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The Basic Fault in the Philosophy of Science

Johan Gamper. (2024). The Basic Fault in the Philosophy of Science. Qeios. doi:10.32388/BBM3ZU.

Abstract

The basic fault in the philosophy of science is simple enough to put in words and now it is time to do that. This basic fault puts the food on the table for philosophers and scientists, so it is hard to actually get the word out. That is not my problem, though. The basic fault is that we still assume that there is some kind of stuff that ‘everything’ consists of. My aim is to show how we can make it right.

Numbers, dreams, marbles and chickens, according to this assumption (that there is some kind of stuff that ‘everything’ consists of), must consist of this kind of stuff. By the famous equation of Albert Einstein, the modern version of the assumption is that everything, in the final analysis, is physical energy. Numbers, at least, accordingly, have no existence of their own. Would they, nota bene, the physical world as we know it, would not exist.

The informed reader may now ask, ‘How could it be otherwise? Is it not analytical, that anything consists of only one kind of stuff?’ On the surface, yes. All material things are physical and therefore made of physical energy (this is a bit simplified). The problem is the potential existence of non-physical things. If there were such, how could they interact with the physical things? Traditionally, since the question was raised by Princess Elisabeth, the answer has been that there cannot be any interaction between things of different ontological kinds. Things of different ontological kinds are, in short, by themselves, toodifferent.

In order not to be forced to deny the existence of, say, numbers and dreams, philosophers and scientists tend to say that they in the final analysis somehow are physical (if they exist, they are not non-physical).

The informed reader may now be bored. ‘We have heard this. Over and over again. What is your point?’ Fair enough. ‘We are not a simulation.’ That is the short answer. We are what we are (humans). Numbers are what they are (mathematical entities). The crucial question is not how physical things relate to mathematical entities or how physical things relate to, say, dreams. The crucial question is — I do not know how to say this… — if we can let go of the past and consider things that are not made up of only one kind of stuff?

I know that it may sound grotesque but what I have in mind is something like this.

Consider the imaginary numbers and the real numbers. No imaginary number is a real number and vice versa. Based on the imaginary numbers and the real numbers we can define complex numbers with both imaginary parts and real parts. Accordingly, we can define complex things consisting of more than one kind of stuff. My favourite candidates are consciousness and black hole singularities. We could define consciousness as having both biological parts and (non-biological) subjective parts. Likewise, we could define black hole singularities as having both physical parts and (non-physical) mathematical parts.

I will stop here for now. Some of the things I have stated I have touched upon before. See especially (2017, 2021a, 2021b, 2023a and 2023b).

References

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Psychotherapy

Macro Psychology and the Foundation of Psychotherapy

Summary

This work builds upon the paper Biological Energy and the Experiencing Subject (Gamper, J, Axiomathes, 2020). The focus is to show how the idea of an experiencing subject can be conceived of within modern psychotherapy. We follow the track from conditioning for animals (without concern for an experiencing subject), via behavioral therapy for humans with an experiencing subject and cognitive behavioral therapy for humans with an experiencing subject where we give the subject a rational for the behavioral modification, to psychodynamically oriented therapy where we confront the very subject without going via her behavior. The three methods are explained within the context of macro psychology, a psychology extracted from the paper Biological Energy and the Experiencing Subject. Conditioning concerns therapeutic methods that does not address subjective experiences of the patient and neither address subjective experiences methodologically. For instance, you do not give the patient instructions since you do not rely on the patients ability to understand them. Behavioral therapy concerns methods that that are mediated by instructions. The patient is told to follow a procedure. Cognitive behavioral therapy adds explanations to the behavioral therapy. Psychodynamically oriented therapy concerns the subject’s tendency to repress difficult inner material to feel better. This material is focused in the therapy and the patient is informed about how the therapist understands the dynamic. The framework, thus, that is presented, encompasses the major psychotherapeutic methods of today.

1. Introduction

The paper Biological Energy and the Experiencing Subject (Gamper, 2020) contains a definition of biological energy that permits a purely mental energy that should be accounted for in its own right. Here we will look at some fundamental psychotherapeutic principles that can be drawn from that standpoint.

2. Macro psychology

Macro psychology is built upon the notion of biological energy as suggested in Gamper (2020). Biological energy is construed as the organisms ability to recover from the load it is exposed to. That load entails a need of recovery that grows with the load. The available energy has a maximum and when that is reached as far as the ongoing recovery is concerned, the available amount of energy is decreased if the load continues to grow. This is illustrated in figure 1.

For experiencing subjects it is conjectured that the need of recovery on the one hand is mediated by signals thereof, and on the other hand that the subject has a lower ability to perceive those very signals, the stronger they are, as illustrated in figure 2.

