Consciousness: Can Consciousness Be Reduced To Matter?  

By T K DATTA  

Francis Crick, the co-discoverer of the DNA, presented what he called the “Astonishing Hypothesis”: Human behaviour is merely the sum of a vast assembly of nerve cells and their associated molecules. But, can human consciousness be explained in physical terms?

Is the idea of the soul a myth? Those who embrace traditional religion, which pictures the universe as a hierarchy of distinct levels of being such as matter, plant, animal, human being, universal consciousness and divinity, challenge the validity of Crick’s astonishing hypothesis.

Scientists, however, claim that mind and consciousness are only a pack of neurons, made up of a chain of lifeless molecules and atoms. Therefore, it can be fully explained in terms of “lower level sciences” of chemistry and physics. There is no need for any explanation, or otherwise, except that provided by pure science. There is no other reality than purely physical matter.

This is called reductionism which implies that real stuff lies at the bottom, at the level of mere matter. With the help of this bottom level, every higher form of empirical nature can be fully explained. A few reductionists assert that not only human consciousness, but also human culture as a whole, can be explained materialistically.

According to them, our genes do hold our social life and all of human culture on a leash. The theologists, however, think differently - that pure or universal consciousness is divine in nature and cannot be fully explained materialistically. They contend that the theory of reductionism is inherently flawed by the metaphysical attribute which avers that scientific analysis is the only way to grasp reality.

Matter alone is not enough to explain the realities of life and consciousness. Something else is needed, and it is the traditional hierarchical vision that can provide a better explanation. For example, qualitatively, animal and plant life distinctly differ from one another.

Lower-level scientific analysis is incapable of grasping quality differences at higher levels. Moreover, our mind cannot fully grasp the same mind since most of its real substance is engaged in grasping. Thus, mind always eludes complete objectification of the same mind. This provides the clue as to why divinity or consciousness would also escape our attempt to grasp it objectively.

Reductionists, on the other hand, claim that if mystical elements really exist, then it would show up at the lowest level of matter. But since the mystical never shows up there, it must not exist.

Today, many scientific philosophers find the hierarchical concept to be compatible with the recent discoveries of molecular biology. The four-lettered DNA in the cell is informational; it is the specific sequence of chemical letters that determines the variations in living organisms.

The way in which the bases in DNA line up in any organism somehow transcends pure chemistry or any scientific analysis. So, the code that carries the message of life is chemically indifferent to the message it carries. However, if the chemical process in the living organism fails to work properly, then life will not succeed.

Hence, life and mind cannot so easily be separated from matter. But at the same time, matter (or chemistry) alone cannot fully explain life, mind and consciousness. There is something left over, as it were, at each higher level in the hierarchical vision of the universe.

Theologists view this leftover region as the emergent freedom of life, mind and soul. The consciousness that transcends the material world rests in this freedom. Pure consciousness can be intimately related to the material world, analogously to the way in which life is related to matter, without even being noticed by science.

Scientific reductionism sees reality only in matter; not in informational pattern. Therefore, it cannot quite put its finger on those elusive patterns that carry the message of life and pure consciousness.

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See also: Consciousness, God and Religion, Peace on Earth, Peace of Mind, Love and Happiness, Life and Beyond, Body Mind and Soul)