Jeffrey’s Reviews > A Philosopher Looks at Science > Status Update
Jeffrey
is on page 216 of 273
Kemeny:
- Is science capable of telling us why some matter becomes conscious (e.g. human beings) and some matter stays unconscious?
- Mechanist school of thought: Our theories of physics can and eventually will explain consciousness. Everything can be boiled to physics.
- Vitalist school of thought: Life is not just vibrating particles. Life has a force (elan vital) outside of the jurisdiction of any science.
— Mar 22, 2025 07:54AM
- Is science capable of telling us why some matter becomes conscious (e.g. human beings) and some matter stays unconscious?
- Mechanist school of thought: Our theories of physics can and eventually will explain consciousness. Everything can be boiled to physics.
- Vitalist school of thought: Life is not just vibrating particles. Life has a force (elan vital) outside of the jurisdiction of any science.
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Jeffrey’s Previous Updates
Jeffrey
is on page 239 of 273
Ethics needs mathematics to be practiced. You need to be able measure how much good you can do and evil you'll need to avoid. Measurement is mathematical.
— Apr 17, 2025 11:31AM
Jeffrey
is on page 230 of 273
Whether the universe is determined of whether we have free will aren't questions that have been answered by science.
— Apr 10, 2025 01:42PM
Jeffrey
is on page 220 of 273
Kemeny:
- A scientist who believes that scientific progress is made when one theory captures three earlier theories as specific cases of its general rule (Newton's laws absorbing Kepler's, Galileo's, etc) must _also_ believe there to be one theory that explains both conscious matter and unconscious matter.
Thoughts:
- I'd like to see a scientist argue against the Occam's razor dogma.
— Mar 23, 2025 08:48AM
- A scientist who believes that scientific progress is made when one theory captures three earlier theories as specific cases of its general rule (Newton's laws absorbing Kepler's, Galileo's, etc) must _also_ believe there to be one theory that explains both conscious matter and unconscious matter.
Thoughts:
- I'd like to see a scientist argue against the Occam's razor dogma.
Jeffrey
is on page 209 of 273
In Kemeny's framework, Darwinism should barely be called a scientific theory.
Unlike Mendel's laws, Darwinism says nothing that can be tested with numbers and measurements. But science is defined as truth proven by measurements. Darwin fails to provide a way to measure "fitness." Because of this, we don't actually know if "fit" animals are the ones that survive. It's an explanation applied completely retroactively.
— Mar 20, 2025 03:02PM
Unlike Mendel's laws, Darwinism says nothing that can be tested with numbers and measurements. But science is defined as truth proven by measurements. Darwin fails to provide a way to measure "fitness." Because of this, we don't actually know if "fit" animals are the ones that survive. It's an explanation applied completely retroactively.
