A Conscious Universe

[Cato]

Maybe I'm an idealistic dualist

Well played. I laughed.

No. I'm saying that our limitations mean we interface with reality, WHATEVER it is, through symbolic representations, i.e. ideas.

This is the process of knowledge: we have experiences, we categorize and examine them, draw inferences, and test those inferences. Physicalism is itself an idea-- a representation of the commonalities in experience which lead most people away from solipsism. But establishing consistent relationships between experiences is not the same as proving that those commonalities are the source of experience

One of you will have to explain how you go from objective experiential commonality ("You see that thing falling? Hey, so do I!") to the confident assertion that reality consists of physical mechanism and nothing else. That seems like a strange conclusion for purely experiential beings to arrive at.

I find it far more reasonable to conclude that something is actually falling independent of consciousness than all witnesses simultaneously imagining the falling object into existence or that some untethered consciousness is generating ideas resulting in the physical realm we experience.

Idealsim and dualism have yet to be demonstrated so I find physicalism superior simply because of its pragmatic utility. There have always been those claiming some non-scientific means of acquiring knowledge driven mostly by the application of a Cartesian skepticism to minimalize what we do know because of our perceptive and cognitive limitations. We are left with only assertions. Idealism and dualism have not improved our collective knowledge nor have they revealed a greater truth. Despite not having reached a final destination nor being able to assess how much further we have to go, physicalism can at least lay claim to having made advancements in our knowledge.

Imagine the claim that since a majority of the population is limited in their football skills that fantasy football is not only the real football, but brings into existence what we would call the actual football matches. Imperfect I know, but I think the analogy gets to the core of why I find idealism and dualism unsatisfying.