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Fundamental awareness: A framework for integrating science, philosophy and metaphysics.

Neil D Theise, Menas C Kafatos

Communicative & integrative biology January 1, 2016 DOI: 10.1080/19420889.2016.1155010 via PubMed

Summary

AI-generated from the abstract

The universe is fundamentally non-material, grounded in non-dual Awareness that is not reducible to anything else. Awareness and existence are identical, making the universe a self-organizing holarchy of complementary, process-driven, recursive interactions. This framework treats information as primary over materiality, action over agency, and qualia as foundational elements rather than a hard problem. It integrates perspectives from science, philosophy, and metaphysics, reflecting Western philosophical traditions, diverse contemplative and mystical insights, and current scientific thinking expressible mathematically.

Study at a glance

Characteristics Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed
Topics Mysticism
Keywords Awareness Complementarity Consciousness Cosmology Emergence
Citations 23
Key finding Non-dual Awareness is foundational to the universe, not arising from higher-level phenomena, and existence and Awareness are the same.

Abstract

The ontologic framework of Fundamental Awareness proposed here assumes that non-dual Awareness is foundational to the universe, not arising from the interactions or structures of higher level phenomena. The framework allows comparison and integration of views from the three investigative domains concerned with understanding the nature of consciousness: science, philosophy, and metaphysics. In this framework, Awareness is the underlying reality, not reducible to anything else. Awareness and existence are the same. As such, the universe is non-material, self-organizing throughout, a holarchy of complementary, process driven, recursive interactions. The universe is both its own first observer and subject. Considering the world to be non-material and comprised, a priori, of Awareness is to privilege information over materiality, action over agency and to understand that qualia are not a "hard problem," but the foundational elements of all existence. These views fully reflect main stream Western philosophical traditions, insights from culturally diverse contemplative and mystical traditions, and are in keeping with current scientific thinking, expressible mathematically.

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