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Dave Pruett
Number of posts: 14
Email address: email
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Posts by Dave Pruett:
Part 9
Science’s Sacred Cows: Conclusion
“There is neither spirit nor matter in the world; the stuff of the universe is spirit-matter. No other substance but this could produce the human molecule.” — Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
Before Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) earned renown as a titan of philosophy, he was an amateur astronomer, and a damn good one. Kant correctly hypothesized that extragalactic nebulae are in fact “island universes,” …
Part 8
Science’s Sacred Cows: Materialism
“If ‘dead’ matter has reared up this curious landscape of fiddling crickets, song sparrows, and wondering [humans], it must be plain even to the most devoted materialist that the matter of which he [or she] speaks contains amazing, if not dreadful, powers.” — Loren Eiseley in The Immense Journey
In opposing the Vietnam War, Senator J. William Fulbright wisely understood: “In a democracy dissent is an act of faith. Like medicine, the test of its value is not in its taste, but in its effects.” Similarly for science.
Part 7
Science’s Sacred Cows: Reductionism
“When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe.” — John Muir
When Descartes partitioned the world into the res extensa (material objects) and the res cogitans (mind), he treated the two domains quite differently. In chapter VI of Meditations and Principles (1644), he writes:
“… there is a vast difference between the mind and body, in respect that body, from its nature, is always divisible, and that mind is entirely indivisible.”
Part 6
Science’s Sacred Cows: Realism
“The universe is not only queerer than we suppose, it is queerer than we can suppose.” — J.B.S. Haldane
In the previous post, we discussed a fiendishly clever gedanken experiment posed in 1935 by Einstein and co-workers and designed to expose presumed flaws in quantum mechanics (QM). When the so-called “EPR paradox” was finally tested experimentally in 1977 at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, the results were a resounding victory for QM, while ringing the death knell for Einstein’s cherished principle of local causes. The “EPR paradox” — and Bell’s Theorem, which ultimately led to its resolution…
Part 5
Science’s Sacred Cows: Locality
In three previous posts we’ve discussed assumptions that science once embraced, later to discard as invalid or unnecessary. Thus far we’ve dispatched with absolute time and space (Part 2), determinism (Part 3), and dualism (Part 4). Today we examine the principle of local causes.
Einstein, who deposed Newton, grew intellectually stodgy in old age. With respect to quantum mechanics (QM), he was positively reactionary. A die-hard determinist, Einstein rejected the statistical implications of quantum theory. In a letter to his friend and fellow physicist Max Born, Einstein confided: “Quantum mechanics is very impressive. But an inner voice tells me that it is not yet the real McCoy. The theory produces a good deal but hardly brings us closer to the secret of the Old One.”
Part 4
Science’s Sacred Cows: Dualism
“The very act of observing alters the thing being observed.” –Werner Heisenberg
Since Jan. 8th’s post, we’ve been discussing assumptions that science initially embraced either explicitly or tacitly, later to abandon them as invalid or unnecessary. In the last post we rang the death knell for determinism. Today let’s ring it for dualism.
Part 3
Science’s Sacred Cows: Determinism
“God does not play dice.” –Albert Einstein
Since my Jan. 8 post, we’ve been discussing assumptions that science initially embraced, either explicitly or tacitly, only to abandon later as invalid or unnecessary. These include most of the following: dualism, determinism, reductionism, absolute time, absolute space, the principle of locality, materialism and realism. The last post addressed absolute time and space. Today we ring the death knell for determinism, the collateral damage of two revolutionary scientific developments of the 20th century. Let’s review them in reverse historical order.
