Thought for the Week: A philosopher looks at science
Reg Naulty reflects on philosophy and science
What would they know about it? Quite a bit, actually. Scientists have replaced philosophers as gatekeepers of the real and, as a result, philosophers study science and scientists with the punctilious chagrin of the unemployed watching other people doing their job. Scientists, for their part, are usually unaware that philosophers exist, and when they are, they are surprised, a response which turns into fierce indignation when they discover that philosophers compete with them for research grants.
Do their paths ever cross? They do, when scientists step out of their field to make a statement such as ‘only science provides reliable information about the world’, since that is a version of positivism, the ideology that grows out of science.
That statement, as philosophers point out with some satisfaction, is false. No thanks to science, we know that the battle of Hastings took place in 1066, that Henry VIII died in 1547, that world war one started in 1914, that Japan formally surrendered on the 15 August 1945, and so on ad infinitum. There is an important sub-class of historical information, viz. legal precedent, which is taken very seriously indeed.
It is useful to reflect on these facts. Being human means that we live in few places for a relatively short time. To find out what happened in other places at other times we have no option but to rely on the reports of witnesses. Scientists have to rely on witnesses for their data, and to ascertain whether their experiments are corroborated by other scientists.
As a result, we gain skills in assessing witnesses. How credible are they? How careful are they? Do they seem duplicitous? If they pass these tests we give them more or less credibility. As it happens, some who pass these tests well report that there are experiences of a nonsensory nature which open a window onto another reality. George Fox, for example, said: ‘When I came into the jail where those prisoners were, a great power of darkness struck at me, and I sat still having my spirit gathered into the love of God.’
John Woolman said: ‘The true felicity of man in this life, and in that which is to come, is in being inwardly united to the fountain of universal love and bliss.’
There are plenty of witnesses who corroborate these experiences in the Orthodox tradition, the Islamic tradition and the Hindu tradition. What is more, they are well spread over time.
Shouldn’t the question now become: ‘Is there something we can do to prepare ourselves for experiences such as these?’
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