Physical Monism - The Body as Given

Physical Monism

Materialism is not a primary. It is the learned theory that bodies are comprised of inanimate elemental substances in the chemical sense. But knowledge of matter is not an immediate given. That of which we are directly aware is the bodily which I call the physical. That physical bodies are comprised of matter is a complex scientific theory, not a metaphysical given.

To exist is to be a body, to be of a body, or to be in relation to a body. Body is a perceptual given. Your body, its perceivable attributes, and its relations are your primary given. You are a body that interacts with bodies. Your senses are bodily, and of bodies. Everything that you know, directly or indirectly, you know in relation to your body, which is a Randian entity, perceived directly, but in some Kelleyan perceptual form.

Matter is posited as the substance of body. Matter is not epistemologically prior. All humans are aware of their bodies. The notion of matter is a recent conceptual discovery. Matter is the scientifically discovered non-sentient substance of the body.

Consciousness is a formal relation between the body and its environment, which includes the self. The mind is a complex existent which is discovered. We are not, following Adler, aware of the mind - we are aware of bodies, their attributes, and their relations. The mind is the complex sum of one's conscious and subconscious acts and potentiallities.