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Integral World: Exploring Theories of Everything
An independent forum for a critical discussion of the integral philosophy of Ken Wilber
Science: its Power and LimitationsRolf SattlerI felt compelled to write this article for two reasons: 1. Having carried out research in science (plant morphology) and having taught science and philosophy of science for nearly forty years, I wanted to communicate my (limited) insights into the power and limitations of science. Since these insights are very much part of me, I included this article in the section “About Me” of my website, and 2. I wanted to point out some widespread distortions and misconceptions of science - distortions and misconceptions that can have rather disastrous consequences for individuals, society, and our planet. Contents: The Power of Science – Open-endedness and Lack of Proof – Uncertainty – Explanatory and Predictive Power – Replicability – Uniqueness – Simplification – Objectivity – Language and Mathematics – Rationality – Logic – Testability – Empirical Approach – Values and Morals – Dualistic and Nondual Modes of Knowing - Unnecessary Limitations – Broad Science – The Science of Enlightenment – The Big Three of Ken Wilber’s AQAL Map – A Radical View of Science – The Semantic View of Theories and Laws – The Unnamable – Conclusions – References. Note: The jokes are in bold type. The Power of ScienceScience appears powerful in at least two ways: 1. It provides powerful insights into reality, and 2. It exerts a powerful influence on individuals and society, as powerful or even more powerful than religions that have dominated our societies for so long. One major problem with science is that laypersons and even scientists often misunderstand it. Many scientists and laypersons think that science can be defined by what has been called “the scientific method.” However, it is not clear what this method is, and it is controversial whether there is any such method that sets science apart from other human activities such as art or religion. I therefore prefer to discuss first major aspects of science with regard to its power and limitations, and then at the end of this article I shall return to the controversy over the so-called scientific method.
Open-endedness and Lack of ProofThe power of science seems rather obvious, but its limitations are often not sufficiently recognized. It is often assumed that science can reveal the truth. But as I will show below, science seems incapable of attaining the truth. Even if science could lead us to the truth, we would have no way of knowing that it actually is the truth. Why not? Because science cannot provide definitive proof of its tenets. Science provides only evidence. Sometimes the evidence for a scientific theory may be very strong. But even in this case we cannot tell whether future observations and/or experiments will confirm or contradict the theory. The history of science provides many examples of scientific revolutions where a well-established theory had to be modified or replaced by another one in view of new facts that could not be accommodated by the “established” theory. Newtonian physics is one such example. Some of its most fundamental assumptions such as the absoluteness of time and space had to give way to Einstein’s relativity. Nonetheless, Newtonian physics still works as a special case, but it can no longer be regarded as the truth of the physical universe. Similarly, we cannot know whether all future observations and experiments will confirm Einstein’s relativity theories. Therefore, scientific knowledge remains open-ended, unproven. As Jamie Hale put it: “Scientific knowledge is tentative, and the tentative nature of science is one of its strong points.”And yet we can read so often that this or that has been scientifically proven. Even scientists make such statements. In society this misconception seems so prevalent that it appears even in advertisements: so often we can read for a product or procedure “scientifically proven,” which boosts sales to an uneducated public that is deceived by the illusory claim of scientific proof. On the other hand, products and procedures are devaluated by the label “not scientifically proven” (which would be the appropriate label for all products and procedures). For example, the conservative medical establishment insists that alternative medicines are “not scientifically proven,” and assumes that its products are often “scientifically proven.”As a result, many people may prefer to use conventional medicines with its potentially harmful or even fatal side effects, when they could have been helped or cured by alternative medicines. Considerable scientific evidence has been obtained that alternative medicines work. Of course, they do not always work, but neither do conventional medicines. One has to know or have an intuition when to opt for alternative medicines and when for conventional medicine. I came across the following sobering note in the Guardian: “How much do you and your doctor know about the drugs you take? This account suggests not enough. Says Goldacre: "Drugs are tested by the people who manufacture them, in poorly designed trials, on hopelessly small numbers of weird, unrepresentative patients, and analysed using techniques that are flawed by design, in such a way that they exaggerate the benefits of treatments. Unsurprisingly, these trials tend to produce results that favour the