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Quantum Physics and Beyond
CONSCIOUSNESS AND QUANTUM MECHANICS:OPTING FROM ALTERNATIVES
by David E. Klemm and William H. Klink
Abstract
.We present a model of a fundamental property of con-sciousness as the capacity of a system to opt among presented alter-natives. Any system possessing this capacity is “conscious” in somedegree, whether or not it has the higher capacity of reflecting on itsopting. We argue that quantum systems, composed of microphysicalparticles, as studied by quantum mechanics, possess this quality in aprotomental form. That is, such particles display the capacity to optamong alternatives, even though they lack the ability to experienceor communicate their experiences. Human consciousness stands atthe opposite end of the hierarchy of conscious life forms as the mostsophisticated system of which we have direct acquaintance. We con-tend that it shares the common characteristic of a system capable of opting among alternatives. Because the fundamental property of con-sciousness is shared by human beings and the constituents of elemen-tary matter in the universe, our model of consciousness can beconsidered as a modified form of panpsychism.
Keywords:
freedom;hierarchy of matter; models of consciousness;opting from alternatives; panpsychism; quantum mechanics; Sartreand spontaneity;subjectivity
In its widest connotation,
consciousness
“includes
all
experiences” (Husserl1976, 113). To be conscious of something means to be immediately awareof it, in the sense of having direct acquaintance with it in one’s own mind.Consciousness has a qualitative dimension, because immediate awareness
David E. Klemm (
http://www.uiowa.edu/~religion/
) is a professor in the Department of Religious Studies, University of Iowa, 314 Gilmore Hall, Iowa City, IA 52242; e-maildavid-klemm@uiowa.edu. William H. Klink is Professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Iowa, 203 Van Allen Hall, Iowa City, IA 52242; e-mail william-klink @uiowa.edu.[
Zygon
, vol. 43, no. 2 (June 2008)]
© 2008 by the Joint Publication Board of Zygon. ISSN 0591-2385
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