In an effort to try to understand entities with complex interdependent parts naturalism has fallaciously tried to reduce them to mere constituent parts. Since every piece of truth must pass through the brain in order to be understood, the human brain has been the biggest target. But, as Rene Descartes postulated, the mind is separate from the body; it is a separate entity. The mind is not physical; it is metaphysical. The mind has a separate realm of mental states and cannot be explained in merely physical terms. The mind is capable of willing action, thinking, predicting, comprehending, and even controlling the brain and the body. These are acts that are qualitatively different from their constituent neurons. And what of the notion that abstract concepts, such as thoughts, can act on natural things? That is completely out of the realm of the cause and effect relationship that most of the natural world appears to be operating under. There is in reality a dualism with separate orders of phenomena that at its core is very counter-intuitive and problematic for science alone to uncover. And were it not for this dualism of the brain/mind phenomenon, psychology would be a superfluous undertaking. (more…)Posts Tagged ‘reductionism’
The Perils of Reductionism (Dualism of the Brain and Mind)
Tuesday, April 26th, 2011In an effort to try to understand entities with complex interdependent parts naturalism has fallaciously tried to reduce them to mere constituent parts. Since every piece of truth must pass through the brain in order to be understood, the human brain has been the biggest target. But, as Rene Descartes postulated, the mind is separate from the body; it is a separate entity. The mind is not physical; it is metaphysical. The mind has a separate realm of mental states and cannot be explained in merely physical terms. The mind is capable of willing action, thinking, predicting, comprehending, and even controlling the brain and the body. These are acts that are qualitatively different from their constituent neurons. And what of the notion that abstract concepts, such as thoughts, can act on natural things? That is completely out of the realm of the cause and effect relationship that most of the natural world appears to be operating under. There is in reality a dualism with separate orders of phenomena that at its core is very counter-intuitive and problematic for science alone to uncover. And were it not for this dualism of the brain/mind phenomenon, psychology would be a superfluous undertaking. (more…)The Perils of Reductionism (Problems with Methodology)
Friday, April 15th, 2011There is a silent but deadly prowler on the move, so silent it has infiltrated the psyche of popular culture unquestioned, untouched and unblemished. It has lulled the inattentive masses to sleep with its charm of an empty promise of liberation from the religious sects. In its underhanded attempts to eradicate supernatural interference, the naturalistic establishment has been on the prowl with its aim to ferociously try to explain the totality of the known reality in terms of natural processes, and it has taken a giant leap into absurdity. The underlying beliefs of this orthodoxy is that every answer to the obvious aspects of our realities be forcefully explained in very mechanistic ways by the means of the natural sciences alone. As a result naturalism has prodded science to entertain and try to answer questions that are not necessarily scientific questions.
What would otherwise be deemed to be good science has been reduced to zealous reductionist pursuits clearly aimed more for pleasures of self-illusions of scientific fulfillment in being able to answer the deepest riddles of life, rather than for the honest appraisal of the real world by various interdisciplinary means. (more…)