manufacturer. When trials throw up results that companies don't like, they are perfectly entitled to hide them from doctors and patients, so we only ever see a distorted picture of any drug's true effects." " (From the Guardian, September 21, 2012). Although as a generalization the above statement seems exaggerated, it cannot be completely discounted in all instances. In her book The Medical Mafia (1995), Guylaine Lanctôt showed to what extent the powerful conservative medical establishment, the pharmaceutical industry, and governments conspire and – consciously or unconsciously - hide information on drugs and medical practices that seem detrimental to our health, while suppressing or devaluating information on alternative treatments that could be supportive and healing (see also Dr. Ian Tannock's investigation). Teddy Bearson is making his first visit to Doctor Bones. Many people seem willing to admit that details of science remain unproven, but they insist that the fundamentals have been proven. For example, in mainstream biology, Darwinism in its modern form (neo-Darwinism) provides the central conceptual framework and many think that it has been proven. However, the debate about its validity and significance continues within science and philosophy of science. Daniel Dennett, a well-known philosopher of science, called Darwin’s theory of evolution through natural selection “the single best idea anyone has ever had” (Dennett 1995:21), whereas Lynn Margulis, a famous biologist, thought that history will ultimately judge neo-Darwinism as “a minor twentieth-century religious sect within the sprawling religious persuasion of Anglo-Saxon biology” (Margulis, quoted by Mann 1991).
UncertaintyScience allows us to explain and predict. In other words, it has explanatory and predictive power. However, much uncertainty remains. Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle applies to quantum physics. Korzybski and others have pointed out that uncertainty characterizes scientific knowledge in general, and one might add, also non-scientific knowledge and everyday life. “The Heineken Uncertainty Principle says “You can never be sure how many beers you had last night” (Jupiter Scientific, physics jokes, # 24). Many laws are probabilistic: instead of specifying specific outcomes, they provide only probabilities of outcomes. And even the deterministic equations of chaos theory fail to make exact predictions of future events. One may debate whether these shortcomings are due to our insufficient knowledge, or whether, at least to some extent, capriciousness constitutes a characteristic feature of the universe. Uncertainty is often seen as negative and threatening. However, some of the greatest scientists have underlined positive sides of uncertainty. For example, Richard Feynman wrote: “I can live with doubt and uncertainty and not knowing...In order to make progress, one must leave the door to the unknown ajar.” (quoted by David Christopher Lane: The Feynman Imperative: Why Science Works)
Explanatory and Predictive PowerAs is well known, science can provide explanations for many phenomena, and it makes predictions. In some branches of science, predictions may often be accurate, whereas in other branches, they may be more or less unreliable. Thus, we have the whole range from precise to rather imprecise and unreliable predictions. Chaos theory provides an explanation for failures of precise prediction.
ReplicabilityReplicability of results such as the replicability of experiments is considered the gold standard of scientific research. Replication supports the results. However, it does not constitute proof because one cannot know whether future replication will be possible. Failure of replication is usually taken as an indication that the results are untenable. However, one has to keep in mind that each time an experiment is repeated some aspects of the context have changed. These aspects might be responsible for the lack of replication. For example, when an experiment is repeated, the moon phase may be different, and this might explain the failure of replication. Therefore, one cannot conclude in this case that the hypothesis under consideration has been falsified by the lack of replication. It is important to be aware of the uniqueness of each context in which experiments are performed. One may be able to keep some variables constant, but others are beyond our control. The observer or experimenter is also part of the context. In each new experiment, the experimenter is different, even if it is the “same” person. During one experiment this person may be in a good mood, and when she repeats the experiment she may be in a bad mood. If the experiment could not be replicated, was that failure due to her change in mood? How can we know? I heard that a researcher, after many successful replications of an experiment with rats, one day suddenly could no longer replicate it. He was very puzzled. But then he found out that the technician who looked after the rats had been replaced by a new person. In contrast to the previous technician, the new person loved the rats and caressed them when he took them out of the cages for the experiments. This change in care explained why the outcome of the experiments could no longer be repeated. Hymie Goldberg goes to see Doctor Feelgood in a terrible state. “You must help me, doctor,” pleads Hymie. “I can’t remember anything for more than a few minutes. It is driving me crazy.”
