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Descartes’s Substance Dualism vs Meijer’s Universal Knowledge Field

Descartes’s Substance Dualism and Meijer’s Universal Knowledge Field, compared field by field from their entries in the Atlas.

At a glance

Descartes’s Substance Dualism belongs to the Dualism family in Kuhn's Landscape of Consciousness, Meijer’s Universal Knowledge Field to Idealism.
Both treat consciousness as fundamental.
They give the same kind of answer on life after death and meaning and purpose.
On AI consciousness, Descartes’s Substance Dualism says “No” and Meijer’s Universal Knowledge Field says “Likely”.
On mind uploading, Descartes’s Substance Dualism says “No” and Meijer’s Universal Knowledge Field says “Likely”.

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Dualism Descartes’s Substance Dualism René Descartes

Idealism Meijer’s Universal Knowledge Field Dirk K. F. Meijer

The claim

In brief

Descartes’s Substance DualismRené Descartes holds that consciousness, which he calls thought (cogitatio), is the essence of an immaterial thinking substance (res cogitans) wholly distinct from extended, mechanical body (res extensa). Every conscious state, from reasoning and willing to pain, color, and emotion, is a mode of the thinking thing and is immediately present to it. Sensations and passions, though, arise only in the union of mind and body, where brain processes stand in regular relations to experiences they do not resemble.

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

Descartes’s Substance DualismConsciousness is thought, defined as everything that happens within us insofar as we are immediately conscious of it, and it is the principal attribute of the mind.

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

Can AI be conscious?Differ

Descartes’s Substance DualismNoSince thought belongs only to immaterial substance and matter is pure extension, a machine, however complex, would be mechanism without a mind.

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.

Does consciousness survive death?Both agree

Descartes’s Substance DualismYesDescartes presented the real distinction of soul and body as what makes the soul’s survival intelligible, and the Meditations announce that aim in their subtitle.

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.

Could a mind be uploaded?Differ

Descartes’s Substance DualismNoCopying the body’s mechanism would not copy the immaterial thinking substance.

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.

Does it give life meaning?Both agree

Descartes’s Substance DualismCosmic/UltimateDescartes’s system rests on a non-deceiving God who guarantees knowledge and created even the eternal truths.

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

Descartes’s Substance DualismSubstance dualism (Cartesian)

Meijer’s Universal Knowledge FieldIdealism (Consciousness/Mind is fundamental reality)

Mind and body

Descartes’s Substance DualismMind and body are really distinct finite substances with exclusive essences, thought and extension, and could by divine power exist apart. They are joined in the human being, where bodily motions give rise to sensations and the mind moves the body, though Descartes never explained that interaction satisfactorily.

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

Descartes’s Substance DualismPrimitive

Meijer’s Universal Knowledge FieldPrimitive

Qualia

Descartes’s Substance DualismSensory qualities are not properties of matter, which has only size, shape, motion, and arrangement. Experienced redness or pain is a mental mode arising in the embodied union and cannot be captured by extension.

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

Descartes’s Substance DualismMechanism on the bodily side and non-reduction on the mental side. Light mechanically affects eyes, nerves, and brain, and the mind then experiences color, distance, and shape in regular correspondence with those motions.

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

Descartes’s Substance DualismThe mind is unextended. Sensations and passions are felt as belonging to one’s own body, and Descartes located mind-brain communication in the pineal gland.

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

Descartes’s Substance DualismPassions are caused and strengthened by movements of the animal spirits and dispose the soul toward volition and action. The will can in turn move the body.

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

Descartes’s Substance DualismConceptually 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

Descartes’s Substance DualismNot stated

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

Descartes’s Substance DualismPrincess Elisabeth of Bohemia asked how an immaterial soul could move a material body, and the interaction problem remains unresolved. Arnauld and later critics charged circularity, since the proofs of God that guarantee clear and distinct perception themselves rely on clear and distinct perception. The standard reading denies consciousness to animals, which most now find implausible.

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

Descartes’s Substance Dualism

Meditations on First Philosophy, René Descartes (trans. J. Cottingham, R. Stoothoff, and D. Murdoch) (1984)
Principles of Philosophy, René Descartes (trans. J. Cottingham, R. Stoothoff, and D. Murdoch) (1985)
The Passions of the Soul, René Descartes (trans. J. Cottingham, R. Stoothoff, and D. Murdoch) (1985)

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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