Sequel

Almost twenty years after my struggles with Nadine’s drinking habits, I was very happy to find that the material world had not been able to exert as much brutality on her as everybody had first thought.

It is the orthodox methodology of science that allows us to help people like Nadine—to diagnose illnesses, to understand the underlying mechanisms, to design medication that helps reliably. We should be proud to have come so far. It is the same science reminding us that the light in Nadine’s eyes is telling us literally nothing that would in itself justify the idea that our orthodox perspective is limited.

But maybe physics and mathematics will do, at some point.

If the ideas above contain a grain of truth, then the mind may ultimately be more fundamental than the world, in some specific sense. And this may allow us to approach questions like Chalmers’ with completely new ideas in our heads, and to look at Nadine’s struggles with a new sense of hope in our hearts.