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CURRENTLY UNDERGOING
RADICAL RE-WRITING
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SCIENCE LIMITED
(a 13-chapter book critical of the role of the sciences today)
by Robert C. Priddy
Formerly University of Oslo (ret'd)
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UPDATE: RECONSIDERED AND MODIFIED VERSION OF THE ORIGINAL TEXT OF THESE PAGES This revised text is designed to reflect a promising change in the public face of science which has occurred in many media, but - more importantly - better to represent the very considerable outreach and developments which have taken place in many of the sciences since the ubiquity of virtually unlimited computing power and its related technologies. |
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(A more detailed summary/abstract of chapters is also provided) Ch, 1: THE MODERN INTELLECTUAL
CRISIS On some causes of a decline in intellectual
culture, including the underlying pseudo-philosophy of scientism/physicalism.
The late C20th facile presentation of scientific objectivity and near-infallibility
challenged by events, and promising trends to reform of its public
face in the media. Scientific culture - on public confidence in scientific
ethics and internally in poor self-reflection and self-regulation.
Counterbalancing the pendulum swing towards physicalism & materialism
since the enlightenment by holistic, holarchic and philosophical counterweights.
Science for social change and the common good or as
a means to advance unjustified ends? Genetic 'meddling'? 'Natural'
selection or supra-evolutionism - to what ends, whose profit and whose
loss? Ch. 2: SCIENCE AND THE PROGRESS OF HUMANITY?
From & superstition to 'scientific prejudices', from alchemic gold
to chemical payoffs, from scientific advance to declining social values,
from ignorance of nature to fallacies about infallibility and human
error? Destruction and 'creation' in science and the ill effects of
the cultural schizm on understanding of the human being.
Ch. 3: THE PUBLIC FACE OF SCIENCE
Ch. 4: SCIENCE, THE CRITICAL MIND AND DISSENT
The science community and radical dissent, social criticism and underestimation
of the human error factor in science applications. A pressing need
for fresh, unbiassed and more broadly educated minds to develop science
within a more universal and inclusive level of understanding. Five
varied examples of dissent against conventional wisdom: 1. Carnivorous
bias in medicine. 2. Odontology & toxic fillings. 3. Unintelligent
views on intelligence: 4. Distortion of the distant past and prehistory.
5. Para-normal phenomena denied.
Ch. 5: SCIENTIFIC OBJECTIVITY IN QUESTION
On what is scientific, what not. Prestige and spurious claims of 'objective
neutrality' and expert consensus. The assumption of physicalist meaninglessness
vs. inherent purpose and meaning. Inertia in science: the roles of
academic conventions, fashionable opinion, distortions due to pressures
for originality, individualism, competition, self-marketing and prestige.
Ch. 6: SCIENTIFIC FREEDOM & GROUP INTERESTS
'Freedom' to research in the best interests of the public. Is
science still only a collective, non-ideological and non-exploitative
enterprise? Ethical responsibility towards 'society'. The conflict
of values in science: truth or care? Wastefulness and wasted opportunity.
Social control through science?
Ch. 7: SCIENCE AND THE DEMISE OF PHILOSOPHY
The original spirit of philosophy and science diverted away from
broad critical thinking. Human experience hypostatised in pseudo-philosophical
concepts. The meta-crisis of the seperate sciences. Preconceptions,
unreserved judgements and intellectual intolerance.
Ch. 8: SCIENTIFIC CONFUSION ABOUT CAUSES
Science only describes & can't explain. Meaning or purpose. Multiple
causes occur, which scientific method rejects. Explanation by causation
limited, due to past orientation and denial of teleology, also since
chance events & free will occur. Chaos theory and causality; random
selection and probability; statistical theory and causation: Knowledge
and a cosmic order.
Ch. 9: WHERE SCIENTIFIC EXPLANATION FALLS
SHORT On Procrustean criteria for strictly scientific explanation:
repeatable observation, demonstrability, sense organ reductionism.
Consciousness' subjective transcendence systematically 'overlooked'
& 'objectivised' by vulgar scientism. Scientific predictions, the
unknown and unknowable. The protean cumulation of ideas and multiplication
of scientific information without holarchic understanding.
Ch. 10: SCIENCE AND HUMAN SUBJECTS The
dilemma of most social science, that empirical methods distort the
nature of the psycho-physical & social-spiritual human being. The
uniqueness of historically-situated human actions aborts exact laws
and prediction in social science. Analytical fragmentation of the
human as a person and compartmentalisation of studies all due to the
analytical fallacy, misplaced concreteness & confused attempts to
quantify human qualities as objective data. Wider, 'softer' observational
methods in human science essential for understanding.
Ch. 11: VALUES AND UNDERSTANDING IN HUMAN
STUDIES On values mistakenly seen as 'non-scientific', including
the value of science itself and its in-build social and cultural values.
Human sciences' only justification is if they improve life. Need for
self-legitimisation, moral discrimination, meaningful purpose and
universal human values: eg: Human Values.
Ch. 12: SCIENCE AND SPIRITUALITY The problem
of science for spirituality:
Scientific knowledge of the cosmos or religious spiritual belief? Subjectivity, consciousness
and temporality. Science, God & alleged 'miracles'.
(A yet more detailed
summary/abstract of contents . is also provided)
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| This second work is a constructive follow-up to the mainly critical texts of 'Science Limited'. This presents an overview of human understanding in general, drawing together upon many diverse perspectives from philosophy and culture both East and West . It investigates the nature of our faculty of understanding, its main structures, functions and likely limits. It ranges from practical, inter-personal, communicational, scientific and philosophical understanding to ethical, metaphysical and spiritual insight. It forwards a metascientific, holistic view of understanding and the philosophical guiding principles involved, also viewing understanding as finding the unity in diverse cultures and world-views. is also provided) |
© The book 'Beyond Science' on this web site is the copyright o f Robert Priddy, Oslo 1999. All brief quotes must be identified by stating the title & date of this book plus the author's name and this website address - as follows: http://home.no.net/rrpriddy. Contact the author by e-mail for permission to publish any extracts that exceed one sentence from this and any linked websites. (e-mail address robreiNOSPAM@start.no -please replace NOSPAM with @)
Robert Priddy is British, born U.K. 1936, researched and taught philosophy and sociology at the University of Oslo 1968-1984 until pensioned).Bibliography of R.P.
For an overview of the sources quoted in this book, go to Selected Source Bibliography
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