The history of Western science confirms the aphorism that the great menace to progress is not ignorance but the illusion of knowledge.
Daniel J. Boorstin

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The history of Western science confirms the aphorism that the great menace to progress is not ignorance but the illusion of knowledge.
Daniel J. Boorstin

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In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. But, in practice, there is. - Jan L. A. van de Snepscheut
When Coyne says “oh, there has been plenty of evidence for the dynamics of the universe before consciousness arose,” he’s begging the question by assuming that consciousness arose with life within the context of an inanimate material universe outside consciousness. In other words, he’s assuming his conclusion in order to argue for that conclusion. The position of idealism is consciousness always existed because it is the medium of existence. Everything arises as excitations of consciousness.
Bernardo Kastrup http://www.skeptiko.com/274-bernardo-kastrup-why-our-culture-is-materialistic/
Anthropic Constants
Anthropic Constant 1: Oxygen Level On earth, oxygen comprises 21 percent of the atmosphere. That precise figure is an Anthropic Constant that makes life on earth possible. If oxygen were 25%, fires would erupt spontaneously, if it were 15%, human beings would suffocate.
Anthropic Constant 2: Atmospheric Transparency If the atmosphere were less transparent, not enough solar radiation would reach the earth’s surface. If it were more transparent we would be bombarded with far roo much solar radiation down here. (In addition to atmospheric transparency, the atmospheric composition of precise levels of nitrogen, oxygen, carbon dioxide and ozone are in themselves Anthropic constants).
Anthropic Constant 3: Moon-Earth Gravitational Interaction If the interaction were greater than it currently is, tidal effects on the oceans, atmosphere, and rotational period would be too severe. If it were less, orbital changes would cause climatic instabilities. In either event, life on earth would be impossible.
Anthropic Constant 4: Carbon Dioxide level If the CO2 level were higher than it is now, a runaway greenhouse effect would develop (we’d all burn up). If the level were lower than it is now, plants would not be able to maintain efficient photosynthesis (we’d all suffocate).
Anthropic Constant 5: Gravity If the gravitational force were altered by 0.00000000000000000000000000000000000001 percent, our sun would not exist, and, therefore neither would we. Talk about precision.
Anthropic Constant 6: Centrifugal Force If the centrifugal force of planetary movements did not precisely balance the gravitational forces, nothing could be held in orbit around the sun.
Anthropic Constant 7: Rate Of Expansion If the universe had expanded at a rate one millionth more slowly than it did, expansion would have stopped and the universe would have collapsed on itself before any stars had formed. If it had expanded faster, then no galaxies would have formed.
Anthropic Constant 8: Speed Of Light Any of the laws of physics can be described as a function of the velocity of light (now defined to be 299,792,458 meters per second). Even a slight variation in the speed of light would alter the other constants and preclude the possibility of life on earth.
Anthropic Constant 9: Water Vapor Levels.If water vapor levels in the atmosphere were greater than they are now, a runaway greenhouse effect would cause temperatures to rise too high for human life. If they were less, an insufficient greenhouse effect would make the earth to cold to support human life.
Anthropic Constant 10: Jupiter. If Jupiter were not in it’s current orbit, the earth would be bombarded with space material. Jupiter’s gravitational field acts as a cosmic vacuum cleaner, attracting asteroids and comets that might otherwise strike earth.
Anthropic Constant 11: The Earth’s Crust. If the thickness of the earth’s crust were greater, too much oxygen would be transferred to the crust to support life. If it were thinner, volcanic and tectonic activity would make life impossible.
Anthropic Constant 12: The Earth’s Rotation. If the rotation of the earth took longer than 24 hours, temperature differences would be too great between night and day. If the rotation period were shorter, atmospheric wind velocities would be to great.
Anthropic Constant 13: Axis Tilt. The 23-degree axis tilt of the earth is just right. If the tilt were altered slightly, surface temperatures would be too extreme on earth.
Anthropic Constant 14: Atmospheric Discharge. If the atmospheric discharge (lightning) rate were greater, there would be too much fire destruction; if it were less there would be little nitrogen fixings in the soil.
Anthropic Constant 15: Seismic Activity. If there were more seismic activity, much more life would be lost; if there were less, nutrients on the ocean floors and in river runoff would not be cycled back to the continents through tectonic uplift. (yes, even earthquakes are necessary to sustain life as we know it).
Consciousness, however small, is an illegitimate birth in any philosophy that starts without it, and yet professes to explain all facts by continuous evolution. If evolution is to work smoothly, consciousness in some shape must have been present at the very origin of things.
WIlliam James

