What Was It Like to Be Caesar Crossing Rubicon 49 B.C.?

The mind-body problem receives new attention,partly under the inspiration from the success of quantum mechanics.Here I will discuss reductionism.The mind-body problem remains central to modern philosophy,no doubt stimulated by the progress in brain research.Following Thomas Nagel’s article on bats,one may similarly examine one of history’s champions.I will also deny reduction or physicalism,though my argument is very much simpler than Chalmers(1996).

The Physical Laws and Mathematical Axioms of the Brain’s OS and the Traditional Fundamental Laws of Thought of Logic and Philosophy

This article presents four (4) additions to a book on the brain’s OS published by SciRP in 2015 [1]. It is a kind of appendix to the book. Some familiarity with the earlier book is presupposed. The book itself proposes a complete physical and mathematical blueprint of the brain’s OS. A first addition to the book (see Chapters 5 to 10 below) concerns the relation between the afore-mentioned blueprint and the more than 2000-year-old so-called fundamental laws of thought of logic and philosophy, which came to be viewed as being three (3) in number, namely the laws of 1) Identity, 2) Contradiction, and 3) the Excluded Middle. The blueprint and the laws cannot both be the final foundation of the brain’s OS. The design of the present paper is to interpret the laws in strictly mathematical terms in light of the blueprint. This addition constitutes the bulk of the present article. Chapters 5 to 8 set the stage. Chapters 9 and 10 present a detailed mathematical analysis of the laws. A second addition to the book (Chapter 11) concerns the distinction between the laws and the axioms of the brain’s OS. Laws are part of physics. Axioms are part of mathematics. Since the theory of the brain’s OS involves both physics and mathematics, it exhibits both laws and axioms. A third addition (Chapter 12) to the book involves an additional flavor of digitality in the brain’s OS. In the book, there are five (5). But brain chemistry requires a sixth. It will be called Existence Digitality. A fourth addition (Chapter 13) concerns reflections on the role of imagination in theories of physics in light of the ignorance of deeper causes. Chapters 1 to 4 present preliminary matter, for the most part a brief survey of general concepts derived from what is in the book [1]. Some historical notes are gathered at the end in Chapter 14.

The Prime Sequence: Demonstrably Highly Organized While Also Opaque and Incomputable-With Remarks on Riemann’s Hypothesis, Partition, Goldbach’s Conjecture, Euclid on Primes, Euclid’s Fifth Postulate, Wilson’s Theorem along with Lagrange’s Proof of It and Pascal’s Triangle, and Rational Human Intelligence

The main design of this paper is to determine once and for all the true nature and status of the sequence of the prime numbers, or primes—that is, 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, 19, 23, 29, 31, 37, 41, 43, and so on. The main conclusion revolves entirely around two points. First, on the one hand, it is shown that the prime sequence exhibits an extremely high level of organization. But second, on the other hand, it is also shown that the clearly detectable organization of the primes is ultimately beyond human comprehension. This conclusion runs radically counter and opposite—in regard to both points—to what may well be the default view held widely, if not universally, in current theoretical mathematics about the prime sequence, namely the following. First, on the one hand, the prime sequence is deemed by all appearance to be entirely random, not organized at all. Second, on the other hand, all hope has not been abandoned that the sequence may perhaps at some point be grasped by human cognition, even if no progress at all has been made in this regard. Current mathematical research seems to be entirely predicated on keeping this hope alive. In the present paper, it is proposed that there is no reason to hope, as it were. According to this point of view, theoretical mathematics needs to take a drastic 180-degree turn. The manner of demonstration that will be used is direct and empirical. Two key observations are adduced showing, 1), how the prime sequence is highly organized and, 2), how this organization transcends human intelligence because it plays out in the dimension of infinity and in relation to π. The present paper is part of a larger project whose design it is to present a complete and final mathematical and physical theory of rational human intelligence. Nothing seems more self-evident than that rational human intelligence is subject to absolute limitations. The brain is a material and physically finite tool. Everyone will therefore readily agree that, as far as reasoning is concerned, there are things that the brain can do and things that it cannot do. The search is therefore for the line that separates the two, or the limits beyond which rational human intelligence cannot go. It is proposed that the structure of the prime sequence lies beyond those limits. The contemplation of the prime sequence teaches us something deeply fundamental about the human condition. It is part of the quest to Know Thyself.