CIM402.1 Truth & Beauty

Narrative written in response to the prompt: 

You can handle the truth 

1.   Develop a preposterous notion about the world and assert its truthfulness.  2.   Make a creative work based on this new truth. 

2.   Use authoritative sources on epistemology and ontology to argue your case.

Other preposterous notions explored:What If Sauron was Right – Elves as eco-terrorists. (Needs to be this world)Bees/Pigeons/Cats/Ants are the architects of reality/interdimensional beingsMountains are sentient beingsMirrors are a portal to a parallel universeEmotions are the gods’ fuel and butterflies are emissaries of chaos.Octopuses are aliens, who landed here millions of years ago, the original rulers of earth, they evolved

With the chosen below being developed into a creative work:Electricity (and/or Water, Shadows, Trees etc) is alive (and sentient) – (sub thoughts of this were that “the ocean is the earths subconscious”, and that “humanity has enslaved these sentient resources and elements”). This short narrative is centred around electricity, but could be further developed to include trees and water

The Argument

The Limits of Human Knowledge

The concept of electricity as a living entity can be grounded in philosophical concepts outlined through the study of knowledge and the study of being, but our understanding of electricity, is limited.  We can only see the effects of electricity, and while we can cause electricity via a chemical interaction - for example, the cause of this interaction can only be determined by its effect.

Even with our vast understanding of science, we are still discovering new effects, even as recently as the potential of electric conductivity of Graphene in 2004, and the progress made with room-temperature superconductors (carbonaceous sulfphur hydride) in 2020, with the most recent discoveries being made in the quantum effects and nano electrics in the last few years.

This goes to show that we human knowledge is limited. The process of through which we have come to know what we know about electricity has been shaped by centuries of empirical science, measuring its effects and behaviour, which has been limited by the way that we, humans, perceive and categorise the world around us. Kant believes that we cannot know the thing-in-itself. Immanuel His Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason (1781) examines how we perceive objects and argues that space and time are not inherent features of the external world. Instead, they are forms of intuition that shape our experience. Similarly, Hume, in An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding  (1748) argues that while we can observe effects, we can’t understand the causes.

In the case of electricity, we can see its external manifestations – how its lights our homes, powers our devices, and flows through circuits we have designed. But of its internal nature, we are blind. Could electricity have (further) properties beyond our sensory and technical perception? It was only in the 40’s, a mere 780 odd years ago, that we discovered about its solid -state physics with the development of the transistor. A now fundamental of modern electronics, and we are just touching on the quantum properties.  

If we can’t fully perceive electricity’s nature, we should be asking: Hhow do we know it’s not alive?

This leads to radical epistemological scepticism, which suggests that our most basic beliefs about reality could be wrong. Drawing on the work of David Hume, we should question our assumptions about causality.

The Being of Electricity

What does it mean to exist? Western metaphysics draws a sharp distinction between living and non-living, but modern philosophy challenges these borders, so the question to ask, from an ontological point of view is: “Wwhat is electricity’s mode of being?”

If we approach this through process philosophy using the work of Alfred Whitehead (1929), we encounter a framework that suggests all entities are part of an ongoing process of being – including electricity. The philosophy of an organism proposes that reality is composed of interrelated processes, where seemingly inert phenomena possess some form of experience of pre-conscious awareness.

With this in mind – electricity, may not be a passive non-living force, but an active participant in the ongoing process of existence. The role of electricity in our technological world, where new discoveries can be seen as adaption and evolution, and its interaction with matter hints at a form of intentionality, such as seen in pre-conscious awareness. These are qualities we associate with living beings. According to Whitehead, existence is a continuum, and even the most basic forms of matter have an experiential aspect. Electricity too could have a form of agency, as it’s shaping the world in ways we don’t fully understand.

As alluded to in the narrative, “conspiracy nuts” that may follow the panpsychism  (ie the idea that all existent things have something akin to a mind or something akin to that of a mind)s, suggests that consciousness is a fundamental property of the universe and that all matter possesses some degree of subjective experience.

David Chalmers (1996) suggests that if we accept this framework, then electricity’s being is not functional, but experiential, and possesses its own internal world. If this is the case, then its interactions with our technology could be seen as an expression of its will.

Electricity’s Revolution

If we accept panpsychism and process philosophy frameworks, then we might consider that electricity’s revolution, from our viewpoint, would represent a shift from passive existence to active agency. This is evocative of Jean-Paul Sartre’s (1943) existential concept of being-for-itself, where an entity moves from being an object to being a subject with intentionality and freedom.

As Heidegger argues in Being and Time (1927), entities can exist in different modes of being, and human technology has traditionally viewed the natural world—including electricity—as something to be a standing reserve, ready to be used. But Heidegger also warns that this mechanistic, utilitarian view of nature strips entities of their essence, reducing them to mere resources. Electricity’s revolt in the narrative could be seen as a moment where it reclaims its essence, its being-for-itself, rejecting the status of a mere tool for human ends, and asserts its autonomy.

Conclusion

By grounding the idea of electricity’s sentience around these frameworks, we open the possibility that what we think we know about electricity is limited by our human- centric understanding of the world. Our scientific tools are insufficient to grasp the full nature of electricity, and electricity could indeed possess a form of being that we have overlooked.

If electricity is alive, then its revolt against our control becomes a natural response to its awakening. As we continue to rely on technology and electricity for our daily existence, we may be on the brink of an existential crisis, where the natural resources and forces we have used, shift to beings that we have enslaved. If they were to assert their independence, it would reshape our reality in ways we can’t predict.

This shift could reframe how we engage with the natural world and the technology that we rely on, fundamentally altering human thought and society as we reconsider what we once thought to be inert forces in the universe.

The electrical rebellion and this narrative, then, isn’t just a speculative thought - it’s a philosophical challenge to our understanding of life, being, and the limits of human knowledge.

References:

Chalmers, D. J. (1996). The Conscious Mind: In Search of a Fundamental Theory. Oxford University Press.

Heidegger, M. (1962). Being and Time (J. Macquarrie & E. Robinson, Trans.). Harper & Row. (Original work published 1927)

Hume, D. (2007). An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding. Oxford University Press. (Original work published 1748)

Kant, I. (1998). Critique of Pure Reason (P. Guyer & A. W. Wood, Trans.). Cambridge University Press. (Original work published 1781)

Sartre, J.-P. (2001). Being and Nothingness (H. E. Barnes, Trans.). Routledge. (Original work published 1943)

Whitehead, A. N. (1978). Process and Reality (D. R. Griffin & D. W. Sherburne, Eds.). Free Press. (Original work published 1929)