UniquenessAlthough scientists may recognize the uniqueness of each object such as each flower or each human being, they do not deal with and celebrate this uniqueness. They abstract from the uniqueness properties that are shared by a class of objects such as a species or a class of events such as respiration. In doing so, they may arrive at interesting generalizations, one of the principal aims of science, but they lose the uniqueness of each individual object. “According to Whitehead, the process of abstraction, useful as it may be..., is ultimately “false,” in the sense that it operates by noting the salient features of an object and ignoring all else, and therefore “abstraction is nothing else than omission of part of the truth”... [often] “we have mistaken our abstractions for concrete realities,” a mistake that Whitehead termed the Fallacy of Misplaced Concreteness (which we earlier referred to as confusing the map with the territory)” (Wilber, 1999, p. 80).
SimplificationAnother limitation of science: simplification. As Bart Kosko put it: “ Scientific claims or statements are inexact and provisional. They depend on dozens of simplifying assumptions and on a particular choice of words and symbols and on “all other things being equal”... When you speak, you simplify. And when you simplify, you lie” (Kosko 1993, p. 86). (see also Science’s First Mistake by Angell & Demetis). "Never 'assume,' or you'll make an 'ass' of 'u' and 'me.' "
ObjectivityFor many people objectivity means reality or truth, but in scientific methodology objectivity means inter-subjectivity: data that are shared between subjects are considered objective. For example, sharing the perception that humans have two legs makes it an objective datum. In contrast, seeing auras is usually considered subjective because this perception is not shared by many people. However, if the majority of people would learn to see auras, auras would become objective data that would provide a basis for scientific investigation. Hence, the scientists’ state of consciousness that influences their perception limits objectivity in science. Sheldrake (2012, Chapter 11: Illusions of Objectivity) points out yet other limitations of objectivity.
Language and MathematicsScience using language and mathematics implies a strength and limitation. As Korzybski has brilliantly demonstrated through his Structural Differential, perception and language remove us from reality. Perception through our senses cannot include the fullness and richness of reality because our senses combined with our nervous system provide only an aspect of reality. For example, we can smell only relatively little compared to dogs. Hence, in this respect our perception is rather limited. Then, when we describe our perception, we lose again because our language or mathematics can capture only part of our perception. Imagine how much you lose when you describe a flower or any other object. Thus, the facts, the raw data of science, as they are perceived and described, are removed from reality. We cannot say how far they are removed because we don’t know reality. Reality remains a mystery beyond sensual perceptions, words, concepts, numbers, logic, etc. Scientists sometimes say that they take the mystery out of things. In fact, they cannot even touch the mystery as long as they use language and mathematics. But occasionally they may be inspired by the non-verbal experience of the mysterious. Albert Einstein wrote: “The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science” (quoted by Ravindra 1991, p. 322). Someone said: A mathematician is like a blind man in a dark room looking for a black cat that is not there.
RationalityScientists aim at a rational understanding of reality. Consequently, non-rational or irrational aspects of reality are beyond the grasp of the scientific approach. They may be ignored or forced into a rational mold, but then omissions and distortions seem inevitable. However, although the professed aim in science includes rational understanding, scientists do have feelings, emotions, intuitions, and other non-rational or irrational experiences and beliefs that may play a role in the scientific process (see, e.g., Modern Man’s Religion). Even dreams may influence the work of scientists. For example, it has been reported that Kekulé discovered the structure of benzene through a dream that led him in the right direction.
