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Consciousness and the Anthropic Questions

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Mindful Universe

Part of the book series: The Frontiers Collection ((FRONTCOLL))

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Abstract

By the anthropic questions I mean the following three queries:

  1. 1.

    Why are the laws of nature so well tuned to support the biological structures we find here on earth, including our own human bodies and brains?

  2. 2.

    Why, given the fact that the physically described structure of my body and brain has the form that it has, are certain activities of that physically described system accompanied by my stream of conscious experiences, which convey the pervasive impression that elements of this stream of experiences causally affect the way my body behaves?

  3. 3.

    Are idea-like qualities primordial? Or do they emerge from a world completely devoid of all mind-like qualities?

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References

  • Bohm, D.J. (1990): A new theory of the relationship of mind to matter. Philosophical Psychology 3, 271–286

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Lawrence Berkeley National Lab., University of California, Berkeley, 1 Cyclotron Rd., Berkeley, CA, 94720, USA

    Henry P. Stapp

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  1. Henry P. Stapp
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Correspondence to Henry P. Stapp .

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© 2011 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Stapp, H.P. (2011). Consciousness and the Anthropic Questions. In: Mindful Universe. The Frontiers Collection. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-18076-7_15

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-18076-7_15

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-18075-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-18076-7

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