Philosophical musings on Quanta & Qualia;  Materialism & Spiritualism; Science & Religion; Pragmatism & Idealism, etc.

Post 39. 06/05/2018 continued  . . .

Enlightenment vs Occultism

Discovered vs Revealed Knowledge

  All forms of occultism3 deny that reason is sufficent to understand the true nature of reality. But Pinker says that science serves two ideals : “The first is that the world is intelligible. . . . The second is that we must allow the world to tell us whether our ideas about it are correct.” So he assumes that reality is both understandable and informative. Which implies that the phenomenal world is built upon a noumenal logical deep structure. So philosophers wonder about the source of that meaningful framework of reality, and assume an intelligent Framer. They see information in the world, and logically infer an Enformer. Any other conclusion would imply that what's meaningful to humans is merely random noise, hence postmodernists conclude that we don't discover meaning, we simply project our personal values onto the world. Which means that we would be deceiving ourselves. That may be how religion works to protect its sacred belief system, but it would be self-defeating for iconoclastic science, which is supposed to allow the world to speak for itself.

Yet for religion & politics, deception seems to be the modus operandi. “In area after area, the world has been getting more rational. . . . There is of course, a flaming exception : electoral politics . . . Here the rules of the game are fiendishly designed to bring out the most irrational in people.” Fortunately, the political opposition is happy to point out the absurdites of the other side. Similarly, religion uses mis-direction tactics to show the errors of Scientism. “One attempt to build a wall around science and make science pay for it uses a different argument : that science deals only with facts about physical stuff.” but that distinction applies only to the outdated philosophy of Materialism, not to the progressive pragmatic methods of science.

Another diversionary technique is the “non-overlapping magisteria”4 dodge. “Science is not a list of empirical facts. Scientists are immersed in the ethereal medium of information, including the truths of mathematics, the logic of their theories, and the values that guide their enterprise.” Consequently, the science of Information has undermined the old assurance of atomic Materialism, with nebulous quantum Enformationism. Ultimately matter is merely a form of “ethereal” information. Which is suspiciously close to the religious notion of "Spirit". So, the scientific enterprise is due for a new philosophical “atom”. Since quantum fields are holistic, mathematical, & non-local, they are literally indivisible, except by inquiring minds, I propose that those clouds of information, as pure potential, are the true fundamental building blocks of reality.

Although he appreciates the ubiquity of Information, I doubt that Pinker would agree with that proposal. But we can both agree that, “ . . . the findings of science imply that the belief systems of all the world's traditional religions and cultures . . . are factually mistaken.” When science & religion disagree on the facts, who are you going to believe, those who ask you to accept their traditions, or those who ask you to use your own reason? “The beauty of reason is that it can always be applied to understand failures of reason.” So I am optimistic that materialistic science will eventually come to realize that Mind is the true essence of our progressive cosmos. 

End of Post 38

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Have you seen this goat-man?
No?
That’s because he’s occult

3. Occultism :
A general belief in hidden, or supernatural,  knowledge & powers that are not access-ible to the rational mind or to clueless muggles. It is only available to those with special training like Harry Potter, or enhanced intuition like Psychics, or a connection to god like OT prophets. In that case, non-adepts must take the expert’s revelations on faith. They have privileged access to divine secrets.
   Ironically, mundane Science may also seem to possess secret knowledge known only by those with special training. Science is officially egalitarian, so in theory, anyone can follow the evidence, and the reasoning, to the same conclusions. But non-scientists may perceive it as a rational form of occultism labeled Scientism.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occult

4. Non-overlapping Magisteria
A rationale that Science & Religion are not in competi-tion, because one deals in facts, and the other in values.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-overlapping_magisteria