LogicDifferent ways of thinking, different kinds of logic can be used in science. Aristotelian either/or logic is still very common, but fuzzy logic and both/and logic are also used. In contrast to either/or logic that, if used exclusively, may lead to harmful conflicts, violence and war, fuzzy logic and both/and logic may prevent or heal the harm inflicted by the exclusive use of either/or logic. I therefore refer to these kinds of logic as well as Buddhist logic and Jain logic as healing logic or healing ways of thinking. Buddhist logic has four values: either, or, both/and, and neither/nor. Neither/nor (such as neither true nor false) can point beyond the thinking mind and open the way to the mysterious ground of being, which cannot be reached by science. But as I pointed out above, the process of scientific discovery may at least sometimes have roots in the non-verbal experience of the mysterious. Someone said: I am a nobody, and nobody is perfect, therefore I am perfect.
TestabilityTestability of scientific hypotheses and theories constitutes strength of science. Through tests scientific tenets can be confirmed or disconfirmed. What is not testable is often excluded from science. However, what may be untestable at a given time may become testable later on. Therefore excluding it from science, would have hindered scientific progress. An example is string theory and M-theory that have not yet been testable and therefore are considered unscientific by many physicists, although they provide the long sought unification of the four fundamental forces. Maybe they will become testable in the future (or maybe they have already become testable at the time this web page will be published).
Empirical ApproachThe empirical approach of science constitutes another strength and limitation. It provides objective data through our senses, especially vision and hearing. Subjective inner experience is normally excluded from the realm of science. However, this exclusion may be an unnecessary limitation. According to radical empiricism, which mainstream scientists do not accept, outer as well as inner experience can provide the raw data of science (see below). This enlarges enormously the scope of science but may challenge notions of objectivity.
Values and MoralsIt is often said that science is limited because it cannot answer questions of values, morals, spirituality, and religion. It is said that science can investigate what is but not what we should do. Ken Wilber and others have drawn attention to this situation. In a somewhat simplified version of his AQAL map, Ken Wilber distinguishes three major dimensions of experience: science, morals, and art (including spirituality and religion). Morals are transmitted through culture. Contrary to a widespread belief, science is influenced by culture. For example, early successes of physical sciences such as mechanics and astronomy led to the “Enlightenment” culture that tended to see reality in physical and rational terms. Eventually organisms were seen as machines, in terms of a mechanistic/materialist worldview that still predominates in modern mainstream culture and the sciences, including medicine. This worldview cannot be observed in organisms and ecosystems. It is imposed on the scientific study of organisms and ecosystems. If one takes this worldview for granted and looks at life from this point of view, through this lens, then what one sees are mechanisms of matter/energy, whereby energy is understood only as physical energy as postulated by modern physics. Unfortunately, many biologists do not seem to realize that they tacitly - and maybe unconsciously - assume a point of view. They seem to think that the reality of life is just material and mechanical, or that this is the only way we can investigate the living world. This belief or attitude appears very limiting and unnecessarily limiting because less limiting approaches such as holistic approaches are possible (see below). Although it is often said that ethics is beyond the scope of science, some authors disagree. For example, Kozlovsky, in his book An Ecological and Evolutionary Ethic (1974), emphasized the need for a naturalistic ethic that is guided by the common good for humanity and the environment. Contrary to the values of rampant capitalism that tends to exploit the environment, Kozlovsky favors values that protect the environment because if we do not care for the environment in the end we hurt not only other plant and animal species but also ourselves. Ecological research has shown that human sustenance and survival is intimately linked to that of our environment. Hence, our values have to be informed by this research. Jonas (1968, p. 283) referred to "a principle of ethics which is ultimately grounded neither in the autonomy of the self nor in the needs of the community, but in an objective assignment by the nature of things (what theology used to call the ordo creationis). Thus ethics is derived from the study of life and reality. In a Paris hotel elevator was written: Please leave your values at the front desk.
