Reality and properties

If I have an object in front of me.

I then close my eyes.

I no longer see the object.  But the object is still there.

I then close my ears.

I no longer hear the object.  But the object is still there.

I then lose my taste buds.

I no longer taste the object. But the object is still there.

I then lose my ability to touch.

I no longer can feel the object.  But the object is still there.

If the object is a closed door, I can not get past the door.

There is something there, even when I have no senses.

So I live in a world with stuff around me.

Now that stuff is relative to me.

If I become the tiniest particle in the world, I can get past the door, getting in between its atoms.  But I will not be able to get past some of those protons or neutrons (or what ever the smallest particles are).

So there is stuff in the universe.

However we do not know what this stuff actually is.

We can only know the stuff's properties.  And such properties are not physical but descriptive.

For example, when we see a red objective; the objective has no red particle : no it is that when white light shines on the object, it appears to absorb all the other visible light waves and reflect the frequency of light wave that is red.  That is its property.  The property is descriptive, not physical.

So for the purposes of material physics, the world is full of stuff.

But something is is incredible. 

This stuff is not dead.  It has energy.  It interacts.

Light actually moves.  Light bounces off objects.  All around us this stuff is interacting all the time.  This stuff is 'alive' and interacts with itself. Even a stone is alive in such a context.

So (a) stuff is there and (b) it interacts.

But there is another matter to consider. 

To say stuff is there is at a point in time, say t(0). 

However to say they stuff interacts is to say that the stuff moves from t(0) to t(1) to t(infinity).

So (c) the stuff interacting is the process of stuff moving from t(n) to t(n+) where + is after n. So it appears that time is there.

From the little I know of physics, time is related to speed. The faster the object, time slows down.  Light waves are timeless.  They move incredibly fast.  Objects are slower and are bound by time, but time is not eternal, as all objectives do move.  Our earth is moving. 

(An aside : what if there is an objective that does not move at all ? Would time be timeless too, like light?)

So (c) is based on (a) and (b) : time is a property of the stuff being there and interacting.

What is remarkable is that we humans have this ability to sense this stuff.

So not only do we know stuff is there but we (d) 'sense' it. But to be more precise we sense such stuff in a way which means we can interact with the stuff. For example if I am hungry, I can use my senses to see food and eat it.

So we humans can interact with this stuff. That is remarkable!

But such senses are not 'stuff' senses.  I do not sense a bananas by having 'stuff' senses.  No, my senses take advantage of the stuff AND the interactions.  I can see a tomato from the interaction between light and the tomato.  I don't need to personally interact with the tomato with the stuff in me.

But there is something else here.  There is (e) variety.  There are red tomatoes, yellow bananas, green peas, etc. There are not tomatoe stuff and banana stuff and pea stuff which we digest.

And this (e) variety brings about (f) uniqueness. This uniqueness is brought about by the different interactions.  I do not know whether it is brought about by having different stuff.

Then we human beings have this ability to (g) attach meaning to our interactions with this stuff.

So combining (f) uniqueness and (g) meaning we attribute (h) properties to this stuff.

So we conclude that the world around us is (i) (1) made of stuff with (2) properties.

Now the wonderful thing about (i) (2) allows us to use the stuff for multitudes of reasons.

So the world is not just about a load of mechanisms going on all around us.  That would mean that the world around is just (i) (1).  No; we as human beings have attributed properties to these objects, for our own ends and from our senses.

So everything on earth is not just stuff : it is something with a property. 

From this I am saying that every physical object is also mental in nature. 

The stuff is physical and the property is mental.

But such properties are dependent on we human beings discovering such properties.  AND they are dependent on us attributing the property to the object. If the sense of taste did not exist we could not attribute such a property.

So if all objects have properties which we use for our purposes, then perhaps to say that our minds or brains are just a series of 'nerve ending, or things or stuff moving around' is discarding that fact that such objects have properties with meaning.  That objects have mental and physical attributes.

But it is our ability to attach meaning  that I find remarkable. 

Is this ability to have meaning separate to these mental and physical attributes, or is the ability to have meaning drawn from having mental and physical attributes.