A Nonmechanistic Explanation

By Dr. T. D. Singh (Bhaktisvarüpa Dämodara Swami) and Sadäpüta däsa

Any theory intended to explain a phenomenon must make use of a variety of descriptive terms. We may define some of these terms by combining other terms of the theory, but there must inevitably be some terms, called primitive or fundamental, that we cannot so define. In a mechanistic theory, all the primitive terms correspond to numbers or arrangements of numbers, and scientists at present generally try to cast all their theories into this form. But a theory does not have to be mechanistic to qualify as scientific. It is perfectly valid to adopt the view that a theoretical explanation is scientific if it is logically consistent and if it enables us to deal practically with the phenomenon in question and enlarge our knowledge of it through direct experience. Such a scientific explanation may contain primitive terms that cannot be made to correspond to arrangements of numbers.

In our remaining space, we shall outline an alternative approach to the understanding of consciousness-an approach that is scientific in the sense we have described, but that is not mechanistic. Known as sanätana-dharma, this approach is expounded in India’s ancient Vedic literatures, such as Bhagavad-gétä and Çrémad-Bhägavatam. We shall give a short description of sanätana-dharma and show how it satisfactorily accounts for the connection between consciousness and mechanism. This account is, in fact, based on the kind of entities described in statements (1) and (2), and sanätana-dharma very clearly and precisely describes the nature of these entities. Finally, we shall briefly indicate how this system of thought can enlarge our understanding of consciousness by opening up new realms of practical experience.

By accepting conscious personality as the irreducible basis of reality, sanätana-dharma departs radically from the mechanistic viewpoint. For those who subscribe to this viewpoint, all descriptions of reality ultimately boil down to combinations of simple, numerically representable entities, such as the particles and fields of physics. Sanätana-dharma, on the other hand, teaches that the ultimate foundation of reality is an Absolute Personality, who can be referred to by many personal names, such as Kåñëa and Govinda. This primordial person fully possesses consciousness, senses, intelligence, will, and all other personal faculties. According to sanätana-dharma, all of these attributes are absolute, and it is not possible to reduce them to patterns of transformation of some impersonal substrate. Rather, all phenomena, both personal and impersonal, are manifestations of the energy of the Supreme Person, and we cannot fully understand these phenomena without referring to this original source.
The Supreme Person has two basic energies, the internal energy and the external energy. The external energy includes what is commonly known as matter and energy. It is the basis for all the forms and phenomena we perceive through our bodily senses, but it is insentient.

The internal energy, on the other hand, includes innumerable sentient beings called ätmäs. Each ätmä is conscious and possesses all the attributes of a person, including senses, mind, and intelligence. These attributes are inherent features of the ätmä, and they are of the same irreducible nature as the corresponding attributes of the Supreme Person. The ätmäs are atomic, individual personalities who cannot lose their identities, either through amalgamation into a larger whole or by division into parts.

Sanätana-dharma teaches that a living organism consists of an ätmä in association with a physical body composed of the external energy. Bhagavad-gétä describes the physical body as a machine, or yantra, and the ätmä as a passenger riding in this machine. When the ätmä is embodied, his natural senses are linked up with the physical information-processing system of the body, and thus he perceives the world through the bodily senses. The ätmä is the actual conscious self of the living being, and the body is simply an insentient vehiclelike mechanism.
If we refer back to our arguments involving machine consciousness, we can see that in the body the ätmä plays the role specified by statements (1) and (2). The ätmä is inherently conscious, and he possesses the sensory faculties and intelligence needed to interpret abstract properties of complex brain states. In fact, if we examine statements (1) and (2) we can see that they are not merely satisfied by the ätmä; they actually call for some similar kind of sentient, intelligent entity.

We can better understand the position of the ätmä as the conscious perceiver of the body by considering what happens when a person reads a book. When a person reads, he becomes aware of various thoughts and ideas corresponding to higher-order abstract properties of the arrangement of ink on the pages. Yet none of these abstract properties actually exists in the book itself, nor would we imagine that the book is conscious of what it records. As Figure 5* shows, to establish a correlation between the book on the one hand and conscious awareness of its contents on the other, there must be a conscious person with intelligence and senses who can read the book. Similarly, for conscious awareness to be associated with the abstract properties of states of a machine, there must be some sentient entity to read these states.