Dualistic and Nondual Modes of KnowingKen Wilber (1999, pp. 63- 81) distinguished dualistic and nondual modes of knowing. Most of modern science still follows the dualistic mode. However, quantum physics and mathematical logic have come close to the nondual mode (see Wilber 1999, Chapter 2). In the common dualistic mode a split occurs between the knower and the known, the observer and the observed, the subject and the object of investigation. Thus the subject, the knower or investigator “ultimately escapes its own grasp and remains as the Unknown, Unshown, and Ungraspable, much as your hand can grasp numerous objects but never itself, or as your eye can see the world but not itself” (Wilber 1999, p. 63). In quantum physics it has become obvious that the observer cannot be clearly separated from the observed: the observer and the observed form a unity. Quantum physicists have tried to convey this unity conceptually through language. However, as Ken Wilber and others have pointed out, ultimately language appears inadequate to represent this unity because language by its very nature dissects and fragments (see, for example, the third chapter of Ken Wilber’s The Spectrum of Consciousness (1977) that was republished in The Collected Works of Ken Wilber, Volume 1, 1999). "The most common unexpected injury most people suffer nowadays is being struck by an idea."
Unnecessary Limitations of ScienceRupert Sheldrake (2012) has pointed out that the materialistic/mechanistic worldview has hardened into a prevalent dogma. According to this dogma that seems especially pernicious in biology and medicine, it is taken for granted that an organism is a physical mechanism. In other words, it should be reduced to physics and chemistry. In contrast, holistic approaches recognize that the whole is more than the sum of its parts. Thus, an organism is more than the sum of its molecules. It has emergent properties. For example, a bird can fly, but its molecules cannot. A human being can think, but its DNA cannot. Thinking is an emergent property that is not found in the constituent parts. In general, holism emphasizes wholes and wholeness as the name indicates. However, wholes may be seen differently. They may be seen just as material wholes or as wholes that transcend matter (and its energy equivalent). To avoid the dualism of matter/energy and the non-material beyond matter/energy, Ken Wilber distinguishes three (or more) levels of “matter”(energy): the gross, subtle, and very subtle (causal) (Wilber 2006, pp. 24 and 219-220). The gross level corresponds to the physical (matter/energy) as usually conceived in mainstream science. The subtle and very subtle (causal) levels represent subtle and very subtle energies. Holism in a more profound sense includes the subtle and very subtle energies. As long as theories couched in terms of subtle and very subtle energies are testable, they qualify as scientific theories (see, for example, Tiller 1997 and What are subtle energies?). Nonetheless, mainstream scientists who seem imprisoned in the materialistic worldview usually reject them. This shows how scientific progress can be obstructed by dogma that is perpetuated by our mainstream culture and mainstream science. In his book The Science Delusion: Freeing the Spirit of Inquiry (2012), Rupert Sheldrake shows how science has been unnecessarily limited by assumptions that have hardened into dogmas. Should science be a belief system, or a process of open-ended enquiry? Sheldrake shows that the worldview of materialistic/mechanistic mainstream science has become a belief system that appears moribund. For example, trillions of dollars have been spent for cancer research, and besides some very limited progress no general cure has been found. In the skeptical spirit of open-minded scientific enquiry, Sheldrake turns ten fundamental dogmas of mainstream science into questions for open-ended research and provides evidence that supports the following alternatives to the mainstream dogmas:
Sheldrake's The Science Delusion has also been published as Science Set Free. 10 Paths to New Discovery. Larry Dossey, M.D., author of Reinventing Medicine and many other books, wrote the following about Sheldrake's book: "Rupert Sheldrake may be to the twenty-first century what Charles Darwin was to the nineteenth: someone who sent science spinning in wonderfully new and fertile directions." And Andrew Weil, M.D., author of Health and Healing: The Philosophy of Integrative Medicine and many other books, wrote: "This provocative and engaging book will make you question basic assumptions of Western science." And specifically with regard to medicine he added: "I agree with Rupert Sheldrake that, among other problems, those assumptions hinder medical progress because they severely limit our understanding of health and illness." “Sally Goldberg goes to the Doctor to ask for some help in losing weight before her wedding day. He prescribes a course of slimming pills for her. In general, the scope and power of science can be fundamentally extended through radical empiricism, a view championed by William James (1912, 1976). Radical empiricism enlarges the scope of data that are admitted in science. Whereas according to the common view only sense data of the external world count as scientific data, according to radical empiricism also data of our internal experience (such as feelings, emotions, thoughts, intuitions, etc.) are acceptable. On the basis of all of these data, external and internal (that ultimately are not separate), one can practice what has been called broad science.
