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Full Idea
It is impossible to explain the manifest qualities of ordinary middle-sized objects except by tracing these back to the behaviour of entities which themselves no longer possess these qualities.
Gist of Idea
You can only explain the qualities of large objects using entities which lack those qualities
Source
Werner Heisenberg (Ancient Thought in Modern Physics [1937], p.119), quoted by William Lycan - Consciousness 8.10
Book Ref
Lycan,William G.: 'Consciousness' [MIT 1995], p.111
A Reaction
Compare the similar wonderful remark by Lucretius (Idea 5713). If we accept this as a general principle for all of nature (including us) - and I do - then it is silly to complain that consciousness isn't found in basic physics.
Related Idea
Idea 5713 You needn't be made of laughing particles to laugh, so why not sensation from senseless seeds? [Lucretius]
| 16619 | We observe qualities, and use 'induction' to refer to the substances lying under them [Gassendi] |
| 15308 | Science is the reduction of diverse forces and powers to a smaller number that explain them [Kant] |
| 22646 | We have a passion for knowing the parts of something, rather than the whole [James] |
| 6552 | You can only explain the qualities of large objects using entities which lack those qualities [Heisenberg] |
| 20653 | Six reduction levels: groups, lives, cells, molecules, atoms, particles [Putnam/Oppenheim, by Watson] |
| 17075 | Scientific explanation tends to reduce things to the unfamiliar (not the familiar) [Smart] |
| 15310 | Solidity comes from the power of repulsion, and shape from the power of attraction [Harré/Madden] |
| 12315 | We can explain by showing constitution, as well as showing causes [Stanford] |
| 17088 | Reducing one science to another is often said to be the perfect explanation [Ruben] |
| 2396 | Reductive explanation is not the be-all and the end-all of explanation [Chalmers] |
| 7060 | One form of explanation is by decomposition [Heil] |
| 15059 | Grounding is an explanation of truth, and needs all the virtues of good explanations [Fine,K] |
| 13926 | Best explanations, especially natural ones, need grounding, notably by persistent objects [Haslanger] |
| 11053 | Explanatory reduction is stronger than ontological reduction [Hanna] |