One Man's Ontological View

I am exploring intelligence and consciousness and it is outside the scope of this argument to give complete answers to metaphysical questions and define ideas such as "mental", "physical", "real" or "exist." However, when examining the human brain as a complex system it is important to offer an ontological approach that accounts for “everything” that is in existence and in our experience. I take an Interactionist approach, which states that there is a physical world and a mental world that interact. Both the physical and mental world can act upon and be influenced by one another.

Sir Karl Popper (1978) proposed an interesting outlook that helps to delineate between these "worlds". Popper proclaimed himself to be a "Trialist" in which he described three worlds.

(1) The first is that of physical objects and states. This is the physical world made up of matter and energy and the only world from the point of view of a pure Physicalist. 

(2) Popper's second world consists of mental states and conscious experience. This is made up of subjective "knowledge" which consists of experiences of perception, thinking, emotions, memories, dreams, creativity, imagination and other mental abilities.

This second world is difficult to categorize but Popper explores the idea. He considers there to be outer senses which are based around the sense organs, such as hearing, touching, seeing and smelling. He then describes inner senses as being one's private world of thoughts, emotions, feelings, memories, imaginings, intentions and so on. 

The subjective world also includes the ego or sense of self. He includes the "basis of our unity as an experiencing being throughout our whole lifetime" as part of the subjective world (Popper).

(3) He describes the third world being one of objective knowledge. This includes the records of intellectual efforts including all scientific knowledge, the contents of books, journals and libraries and encompasses the whole world of culture. This world is the environment that has been "created by man and in turns shapes man." 

These three worlds establish an ontological foundation for the "subject of experience and their status within the wider scheme of things (Popper)." 

Without getting lost in philosophical endeavors, it is interesting to contemplate why this "feeling which accompanies awareness of sensory information exists at all” (Chalmers, 1996) from an evolutionary standpoint.