Sunday, November 18, 2012

Experimental Blog #139

Comments on "Science Set Free" - 10 Paths to New Discovery by Rupert Sheldrake

The scope of this book appears to be all of science, old and new. Throughout the entire book the author, Rupert Sheldrake, criticizes and challenges what he refers to as the "materialist{or mechanistic} worldview of science". Some people might say, however, that the philosophy of science is something more like pragmatism; which is not quite the same thing as materialist philosophy, but depends more on the consistency and dependability of results and products.

Sheldrake's writing is very stimulating about many scientific questions and problems, including: the total amount of matter and energy in the universe, the fixity of the laws of nature, the extent of consciousness and mind and memory, the purposes of nature and evolution, and biological inheritance and developement.

Sheldrake points out that what are considered to be the universal constants of nature, that is: Newton's gravitational constant, the fine structure constant{which is necessary in calculations of astrophysics}, and the speed of light, have all inexplicably varied since they have been discovered and calculated. However, does it really seem to be so counter-intuitive that these 3 constants should very slightly vibrate, or oscillate, throughout space and time in the universe?

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