Broad ScienceIn his A Theory of Everything (2001a) and his earlier book The Marriage of Sense and Soul (1998), Ken Wilber contrasts narrow and broad science. Narrow science is based on sense data of the exterior world, whereas broad science includes data of both the exterior and interior world. Whether narrow or broad, Wilber suggests that science operates through the following three steps:
The general limitations of science (not the unnecessary limitations) that I discussed above apply also to broad science. The Science of EnlightenmentFollowing the principles of broad science, spiritual investigations can become at least in part scientific. “They rely on specific social practices or injunctions (such as contemplation); they rest their claims on data and experiential evidence; and they constantly refine and check these data in a community of the adequate [that is, those who have practiced the injunction(s)] – which is why they are correctly referred to as the contemplative sciences” (ibid. p. 77). In his recordings The Science of Enlightenment (listen to Session 4), Shinzen Young explains how the practice of mindfulness (focus and presence) and equanimity (non-interference) eventually may lead to deep insight and enlightenment (see also Five Ways to Know Yourself. An Introduction to Basic Mindfulness). As is often the case even in the physical sciences, this prediction can be made only in terms of probabilities, not certainty. And it seems that the chances of reaching full enlightenment are rather low. But one may at least deepen one's insight and progress towards enlightenment. In addition to showing the path towards enlightenment, science can reveal objective correlations between subjective meditative experience and enlightenment on the one hand and physiology on the other; in other words, correlations between subjective inner experience and objective scientific observation. For example, it has been shown that meditative states are correlated not with beta brainwaves but with alpha, theta and/or delta brainwaves or no brainwaves at all (for an illustration see Ken Wilber stops his brainwaves). However, we have to keep in mind that science constitutes only one of the big three dimensions of existence (see below) and therefore cannot be all encompassing. In other words, it has limitations. There is to be a christening party for Paddy and Maureen’s new baby, but before the ceremony the priest takes Paddy aside and asks, “Are you prepared for this solemn event?”
The Big Three of Ken Wilber’s AQAL MapKen Wilber’s AQAL map has four quadrants or dimensions. When two of them are combined, we obtain the Big Three: Science, Art, and Culture, or Nature, Self, and Morals. Therefore, even if broad science includes higher realms of meditative experience, “science and its methods are still only “one third” of the total story, because the higher levels also have art and morals, which follow their own quite different methodologies” (Wilber 2001a, p. 157). Thus, in terms of the Big Three, it is not only science but also art and culture (morals) that may lead us toward enlightenment.