*[Figure 5 has the following caption:

Conscious awareness of the plot and imagery of the story

Plot
Themes and character descriptions
Basic ideas
Sentences
Words
Letters (ink on paper)

Fig. 5. The relation between consciousness and the physical structures of a book. When a person reads a book, he becomes aware of higher-order abstract properties of the patterns of ink on paper that are not directly present in these physical structures. One can similarly understand the correlation between consciousness and abstract properties of structures in Figure 4 if we posit the existence of a nonphysical agency with the sensory and cognitive faculties of a conscious person.

At this point one might object that if we try to explain a conscious person by positing the existence of another conscious person within his body, then we have actually explained nothing at all. One can then ask how the consciousness of this person is to be explained, and this leads to an infinite regress.
In response, we point out that this objection presupposes that an explanation of consciousness must be mechanistic. But our arguments about machine consciousness actually boil down to the observation that conscious personality cannot be explained mechanistically. An infinite regress of this kind is in fact unavoidable unless we either give up the effort to understand consciousness or posit the existence of a sentient entity that cannot be reduced to a combination of insentient parts. Sanätana-dharma regards conscious personality as fundamental and irreducible, and thus the “infinite regress” stops with the ätmä.

The real value of the concept of the ätmä as an explanation of consciousness is that it leads directly to further avenues of study and exploration. The very idea that the conscious self possesses its own inherent senses suggests that these senses should be able to function independently of the physical apparatus of the body. In fact, according to sanätana-dharma the natural senses of the ätmä are indeed not limited to interpreting the physical states of the material brain. The ätmä can attain much higher levels of perception, and sanätana-dharma primarily deals with effective means whereby a person can realize these capacities in practice.

Since neither the Supreme Person nor the individual ätmäs are combinations of material elements, it is not possible to scrutinize them directly through the material sensory apparatus. On the basis of material sensory information, we can only infer their existence by indirect arguments, such as the ones presented in this article. According to sanätana-dharma, however, we can directly observe and understand both the Supreme Person and the ätmäs by taking advantage of the natural sensory faculties of the ätmä. Thus sanätana-dharma provides the basis for a true science of consciousness.

Since this science deals with the full potentialities of the ätmä, it necessarily ranges far beyond the realm of mechanistic thinking. When the ätmä is restricted to the physically embodied state, it can participate in personal activities only through the medium of machines, such as the brain, that generate behavior by the concatenation of impersonal operations. In this stultifying situation, the ätmä cannot manifest his full potential.

But the ätmä can achieve a higher state of activity, in which it participates directly in a relation of loving reciprocation with the Supreme Person, Kåñëa. Since both the ätmä and Kåñëa are by nature sentient and personal, this relationship involves the full use of all the faculties of perception, thought, feeling, and action. In fact, the direct reciprocal exchange between the ätmä and Kåñëa defines the ultimate function and meaning of conscious personality, just as the interaction of an electron with an electric field might be said to define the ultimate meaning of electric charge. Sanätana-dharma teaches that the actual nature of consciousness can be understood by the ätmä only on this level of conscious activity.

Thus, sanätana-dharma provides us with an account of the nature of the conscious being that takes us far beyond the conceptions of the mechanistic world view. While supporting the idea that the body is a machine, this account maintains that the essence of conscious personality is to be found in an entity that interacts with this machine but is wholly distinct from it. Furthermore, one can know the true nature of this entity only in an absolute context completely transcending the domain of machines.

We have argued that the strictly mechanistic approach to life cannot satisfactorily explain consciousness. If we are to progress in this area, we clearly need some radically different approach, and we have briefly indicated how sanätana-dharma provides such an alternative. Sanätana-dharma explains the relationship between consciousness and machines by boldly positing that conscious personality is irreducible. It then goes on to elucidate the fundamental meaning of personal existence by opening up a higher realm of conscious activity-a realm that can be explored by direct experience. In contrast, the mechanistic world view can at best provide us with the sterile, behavioristic caricature of conscious personality epitomized by the computerized Mr. Jones.