Measurement and mind

Corcoran, Lugh Tenzin

Abstract

We begin exploring the historical context for the development of measurement, an investigative procedure that has a unique capacity for articulating specific structural descriptions about reality. After exploring the defining features of measurement, including the types of measurement scale that might be used to represent properties, we arrive at an appropriately inclusive definition for measurement that emphasises its specific capacity for description. Following this broad definition, we consider issues regarding the character of measurement, issues that concern theory-dependence and the question of realism, arriving at a defensible stance of realism in the form of Alistair Isaac’s “Fixed Point Realism”, a stance that successfully accounts for a persisting realism about measurements despite changing theoretical contexts. After defending this form of realism about measurement, we then consider the measurability of mental properties, and the difficulties present when attempting to measure the contents of subjective experience. We explore ideas found within psychophysics, and discuss the dependence on physical proxies when attempting to measure mental properties. Successes regarding measurement of particular sensory modalities are explored with examples including colour experience. We discuss the difficulties with conceiving of pleasure as a measurable mental property, an area riddled with difficulties despite the apparent structural appearance of our experiences of pleasure. Finally, we consider several stances of the mind-body problem to find a suitable context within which to understand the world of measurable physical properties and experienced mental properties. After exploring difficulties relating to emergence of consciousness, we identify the shortfalling of Physicalism and Panpsychism, before arriving at a stance inspired by Jerome J. Valberg’s “Horizonal” conception of reality, incorporating ideas presented by James Tartaglia about transcendence to arrive at an understanding for the inexplicability presented in the world knowable to us as measurable properties appearing to us inside subjective experience.

Citation

Corcoran, L. T. Measurement and mind. (Thesis). Keele University. Retrieved from https://keele-repository.worktribe.com/output/1018941

• Thesis Type: Thesis
• Deposit Date: Dec 16, 2024
• Publicly Available Date: Dec 19, 2024
• Public URL: https://keele-repository.worktribe.com/output/1018941
• Award Date: 2024-12