This dynamic for experiencing subjects has the odd consequence that even though the energy level lowers when load is increasing at high levels of load (compare figure 3) the subject tends to put pressure on herself to avoid the troublesome signals of need of recovery in order not to perceive them (compare figures 4-6).

3. The experiencing subject

The introduction of the experiencing subject allows for new possibilities for the organism to cope with load. We need to disentangle first, though, the biological object from the experiencing subject. For the biological object as such there is no dynamic to talk of. The object recovers if it needs to and can. When the organism is exposed to signals of need of recovery there is an experiencing subject that perceives them. Whereas the need of recovery is an abstract feature of organisms the signals of need of recovery are a reality for the experiencing subject. As depicted in figure 4 the signals can be attended to as they are perceived. This means that the biological needs of recovery are met via the experiencing subject. This, of course by assumption, is to say that the biological very needs of recovery are not perceived directly. The dynamic, however, is one dimensional — the organism recovers more or less.

The experiencing subject, on its side, can cope with its signals in other ways. To look at those possibilities we first have to focus on the the very subject. For the biological object the need of recovery is an abstract feature. The subject on the other hand has real signals of need of recovery so it is something that has the experiences of the signals. This something, the subject, has its parts. We will assume that the subject is composed of some parts as illustrated in figure 7.

3.1. Repression

The disentangling now comes to work. Whereas the biological object has need of recovery as an abstract but absolute feature the experiencing subject has its signals of need of recovery as real but with degrees of freedom to engage with them. The suggestion here is that the subject can project troublesome signals onto a single part and then repress it. This leaves the repressed part emptied of energy while the remaining parts are energized. This process can be reiterated (compare figures 8-12).

4. Psychotherapeutic principles

The psychotherapeutic processes that are interesting are the reversed ones as compared to the ones previously mentioned. Those were concerned with avoiding difficult signals of need of recovery. Whereas conditioning concerned non subjective features of the biological organism behavioral therapy (BT), cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), and psychodynamically oriented therapy (PDT) concerns processes related to the experiencing subject.

4.1 BT

The psychotherapeutic principle of BT in the context of macro psychology is that the therapist instructs the patient to take explicit recovery measures. The patient by following the instructions recovers and by doing so has to endure the previously withheld difficult signals of need of recovery. A typical example is behavioral activation for depression where the therapist may instruct the patient to take daily walks.

4.2 CBT

The psychotherapeutic principle of CBT in the context of macro psychology is that the therapist instructs the patient to take explicit recovery measures and explains why (according to some model). In the CBT variant of macro psychology the rational would be that the patient avoids recovery to avoid the signals of need of recovery. Therefore she should try to recover even though it hurts in order to gain energy. A typical example is to accept sick leave in cases of exhaustion.

4.3 PDT

The psychotherapeutic principle of PDT in the context of macro psychology is that the therapist tries to emphasize with the patient in order to identify aspects of the patient that she has repressed. If the patient can acknowledge repressed contents she is instructed to try to endure the associated difficult signals of need of recovery that comes with it in order to regain access to to her own repressed parts.

5. Applications

Scenarios with a maltreated dog, its owner, and a therapist.

Conditioning

The therapist takes the dog to a safe environment.

Behavioral therapy

The therapist instructs the owner to take regular long walks with the dog, to feed it regularly, to let it have access to fresh water and to stop hitting it.

Cognitive behavioral therapy

The therapist instructs the owner to take regular long walks with the dog, to feed it regularly, to let it have access to fresh water and to stop hitting it. The therapist also tells the owner why.

Psychodynamically oriented therapy

The therapist tries to help the owner to reconnect to repressed parts that cares for the dog.

6. Reference: Gamper J (2020) Biological energy and the experiencing subject. Axiomathes.

© 2022 Johan Gamper

Subrosa KB

Albatrossvägen 104, 13666, Vendelsö, Sweden

+46-73-239 63 64

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johan.gamper@karlpu.org.

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WPC2026

FORMAL AND AXIOMATIC PSYCHIATRY

Date

Thu, 24.09.2026

Station 04

Presenter

Johan Gamper (Sweden)

Lecture Time

15:55 – 16:00

Socrates. I like that. How can you be alive? Don’t they kill you for wisdom where you come from?

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News

I’m really looking forward to lecture on the topic of Formal and Axiomatic Psychiatry for five minutes during the WPC 2026.

https://cslide.ctimeetingtech.com/wcp26/attendee/person/101

I’m not sure, though, how to comprehend how the WPA understands the importance of philosophy for psychiatry. Or, am I missing something?

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Accepted posters for the WPC 2026, Stockholm, September

The employer, SLSO, Region Stockholm, Sweden, doesn’t support this research. The research is affiliated to Johan Gamper’s philosophical hobby project “Adalja”. This may lead to withdrawal of the posters but please reach out if you are interested in the content.

