Non-dualism, natural science and what contemporary artistic practices have to say about it

Abstract

In this essay I intend to investigate what role contemporary art plays in the exploration of fundamental aspects of reality - and the importance of it. My premise for this text is that dealing with the fundamental aspects of reality has value - the way life is felt and how the world is perceived can be highly dependent on the fundamental understanding of reality. Throughout the essay when I use the term science, I mean the tradition of natural science. I will ask the reader for patience. Before I can get to the role contemporary art might play, I have to go through philosophical and scientific material that creates ground for further reflection. I have chosen to go into a rather detailed philosophical investigation, because philosophy and questions around the nature of reality directly inform my practice. The analytical tradition of philosophy is relevant for me in the way it most often is connected to science and empiricism. This also reflects that my practice touches upon scientific phenomena such as quantum physics as well as questioning the role of science in society. I will use Bemardo Kastrup as a main reference along the text. Kastrup is a Dutch contemporary scientist and philosopher who argues that the world view of physicalism is dictating the Western society to a high degree, hut that physicalism doesn't really hold water either in a philosophical or a scientific context. He is himself arguing for what he calls analytical idealism which is closely related to non-dualism. We will come back to this later. Physicalism is the belief that reality only consists of matter and that consciousness merely is a by-product of this matter. Physicalism is often linked to science and rationality, but according to Kastrup, studies of contemporary science seem to contradict physicalism. Kastrup then argues that physicalism is being hung onto within the field of science, without having any substantial scientific empirical evidence to support it. It can be argued that the duality that arises from the belief in matter has consequences in terms of a subject-object relationship being projected onto reality, which ultimately creates unnecessary suffering for the individual.