title: The epistemic paradox of mind and matter.
abstract: The attempt to posit independent mind and matter results in an unavoidable circularity. We propose to accept this circularity and then explore the steps from the various "constructs" of matter to those biological structures associated with mind. This enables us to explore the hierarchical levels of emergence that take us from the periodic table of the elements to consciousness as it develops in the evolutionary radiation. The possibility of undiscovered principles of the same epistemological status as the Pauli exclusion principle is discussed.
authors.affiliation: Krasnow Institute for Advanced Study at George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia 22030, USA.
authors.forename: H J
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Morowitz
mesh_terms: D055592:Biophysical Phenomena; D001703:Biophysics; D003243:Consciousness / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D019359:Knowledge; D011603:Psychophysiology