103 MUST THE EXPERIENCING SUBJECT BE NON-BIOLOGICAL FOR COMPASSION TO BE AN INTEGRATED PART OF THE PSYCHIATRIC SETTING?

Johan Gamper
Region Stockholm, Brandbergens vårdcentral, Brandbergen, Sweden

AS56 – PHILOSOPHY AND HUMANITIES IN PSYCHIATRY – WHAT IS THE ROLE OF PHILOSOPHY IN PSYCHIATRY?

Abstract Submission

Objectives

In this submission I answer yes to the question posed in the title, building on Gamper, 2021). The possibility comes to a price though, an intricate redefinition of the notion of biological energy. An even higher price is the abandonment of the Aristotelian first philosophy.

Reference

Gamper, J. Biological Energy and the Experiencing Subject. Axiomathes 31, 497–506 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10516-020-09494-8


Methods

Deducation.


Results

It is shown that a biological object can have an experiencing subject. Since psychiatric condidtions per definition manifest themselves as part of subjective experiences clinicians must use their own subective exeperinces to use their compassion in the clinical setting.


Conclusions

The result is a turning point for psychiatry and psychiatrists now can use their experiences in their practise.

 

#111 FORMAL AND AXIOMATIC PSYCHIATRY

Johan Gamper
Region Stockholm, Brandbergens vårdcentral, Brandbergen, Sweden

AS56 – PHILOSOPHY AND HUMANITIES IN PSYCHIATRY – WHAT IS THE ROLE OF PHILOSOPHY IN PSYCHIATRY?

Abstract Submission

Objectives

I just want to lay on the table two related but unexplored fields For future research. The first comes from an attempt to axiomatize the natural laws (Gamper 2023a) and the other from an attempt to find formal relations between very different fields (Gamper (2023b).

References

Johan Gamper. (2023a). On the Axiomatisation of the Natural Laws — A Compilation of Human Mistakes Intended to Be Understood Only By Robots. Qeios. doi:10.32388/KC9YAU.

Johan Gamper. (2023b). Formal Theology. Qeios. doi:10.32388/EMANI


Methods

Formal and axiomatic deduction.


Results

The axiomatical attempt is very sketchy but it if successfull the result would pull psychiatry closer to formal scences.

The formal approach is very promising. Among other things it identifies a formal link between self-consciousness and black hole singularities.


Conclusions

This could be a start for psychiatry to be really integrated with the other sciences.

 

#131 MACRO PSYCHOLOGY AND THE FOUNDATION OF PSYCHOTHERAPY

Johan Gamper
Region Stockholm, Brandbergens vårdcentral, Brandbergen, Sweden

AS56 – PHILOSOPHY AND HUMANITIES IN PSYCHIATRY – WHAT IS THE ROLE OF PHILOSOPHY IN PSYCHIATRY?

Abstract Submission

Objectives

This work builds upon the paper Biological Energy and the Experiencing Subject (Gamper, J, Axiomathes, 2020). The focus is to show how the idea of an experiencing subject can be conceived of within modern psychotherapy. We follow the track from conditioning for animals (without concern for an experiencing subject), via behavioral therapy for humans with an experiencing subject and cognitive behavioral therapy for humans with an experiencing subject where we give the subject a rational for the behavioral modification, to psychodynamically oriented therapy where we confront the very subject without going via her behavior. The three methods are explained within the context of macro psychology. Conditioning concerns therapeutic methods that does not address subjective experiences of the patient and neither address subjective experiences methodologically. For instance, you do not give the patient instructions since you do not rely on the patients ability to understand them. Behavioral therapy concerns methods that that are mediated by instructions. The patient is told to follow a procedure. Cognitive behavioral therapy adds explanations to the behavioral therapy. Psychodynamically oriented therapy concerns thesubject’stendency to repress difficult inner material to feel better. This material is focused in the therapy and the patient is informed about how the therapist understands the dynamic. The framework, thus, that is presented, encompasses the major psychotherapeutic methods of today.


Methods

Deduction from clinical trial and error.


Results

An integrated view of modern psychotherapies.


Conclusions

Macro psychology can help bridge the gap between theoretical and clinical psychology.

#169 BIOLOGICAL PARTS AND BIOLOGICAL WHOLES — LESSONS FOR PSYCHIATRY

Johan Gamper
Region Stockholm, Brandbergens vårdcentral, Brandbergen, Sweden

AS56 – PHILOSOPHY AND HUMANITIES IN PSYCHIATRY – WHAT IS THE ROLE OF PHILOSOPHY IN PSYCHIATRY?

