Kevin -> RE: The Tao of Physics (Mar. 31 2015 23:27:31)
|
quote:
As much as I appreciate your description of some of us as "erudite older gentlemen," Kevin, I must take issue with your assumption that we are "holding on to philosophies of twenty years ago, oblivious to recent trends that argue counter to their beliefs." Speaking only for myself, I am not holding on to any particular philosophy or belief. What I am not ready to do, however, is abandon the entire 2,500 years of the Western philosophical canon as being rendered obsolete by much of the New Age thinking and other trendy streams of thought that suggest Eastern mysticism holds answers unavailable to Western minds. Bill, not abandoning 2,500 years of Western philosophy and not recognizing a paradigm shift in the philosophy of mind are two very different claims. You continue to make sweeping statements (and admittedly we all sometimes do this) that seem absolutist. For example, continental (European) and analytic (North American, more or less) philosophy are at odds with one another, so much so that phenomenology, a continental development, has been neglected in the North American University context. The conversation between the two in order to find common ground and or reconcile their claims is just getting underway. Yet, you categorize them under the neat heading of Western. Varela combines philosophers in phenomenology with the Buddha's and Nagarjuna's Middle way in order to explain perception from a biological perspective. The result is not a nihilism like Runner has in mind, one in which a tree disappears because one is not perceiving it. Instead, he simply recognizes that perception is always perception of something and perception is determined by natural and cultural factors. Western thought does have some answers Eastern though does not, and vice versa. quote:
I would also add that I have spent many years living and working in the East, in places with a long history of Buddhism and Eastern philosophy, such as Burma (Myanmar), Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia (which had a long tradition of Hindu-Buddhist cultures on Java before the establishment of Islam, and which even today has a Hindu variant on Bali). In none of these societies have I observed a population noticeably more conversant with "ultimate reality" as a result of the "Wisdom of the East." While they are all culturally different from the West, and from each other, they appear to suffer the same ills and frustrations as do we in the West. Of course. Much of the scientific analysis of Buddhist mind has been done on monks with a few studies on laypeople. Those studies reveal a great amount about our consciousness, our immune system, and other areas. For example, Buddhist meditation is superior to other forms of meditation in regard to triggering our parasympathetic system, boosting our immune system, and thus warding off the effects of stress. No doubt, in a hundred years some caucasians will claim they discovered this first but that is neither here nor there. quote:
Returning to physics, authors such as Fritjof Capra, attempting to draw New Age parallels between physics and Eastern Mysticism, and Deepak Chopra, whose claim to fame is something he calls "Quantum Healing," are simply riding a wave of popular culture that seems to value "Quantum Woo" over well-established scientific research principles. You will remember that "Quantum Woo" has been described as the justification of irrational beliefs by an obfuscatory reference to quantum physics. And regarding Embodied Cognition, as runner suggests, let's see how it holds up as additional research undergoes peer review and challenges before concluding it has upended and overturned the Western philosophical canon. quote:
concluding it has upended and overturned the Western philosophical canon I had to peruse my posts to look for anything that might suggest that the study of embodied cognition, which is varied with many different approaches of which I only feel somewhat comfortable about enaction, has upended the Western philosophical canon. NOWHERE did I ever make that claim. At most I claimed that enaction is a new paradigm, not even a paradigm shift a la Kuhn, within the study of embodied cognition. Also, I agree about quantum woo but you set up some strawmen. No one in academia would defend the example you gave of the appropriation of physics in popular culture. The mind and Life discussions are near thirty years and these are serious discussion that have a serious impact on both Buddhism and Western academia. For example, the Dalai Lama has gone on record noting that when science reveals something that contradicts Buddhist texts, the default should be to accept scientific conclusions. This is very different than Judeo-Christianity and its clinging to their texts. This serves to bolster Capra's argument; everything is relational. Heisenberg was the first physicist to get credit for this when he noted that merely by setting up an experiment and observing some phenomena, one had an influence upon it. Additionally, Capra IS a physicist and he is still writing.
|
|
|
|