A Radical View of SciencePaul Feyerabend (1975, 1978, 1987, 2011) found that the separation of science, art, and culture (Wilber’s Big Three) is not necessarily very clear-cut. Consequently, he developed a view of science that is radical according to two meanings of the word ‘radical’: 1. It appears extreme and shocking to most scientists, philosophers of science, and laypersons, and 2. It leads to the root meaning of science, which is knowledge. And knowledge can be obtained in many different ways: through observation, experiment, reasoning, feeling, emotion, intuition, and even magic and myth. Feyerabend excluded none of all that and demonstrated that practicing scientists may have recourse to all that and that the progress of science would not have been possible if all scientists would have followed a rigidly defined scientific method. Therefore he concluded that science cannot be defined by a so-called scientific method. Since no single methodological rule has been followed by all scientists (see Against Method), he coined the slogan: “anything goes” (as far as scientific methodology is concerned). I would prefer to say, “many things go” (Sattler 1986, pp.34/35 and 69). Feyerabend also noted that scientists often can be as dogmatic as people who subscribe to religious dogmas, myths, or ideologies. For this reason he considered science a form of religion or ideology that has become repressive, although it started as a liberating movement. As I pointed out above, today the materialistic/mechanistic worldview of mainstream science has enslaved us. People who question it on the basis of good empirical evidence are no longer burned at the stake, but they are often ridiculed or threatened, and they may lose their research grants and even their positions. To protect citizens from the dogmas of science Feyerabend thought that there should be a separation of science and the state just as there is a separation of the church and the state. He said: “ I want to defend society from all ideologies, science included. All ideologies must be seen in perspective. One must not take them too seriously. One must read them like fairy-tales which have lots of interesting things to say but which ... are deadly when followed to the letter”(How to defend society against science). Although I can see merits of Feyerabend’s radical views, I would not say that science is a dogmatic religion. I would prefer to say that science and dogmatic religion overlap in many instances. But I would think that it might be possible to be non-dogmatic in both science and religion. The problem is that most scientists do not even seem to be aware of their dogmatism because they have been deeply indoctrinated and brainwashed during their university education. So the first task is to create awareness of the dogmatism. Then one may proceed in an open-minded and open-ended manner... Someone said: The mind is like a parachute: it works much better when it's open. Although today mainstream science still remains predominantly materialistic and mechanistic, one can see in some instances that this dogmatism is giving way to a more inclusive holistic approach. For example, a new discipline called psycho-neuro-immunology is integrating aspects of the mind and body. Neuroplasticity shows that we need not be caught forever in rigid behaviors and views. And some medical doctors are now prescribing meditation in addition or instead of drugs.
The Semantic View of Theories and LawsAn important innovation in the understanding of science is the semantic view of scientific theories and laws. According to this view as understood by R.N. Giere, theories and laws are considered definitions. Thus, we no longer ask whether they are true or false. We ask whether they apply to particular situations. If more than one theory or law applies, they are considered complementary. For example, Newtonian physics or Mendelian genetics apply to many situations and therefore constitute useful theories and laws. We know that they don’t apply to all situations and therefore they are not generally true. In any case, whether they are true is no longer the question. The question is whether they can be applied. And as they can be applied, they have explanatory and/or predictive power. The tenets of classical plant morphology can also be applied in many situations and therefore are useful. The tenets of continuum morphology can in addition be applied in situations where those of classical plant morphology do not apply. Therefore, we can say that the tenets of continuum morphology have a still wider range of applicability. The semantic view has many advantages. It recognizes that truth remains elusive in scientific theories and laws. As I pointed out at the beginning of this article, proof appears unattainable in science, whose strength resides in its open-endedness, which means: no final word, no assurance of the ultimate truth. As a result, many hostile discussions about whose theory is true become groundless. We have to become more humble, which can have many beneficial consequences.
