Points of Contact Between the Stappian Philosophy and Emergent Aspect Dualism

The author compares two philosophical approaches to quantum physics and consciousness: Henry Stapp's view that the observer's mind collapses the wave function and extends to a cosmic mind, and the author's own "Emergent Aspect Dualism," which builds a rational philosophy of mental and quantal complexities without invoking a transcendent cosmic mind. Both philosophies share dual aspects of mind, the interrogative nature of consciousness, rejection of physical wavefunction collapse, and creative emergence of physical complexity. They diverge on cosmic mind: for Emergent Aspect Dualism, the only possible cosmic mind is the universe itself operating on a cosmic time scale.

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Abstract

Henry Stapp is well known for his advanced views of Quantum Physics and particularly for development of the view that the mind of the observer is intimately involved in the collapse of the wave function when an observation is made. He expands this view to a cosmic mind conceptualization that, in common with much of Quantum Physics, seems to challenge the bounds of rational logic. My own work has been in developing an Emergent Aspect Dualism of the nature of the universe that attempts to build a coherent philosophy of the mental and quantal complexities on an entirely rational basis. Yet, there are numerous points of contact between the two philosophies in the dual aspects of the nature of mind, the interrogative nature of consciousness, the elimination of the physical collapse of the wavefunction, and the creative emergence of the physical complexity of the universe. Where the philosophies diverge is in conceptualizing the existence of a cosmic mind underlying the organization of the physical universe; for Emergent Aspect Dualism the only form of cosmic mind could be the universe itself, operating at a cosmic time scale.