and consistent stimuli. People can have amusement and surprise, so they do not already have all knowledge inside. Universe seems to have been here before people existed [Fichte, 1794].
Perhaps, mind has higher reality level than matter {hierarchy, substance} {substance hierarchy}.
Perhaps, universe runs by ideal, moving, and living force {vitalism}| {life principle} {entelechy} {élan vital} {vital spirit} {Form, spirit} {will to live}.
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Date Modified: 2022.0225