An Evolutionary Argument for a Self-Explanatory, Benevolent Metaphysics

Symposion: Theoretical and Applied Inquiries in Philosophy and Social Sciences 2 (2):143-166 (2015)
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Abstract

In this paper, a metaphysics is proposed that includes everything that can be represented by a well-founded multiset. It is shown that this metaphysics, apart from being self-explanatory, is also benevolent. Paradoxically, it turns out that the probability that we were born in another life than our own is zero. More insights are gained by inducing properties from a metaphysics that is not self-explanatory. In particular, digital metaphysics is analyzed, which claims that only computable things exist. First of all, it is shown that digital metaphysics contradicts itself by leading to the conclusion that the shortest computer program that computes the world is infinitely long. This means that the Church-Turing conjecture must be false. Secondly, the applicability of Occam’s razor is explained by evolution: in an evolving physics it can appear at each moment as if the world is caused by only finitely many things. Thirdly and most importantly, this metaphysics is benevolent in the sense that it organizes itself to fulfill the deepest wishes of its observers. Fourthly, universal computers with an infinite memory capacity cannot be built in the world. And finally, all the properties of the world, both good and bad, can be explained by evolutionary conservation.

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Ward Blondé
Ghent University (PhD)

Citations of this work

EVAAN: An empirical verification argument against naturalism.Ward Blondé - 2023 - Logos. Anales Del Seminario de Metafísica [Universidad Complutense de Madrid, España] 56 (2):345-362.
EMAAN: An Evolutionary Multiverse Argument against Naturalism.Ward Blondé - forthcoming - Symposion. Theoretical and Applied Inquiries in Philosophy and Social Sciences.

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References found in this work

On the Plurality of Worlds.David K. Lewis - 1986 - Malden, Mass.: Wiley-Blackwell.
On the Plurality of Worlds.David Lewis - 1986 - Revue Philosophique de la France Et de l'Etranger 178 (3):388-390.
A Mathematical Theory of Communication.Claude Elwood Shannon - 1948 - Bell System Technical Journal 27 (April 1924):379–423.
The independence of the continuum hypothesis.Paul Cohen - 1963 - Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. USA 50 (6):1143-1148.

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