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Are You an Illusion?

#1
C C Offline
http://iainews.iai.tv/articles/are-you-a...n-auid-400

EXCERPT: Mary Midgley, a moral philosopher and author, has been described as “the UK’s foremost scourge of scientific pretension”. At the venerable age of 94, she has published a new book, Are You an Illusion?, which examines contemporary approaches to the question of consciousness. As in previous books, such as Science as Salvation and The Solitary Self, Midgley seeks to challenge what she sees as the materialist dogmatism that dominates much of modern scientific thinking. [...]

What does it mean to say that science is a form of metaphysics?

MM: I take it that `science’ here means `physical science’, not just systematic thinking in general? If so, then saying that it is a "a form of metaphysics" seems to be just a mistake. The speaker’s idea is probably that `science’ on its own can supply its own conceptual background – the set of assumptions needed for its work – so that no philosophical thinking is needed here.

This can’t be true, since concepts – structural ideas such as mind and body, force, time, life and causal necessity – are not physical items.

What is involved here is not just a tribal dispute between two sets of academics. Reflection about these background assumptions is philosophical work whoever does it. The many great scientists, from Newton to Einstein, who have always dealt with philosophical questions have known this well. It is only lately that scientific training has become so one-sided that the crucial function of philosophy within it has been forgotten.

This close link between science and philosophy is not exceptional. Every discipline – history, mathematics, language, whatever – raises philosophical problems whenever the discussions within it become very general...
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#2
Magical Realist Online
"That I am" is solid and unmistakeable. From the moment I have consciousness I am revealed thru my own experience. Thru pain, and loss, and love, and desire. I am not nothingness. There is something like what it is to be. THAT I am. WHAT I am remains illusory, contingent, relational. I am a that that identifies itself in an unending succession of whats. I choose these identities. I reflect my radiant essenceless being thru these roles. I simply exist before I exist AS. I am the hidden reality I am also only a mirage of. I am the Dreamer AND the Dream. As Sartre said, existence precedes essence. The Buddha is reincarnated as every single living being. All at once and all together.

“What is meant here by saying that existence precedes essence? It means first of all, man exists, turns up, appears on the scene, and, only afterwards, defines himself."==Sartre
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#3
Yazata Offline
(Feb 21, 2015 06:41 AM)C C Wrote: Are You an Illusion?

Yes, in my case probably so. Other people seem to think so.


Quote:EXCERPT: Mary Midgley, a moral philosopher and author, has been described as “the UK’s foremost scourge of scientific pretension”. At the venerable age of 94, she has published a new book, Are You an Illusion?, which examines contemporary approaches to the question of consciousness. As in previous books, such as Science as Salvation and The Solitary Self, Midgley seeks to challenge what she sees as the materialist dogmatism that dominates much of modern scientific thinking. [...]


Apparently Mary wouldn't like early Buddhism and it's anatta (no-self) doctrine very much. But the early Buddhists weren't materialists so much as phenomenalists.

Quote:What does it mean to say that science is a form of metaphysics?

MM: I take it that `science’ here means `physical science’, not just systematic thinking in general? If so, then saying that it is a "a form of metaphysics" seems to be just a mistake. The speaker’s idea is probably that `science’ on its own can supply its own conceptual background – the set of assumptions needed for its work – so that no philosophical thinking is needed here.

This can’t be true, since concepts – structural ideas such as mind and body, force, time, life and causal necessity – are not physical items.

I think that she's very right about that. Of course that's a different issue than 'the question of consciousness'.

Quote:What is involved here is not just a tribal dispute between two sets of academics. Reflection about these background assumptions is philosophical work whoever does it.

Exactly.

Quote:This close link between science and philosophy is not exceptional. Every discipline – history, mathematics, language, whatever – raises philosophical problems whenever the discussions within it become very general...

It's ironic to read remarks written by cretins who insist that philosophy is worthless and a waste of time, oblivious to the fact that opinions like theirs ARE philosophical opinions. Meanwhile physicists seem to be turning into metaphysicians, especially when they write for lay audiences.

Of course, given the sad state of contemporary 'continental philosophy', I can see why scientific-oriented thinkers can be put off by philosophy, if the kind of philosophy they are exposed to is the wrong kind.
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