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contemporary cognitive neuroscience propounds a form of crypto-Cartesianism.
Bennett and Hacker's Philosophical Foundations of Neuroscience (http://qr.ae/Rb5roC)
We must understand time as the subject and the subject as time
Merleau-Ponty, 1945
Now it seems to me that the problem arises because some people (a) think of matter as excluding mind and then (b) since mind is categorially excluded it's (re) introduction is metaphysical sleight of hand.
Anil Mitra http://qr.ae/RbwOZV
Idealism v Materialism
I suggest that we don't need to polarize the debate in judgmental terms. Instead we can recognize that we are each neurologically predisposed to specialize in some kinds of rationality by forsaking other kinds. I think that our Western view exaggerates this predisposition, such that those of us who tend toward the systemizing end of the empathizing-systemizing spectrum are pushed toward a pathologically rigid autism, while those who tend toward empathizing are pushed toward superstitious psychosis.
19th Century Physics Triumphalism
The more important fundamental laws and facts of physical science have all been discovered, and these are so firmly established that the possibility of their ever being supplanted in consequence of new discoveries is exceedingly remote…. [I]nstances might be cited, but these will suffice to justify the statement that "our future discoveries must be looked for in the sixth place of decimals".
Albert Michelson, 1903
“There is nothing new to be discovered in physics now. All that remains is more and more precise measurement.”
Source: Unknown
This has been attributed to William Thomson, Lord Kelvin (1824–1907) in an address to the British Association for the Advancement of Science in 1900, but I haven't been able to find a primary source to back this claim up. A similar comment was made by the German-American scientist Albert Michelson (1852–1931) in 1894.
http://physics.info/space-time/

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A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices.
William James
Popper on Definitions
“Definitions do not play any very important part in science…. Our ‘scientific knowledge’… remains entirely unaffected if we eliminate all definitions” [OSE2 14]. “Definitions never give any factual knowledge about ‘nature’ or about the ‘nature of things'” [C&R 20-21]. “Definitions…. are never really needed, and rarely of any use” - Karl Popper
It is obvious that a man who can see knows things which a blind man cannot know; but a blind man can know the whole of physics. Thus the knowledge which other men have and he has not is not a part of physics." (Russell 1954, 389)
http://critique-of-pure-interest.blogspot.nl/2015/09/is-universe-self-computing-consciousness.html
"It is not difficult to imagine a mind to which the sequence of things happens not in space but only in time like the sequence of notes in music. For such a mind such conception of reality is akin to the musical reality in which Pythagorean geometry can have no meaning. There is the reality of paper, infinitely different from the reality of literature. For the kind of mind possessed by the moth which eats that paper literature is absolutely non-existent, yet for Man’s mind literature has a greater value of Truth than the paper itself. In a similar manner if there be some Truth which has no sensuous or rational relation to the human mind, it will ever remain as nothing so long as we remain human beings."
Rabindranath Tagore
Words that have no place in physics
"John Bell provides a list of insufficiently clear concepts in his essay “Against ‘measurement’”:
Here are some words which, however legitimate and necessary in application, have no place in a formulation with any pretension to physical precision: system, apparatus, environment, microscopic, macroscopic, reversible, irreversible, observable, information, measurement.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/blogs/physics/2015/04/physics-needs-philosophy/

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Hints for Doubting Materialism
“Other clues are: a) we find it difficult to determine the line between inanimate and animate matter: are self-replicating viruses with agendas alive? b) quantum particles seem to react to conscious observation, which would mean that the smallest and most primordial realm (from where all macro effects arise) can be directly affected by a supposed random artifact of complexity c) scientists keep asking themselves, are we living in a simulation? the quantum realm certainly acts like mathematical probabilities rather than physical systems d) synchronicities happen all the time, pay attention and they happen more. e) quantum entanglement either means that tiny bits of matter can create a tunnel through space or send superluminal messages... or we can assume that the representation of space and time are exactly that, a representation: a simulation f) animals have as complex a social and emotional life as we do, there is not a direct curve relating brain size to emotional complexity g) evolution is creative, gradual, and exploratory, but never stupid, which is what you'd expect from a random system. even doctors innately know that our evolution does things 'for a reason'. h) in your dreams you build worlds with ease... the tiniest mouse can do it. we are creators of realms, realms with laws (like gravity), causes and effects, and consequences, and we are convinced that those dreams are real when we're in them - just like we believe this one. i) precognitive dreams and visions show that the linear progression of time is an illusion j) Dean Radin's cumulative dice rolling statistics show that conscious desire can affect dice rolls at a very small percentage (.03%) and equally the power of the placebo effect (look up 'the strange power of the placebo effect' on youtube) is so strong that we're forced to do double-blind studies to try and get rid of it. k) NDEs, OBEs, telepathy, and reincarnation all point to consciousness being outside of the body and that consciousness persists after death. l) that during a near death experience or a hallucinogenic one, brain activity goes down while the complexity of experience goes up - that shouldn't be if consciousness was manufactured by the brain. m) "Aliens" (other intelligences), monster sightings, UFOs, time skips, fairy lore -- whether you believe people are having real experiences or not, there is a lot of evidence that something infringes on our 'normal reality' at an experiential level quite often and in ways that are incredibly bizarre, and yet it miraculously never deposits enough evidence to sway the global debate one way or the other. It is always our choice as to whether we want to believe. I think we're being woken up from our materialist dream... gently. “ - BC
Infinite Light Speed
"For velocities greater than that of light our deliberations become meaningless; we shall, however, find in what follows, that the velocity of light in our theory plays the part, physically, of an infinitely great velocity." On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies I recommend this book as well, The Speed of Light: Constancy and Cosmos: David A. Grandy "John Wheeler writes that 'light and influences propagated at the speed of light make zero-interval linkages between events near and far'". Also: Scientists Make Light Travel Infinitely Fast