Science Beyond Materialism

[Bubba_Switzler]

These eccentricities don’t by themselves make Sheldrake a scientific heretic. His main heresy is his thoroughgoing rejection of the materialist belief that “everything is essentially material or physical, even minds.” Scientists and non-scientists frequently equate the materialist worldview with science itself, but Sheldrake argues that much of our everyday experience, not to mention recent scientific research, points in the opposite direction. Materialism still holds sway, but it is increasingly old-fashioned.

Materialism entails a number of beliefs about the way the world works. Science has long assumed that the world and its components function like machines, that matter is purposeless and unconscious, that the laws of nature are fixed, that memories lodge as material traces in brains. It would be more scientific, Sheldrake suggests, if these claims were not accepted as received or proven truths but instead became research questions requiring investigation…

Sheldrake’s own theories might prove to be every bit the hokum that his critics claim. I have the impression that he wouldn’t much care. If experiment and argument prove him wrong, well, that’s the way science is supposed to work. What he objects to—and quite rightly—is a commitment to materialism that determines what kinds of answers are possible before questions are ever asked and before any evidence is examined. And along the way he gives a tantalizing, mind-altering taste of what science might look like once materialist assumptions are shed.

firstthings.com/onthesquare/2013/04/science-beyond-materialism

Interesting article.

 

[Linusthe2nd]

firstthings.com/onthesquare/2013/04/science-beyond-materialism

Interesting article.

It was interesting. Perhaps things are changing.

Linus2nd