Head to head
Eliminative Materialism vs Meijer’s Universal Knowledge Field
Churchland’s Eliminative Materialism and Meijer’s Universal Knowledge Field, compared field by field from their entries in the Atlas.
At a glance
- Eliminative Materialism belongs to the Materialism family in Kuhn's Landscape of Consciousness, Meijer’s Universal Knowledge Field to Idealism.
- On life after death, Eliminative Materialism says “No” and Meijer’s Universal Knowledge Field says “Yes”.
- On meaning and purpose, Eliminative Materialism says “Humanistic only” and Meijer’s Universal Knowledge Field says “Cosmic/Ultimate”.
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The claim
In brief
Eliminative MaterialismPaul and Patricia Churchland hold that common-sense psychology, our everyday talk of beliefs, desires, and experiences, is a radically false theory that a completed neuroscience will displace rather than smoothly reduce. Consciousness as we ordinarily conceive it is a brain-generated picture shaped by evolution, and our self-understanding, introspection included, will be rebuilt in neuroscientific terms.
Meijer’s Universal Knowledge FieldThis theory posits that consciousness exists within a Universal Knowledge Field (UKF), conceived as a collective storage of all information present and evolving in the universe. The UKF is consistent with fundamental physics and cosmological models, and human consciousness is understood as an integral part of this universal consciousness, which interfaces with the brain primarily through harmonic resonance patterns involving specific electromagnetic field frequencies.
What consciousness is
Eliminative MaterialismWhat we call consciousness, as folk psychology describes it, does not exist in that form. The real phenomena are neural processes, which only a mature neuroscience will describe correctly.
Meijer’s Universal Knowledge FieldConsciousness is identified as a Universal Knowledge Field (UKF) that stores and evolves all information in the universe, of which human consciousness is an integral part.
Big questions
Eliminative MaterialismNo position
Meijer’s Universal Knowledge FieldLikelySince consciousness is fundamental (Idealism) and relies on informational/field properties, advanced AI systems capable of achieving the necessary complexity and interacting with the UKF could likely achieve consciousness, though this is not strictly proven by the sources.
Eliminative MaterialismNoSince the mind is the brain, nothing mental survives the brain’s death.
Meijer’s Universal Knowledge FieldYesAs consciousness is fundamental reality (UKF), individual consciousness (soul/spirit) is an integral part of this ultimate consciousness, persisting beyond the dissolution of the biological body/brain.
Eliminative MaterialismNo position
Meijer’s Universal Knowledge FieldLikelyGiven that consciousness is a permanent informational field (UKF) that the brain interfaces with, duplicating the informational structure and function of the 'holofractal memory workspace' could allow the specific individual consciousness pattern to be maintained in a non-biological substrate.
Eliminative MaterialismHumanistic onlyPatricia Churchland urges us to see ourselves as organisms in nature, understood by scientific methods, with no cosmic purpose.
Meijer’s Universal Knowledge FieldCosmic/UltimateConsciousness (UKF) is the ground of all being and the organizing principle of the universe, suggesting inherent cosmic meaning and purpose.
Nature of mind
Ontology
Eliminative MaterialismPhysicalism (eliminative)
Meijer’s Universal Knowledge FieldIdealism (Consciousness/Mind is fundamental reality)
Mind and body
Eliminative MaterialismThe mind is the brain. Patricia Churchland calls her program a ‘unified theory of the mind-brain’ and treats claims that mind goes beyond brain as the residue of folk myths.
Meijer’s Universal Knowledge FieldConsciousness (a scale-invariant mental attribute of reality) is fundamentally non-physical and operates through a holofractal memory workspace associated with the brain (pilot-wave-guided supervenience).
Fundamental or emergent
Eliminative MaterialismNeither
Meijer’s Universal Knowledge FieldPrimitive
Qualia
Eliminative MaterialismQualia as folk psychology and philosophers conceive them are expected to give way to neuroscientific description; the view treats consciousness as a kind of illusion generated by the brain.
Meijer’s Universal Knowledge FieldThe origin of qualia is hypothesized to arise from the field-receptive holofractal memory workspace, which functions as a scale-invariant mental attribute of reality associated with the brain.
How it works
Mechanism
Eliminative MaterialismTheory displacement. Folk psychology will be replaced the way outdated scientific theories were, its principles and ontology discarded rather than mapped onto brain states.
Meijer’s Universal Knowledge FieldConsciousness arises from the non-physical Universal Knowledge Field interfacing with biological systems via harmonic resonance patterns (tonal projections) and integral information processing.
Where it is
Eliminative MaterialismIn the brain.
Meijer’s Universal Knowledge FieldUniversal (UKF stores all information in the universe). Locally, it is associated with a 'holofractal memory workspace' associated with the brain, which mirrors this cosmic connectivity.
What it does
Eliminative MaterialismBehavior is caused by neural processes; neuroscience is expected to explain it better than folk psychology does.
Meijer’s Universal Knowledge FieldThe UKF/Consciousness organizes and guides synchronicity, both spatially and temporally, in essential organs such as the heart and brain, acting as a organizing field.
Evidence and criticism
Testability
Eliminative MaterialismConceptually testable
Meijer’s Universal Knowledge FieldArguably empirically testable through investigating the specific effects of electromagnetic field frequency patterns in animate and non-animate systems.
Tests so far
Eliminative MaterialismThe view stakes its claim on the future course of neuroscience; whether folk categories survive in mature brain science is the long-run test.
Meijer’s Universal Knowledge FieldInvestigating the effects of discrete electromagnetic field frequency patterns on animate and non-animate systems (to verify harmonic resonance patterns).
Criticisms
Eliminative MaterialismCritics say denying subjective experience defies both intuition and direct evidence; Galen Strawson calls the denial of experience ‘the strangest thing that has ever happened in the whole history of human thought’. There is also tension between Patricia Churchland’s talk of reduction to neurobiology and the eliminativist claim that folk psychology will be displaced rather than reduced.
Meijer’s Universal Knowledge FieldThe reliance on a fundamental non-physical Universal Knowledge Field and the explicit incorporation of transcendental human experience and psi phenomena lead to significant tension with conventional physicalism.
Sources
Key sources
Eliminative Materialism
- Neurophilosophy, Patricia Churchland (1986)
- Churchland’s Eliminative Materialism (Landscape of Consciousness), Patricia Churchland
Meijer’s Universal Knowledge Field
- Universal consciousness: collective evidence on the basis of current physics and philosophy of mind. Part 1 (2018)
- Consciousness in the universe is tuned by a musical master code, Part 3: a hydrodynamic superfluid quantum space guides a conformal mental attribute of reality (2020)
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