Doubts about modern science

PUBLISHER:

redshirt

Shaun Johnston:
In modern times we've made two revolutionary discoveries. One is, how changes in physical matter can be accounted for in terms of physical laws that can predict precisely what will happen next. Having given rise to science (how this can be studied) and industry (how it can be applied) this revolution is well under way.

The second revolution is, how emergence of species of living creatures can be accounted for in terms of them evolving from one another. This revolution, despite its promise of how much it could tell us about ourselves, remains stillborn through the mistaken application to it of principles coming out of the first revolution--reductive physicalism.

For this second revolution to advance it should be taken from under the wing of science and studied on its own terms. Tip: one recent product of evolution is creatures with minds. Minds are better studied through methods of the humanities than through those of science. Tell me, does this interest you?

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My doubts about modern science originate in three observations.

First, I experience consciousness as not being physical--my thoughts lack properties common to physical objects such as having a location or size or being countable or being conserved and have properties physical objects lack such as leading on from one another in consciousness in ways physical objects can’t. I experience thoughts as real, they’re an everyday reality, they no more spiritual or supernatural than matter is.
Second, how living creatures develop and how species evolve show far more finesse and control than I see when physical processes alone act on physical objects. Physical objects and living creatures have coexisted on Earth for billions of years without coming to resemble each other. They have fundamentally different natures and follow different trajectories.
Third, anything I can think about I can express physically, for example in writing and speaking, so brain chemistry and conscious experiences aren’t separate from one another, they’re aware of each other, they’re continuous with one another. They’re a single thing that will have evolved together. Their evolution will have involved both physical and mental processes.

From these observations I conclude that physical and evolutionary processes are distinct and different in nature yet equally real, neither is spiritual or supernatural. Yet despite having different natures they can interact to support and express conscious experiences. And, by interacting, they drive evolution.

Seems to me, given my observations, it’s reasonable to arrive at these conclusions. But given they’re incompatible with today’s scientific wisdom, what is one to do? I maintain this web site, and write books. Is that OK?