Abstract Submission

Objectives

Philosophically, it has been hard to determine how parts and wholes are related. Gamper (2024) suggests causal principles to solve the puzzle. For hundreds of years biology has discussed what the essential part of biological organisms is. Gamper (ibid.) makes a suggestion and uses it to compose living things, organisms. As biological objects this affects psychiatry too. Wee need to take into consideration the causal principles at hand and act accordingly. Psychiatrists don’t simulate flying. They fly.

Reference

Johan Gamper. (2024). Causal Principles in Material Constitution: A Philosophical Inquiry into the Composition of Objects. Qeios. doi:10.32388/H2B7NA.2. https://www.qeios.com/read/H2B7NA.2


Methods

We use a new mereological thesis to put psychiatry in perspective vis-a-vis other causal settings.


Results

Psychiatry, as having to do wih biological objects, is shown to be equally dealing with physical objects as other sciences.


Conclusions

This is a purely philosophical (mereological) study and may be used to inspire research into causal connections within psychiatry.

 

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Formal Theology

Johan Gamper. (2023). Formal Theology. Qeios. doi:10.32388/EMANIB.

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Mileva — a Dialogue About General Relativity as Regional

Johan Gamper. (2023). Mileva — a Dialogue About General Relativity as Regional. Qeios. doi:10.32388/6I9WNV. https://www.qeios.com/read/6I9WNV

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Master thesis defence slides (for a cancelled seminar)

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Opinion

Opinion: Pareto’s Curse

Four out of five patients at a primary health care center could benefit from counseling but only one out of five is referred. Of those referred 20 percent cancel their appointment or just do not show up. In that group 80 percent manages as good on their own and the other 20 percent need counseling the most. Of those who come to counseling 80 percent needs help to understand and cope with their current situation whereas 20 percent are in the need of a broader approach. In the group that needs a broader approach 80 percent is best treated in the primary care with an eclectic stance while the other 20 percent for the best is referred to secondary psychiatric care.

The group that is accepted for RCT (randomized controlled trial) studies is found among the 80 percent of the patients with the need of a broader approach of the 20 percent of the patients in counseling. In that population 80 percent is not accessible for the scientists (due to life et cetera). The other 20 percent is subject to research. Approximately 20 percent of this group of 20 percent are the very patients that are part of the RCT studies (they have accepted to be randomized for CBT (cognitive behavioral therapy) or TAU (treatment as usual), they have allocated time for all tests, they have showed up for all sessions and done their homework, and they have taken part of the follow ups. Lately it has been shown that internet based CBT and group based CBT is as god as CBT with physical sessions. This research is based on the group of 20 percent of the population that accept and endure physical sessions CBT.

Pareto’s law is an empirically based statement that identifies a 80/20 relation in various situations. At a primary health care center, for example, 20 percent of the patients stands for 80 percent of all the appointments.

When the healthcare is under pressure from stakeholders to produce more and more evidence based appointments there is a risk that Pareto’s law collapses into what I call Pareto’s curse. In this particular case evidence based practice translates into CBT which translates into good practice. CBT is good. But without individually customized CBT and without more than one line of treatment only 20 percent of 20 percent of 80 percent of 20 percent of those who come for counseling will benefit from the treatment. That is 0,64 percent or one patient out of 156 patients needing counseling.

To understand why this threatens healthcare systems we have to look at Goodhart’s law. Goodhart’s law can be formulated as “When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure.” The evidence based practice movement initially wanted to give research its natural place next to clinical experience and the patients preferences. This measure then became the target.

To overcome Pareto’s Curse we must return to Pareto’s Law and do what is best in each situation.

(A counselor the other day went with her daughter to a primary healthcare clinic for teenagers for a first meeting with a psychologist. The daughter spent 80 percent of the session filling in forms and talked with the psychologist for 20 percent of the session. The daughter decided to not return.)

(Note, this is only a problem in 80 percent of 20 percent of the world’s countries.)

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Scientific Ontology

Gamper, J. Scientific Ontology. Axiomathes 29, 99–102 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10516-018-9396-0

Abstract

The modal properties of the principle of the causal closure of the physical have traditionally been said to prevent anything outside the physical world from affecting the physical universe and vice versa. This idea has been shown to be relative to the definition of the principle (Gamper in Philosophia 45:631–636, 2017). A traditional definition prevents the one universe from affecting any other universe, but with a modified definition, e.g. (ibid.), the causal closure of the physical can be consistent with the possibility of one universe affecting the other universe. Gamper (2017) proved this modal property by implementing interfaces between universes. Interfaces are thus possible, but are they realistic? To answer this question, I propose a two-step process where the second step is scientific research. The first step, however, is to fill the gap between the principles or basic assumptions and science with a consistent theoretical framework that accommodates the modal properties of an ontology that matches the basic assumptions.

Keywords