The UnnamableAnother reason why science and the scientific approach, be it narrow or broad, cannot attain ultimate truth is the following: As Korzybski demonstrated elegantly through his Structural Differential, language is limiting. Hence, “whatever you might say something “is”, it is not [because] whatever we might say belongs to the verbal level and not to the un-speakable objective levels” (Korzybski 1958, p. 409). Thus, science - using language and mathematics - cannot disclose the unnamable mystery of existence (see, for example, Wilber 2000, p. 732). It can provide maps that correspond to some extent to the territory of reality. But, as Korzybski emphasized, "a map is not the territory" (ibid., p. 750). This seems obvious, and yet we often confuse our maps with the territory, thinking that they are the territory, that they represent reality. But reality vastly surpasses any map; and since science is limited to providing maps, it follows that reality cannot be fully grasped and understood by science. So how can we come closer to the unnamable mystery of reality? Meditation (including laughing meditation such as, for example, laughter yoga) can help us further awareness that we are the unnamable mystery in as much as we are one with the whole Kosmos. (Like Ken Wilber (2000, p. 45), I write cosmos with a K to indicate that I refer not only to the physical cosmos but the all-inclusive Kosmos, that is, ultimate reality). It seems a joke, a kosmic joke, that we are seeking what we are already, which seems like looking for our glasses that we are already wearing (see, for example, Hillig 2004, p. 164; Wilber, 1999: The Spectrum of Consciousness, and Wilber 2001b, Chapter 13: Always Already: The Brilliant Clarity of Ever-Present Awareness).
ConclusionsThe strength and power of science resides in its empirical (evidence-based) approach, testability, (limited) replication of results, open-endedness, (limited) rationality, objectivity, (limited) explanatory and predictive power. Limitations are due to uncertainty, the impossibility of proof, abstraction in perception, description (language), and inferences, the exclusion of uniqueness, unavoidable simplifications, the difficulty of answering questions of values and morals, and the impossibility of reaching the mystery of existence beyond sensual perception, language, and mathematics, although the experience of the mysterious may at least at times contribute to the process of scientific discovery. Mainstream science appears even more limited than necessary because it usually excludes holistic approaches, subtle energies, inner subjective experiences, and everything else that contradicts the fundamental tenets of the materialistic/mechanistic worldview. Thus, mainstream science deprives itself of the possibility of testing its most basic assumptions. On the other hand, holistic science provides evidence for phenomena beyond the scope of materialistic/mechanistic science. For example, holistic science provides evidence for the existence of psychic (psi) phenomena such as telepathy, clairvoyance, etc. (see, for example, Radin (1997) and Sheldrake (2012)). I want to emphasize that materialistic/mechanistic science and holistic science should not be seen as mutually exclusive opposites. They may more or less overlap. Nonetheless, so far mainstream science remains predominantly materialistic and mechanistic, although it may incorporate here and there some elements of holistic methodology. According to radical empiricism, external as well as internal (inner) experience is accepted, which leads to a broad science that can investigate even spiritual growth and enlightenment. According to Paul Feyerabend, science is a form of religion, ideology, or mythology because scientists can be as dogmatic as the practitioners of dogmatic religions, ideologies, and mythologies. I would prefer to say that science often or most of the time overlaps more or less with dogmatic religion, ideology, or mythology. Nonetheless, I think that science has at least the potential to transcend dogmatism. So far there may be only few scientists who are able to do this. But if we could improve science education, there may be more future scientists who will be able to free themselves of dogmatism, if not totally, at least to some degree. According to the semantic view of theories and laws, theories and laws are considered definitions. Thus, we no longer ask whether they are true or false. We ask whether they apply to particular situations. As a result, we need no longer engage in futile and hostile discussion about whose theory is true. Science and society could greatly benefit from this more humble view of theories and laws. A basic reason why science and the scientific approach, be it narrow or broad, cannot attain ultimate truth is the following: As Korzybski demonstrated elegantly through his Structural Differential, language is limiting. Hence, “whatever you might say something “is”, it is not [because] whatever we might say belongs to the verbal level and not to the un-speakable objective levels” (Korzybski 1958, p. 409). Thus, science cannot disclose the unnamable mystery of existence. Science can provide only maps of the unnamable. And as Korzybski has pointed out, "a map is not the territory [of unnamable reality]" (Korzybski 1958, p. 750). Meditation (including laughing meditation such as, for example, laughter yoga) can help us further awareness that - in as much as we are one with the universe - we are already the unnamable mystery. Thus, seeking the unnamable mystery seems like looking for our glasses that we are already wearing.
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