Scientific & Medical Network Review, August 2003
Professor Mark Woodhouse:
"Readers of Whitehead, Bergson, Bohm, and Sheldrake will warm to [the book]"
"Readers of Whitehead, Bergson, Bohm, and Sheldrake will warm to [the book]"
Book Description
Philosophical and religious attempts to give a systematic account of the universe have largely been abandoned in favour of science. However, the scientific picture of reality is faced with a number of seemingly insurmountable problems, not least in its attempts to explain the phenomena of life and mind. Dissenting biologists since the 19th century have contested the orthodox view of biological organisms, including the human, as mere biochemical machines. Currently, considerable scientific attention is focused on the problem of how consciousness can arise from the lifeless particles and quantum mechanical waves taken by physics to be the ultimate constituents of the world.
Geoffrey Read has developed an original theory addressing these issues, of which this book is the first extended presentation. Read's theory is a rational synthesis reconciling science, philosophy and religion - in a new theory of matter, life and mind. It offers a new approach to bridging the gulf between science and the spiritual in an integrated account of both the material and non-material worlds.
Geoffrey Read has developed an original theory addressing these issues, of which this book is the first extended presentation. Read's theory is a rational synthesis reconciling science, philosophy and religion - in a new theory of matter, life and mind. It offers a new approach to bridging the gulf between science and the spiritual in an integrated account of both the material and non-material worlds.
About the Author
Geoffrey Read is a scientifically grounded philosopher who has been developing this theory throughout his adult life, supporting himself by part-time lecturing in mathematics. He has a BSc from London University.
Peter Hewitt had a successful career in the computer industry before returning to his earlier interest in natural philosophy. He has an MA in natural sciences from Cambridge University.
Excerpted from Coherent Universe, The: An Introduction to Geoffrey Read's New Fundamental Theory of Matter Life and Mind by Peter Hewitt. Copyright © 2003. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
INTRODUCTION
The prevailing Western world view is grounded on a body of scientific theory which fails to offer a coherent account of reality. Its conceptual foundations - secular, reductionistic, and materialistic - are now widely recognised as inadequate. These ideas - inimical to, and incapable of accommodating, human life, mind and spirit - fail both in practice and in theory.
Many people have anticipated the emergence of a new, more coherent conceptual framework. Yet attempts to articulate such an alternative have met with seemingly insurmountable theoretical difficulties. Meanwhile, mainstream philosophy has become predominantly linguistic and analytic; rather than addressing the ultimate questions of existence, it seeks to argue them away.
This book is an original philosophical response to these concerns. It offers a new account of the universe, incorporating the essential insights of contemporary physics, biology, psychology and parapsychology, to provide a rational foundation for understanding the full breadth of human experience.
The book analyses the origin and development of the concepts underpinning the scientific world view. Fundamental errors have been built into the foundations of science via mistaken concepts of matter, space, time, and force. Correcting these ideas shows how the impasse reached by modern physics can be resolved. The picture currently offered by physics is paradoxical and baffling. The book describes a new basis for physics, comprehending the results of quantum theory while linking them to the earlier tradition of physics as a rational venture.
From this new understanding of physical fundamentals and causality, the book proceeds to an examination of the biological realm. Mechanistic materialism poses insuperable difficulties as the sole explanatory principle behind life. Biologists such as Hans Driesch and Rupert Sheldrake, and philosophers such as Whitehead and Bergson, have argued that non-material causes must be a determining factor in life processes; however, they have been unable to explain how such putative forces relate to the physical world. The new theory shows precisely how the animate emerges as a natural consequence of the inanimate as properly conceived, the key to this emergence being the persistence of the past as a crucial influence on present organic life.
This leads on to a novel theory of mind, brain, and consciousness. Orthodox theory is unable to account for the origin and nature of conscious experience out of seemingly inert matter. The ideas so far presented here provide a basis for an original explanation of the mind/brain relationship, for which there is solid empirical evidence. The case involves a radical critique of much current thinking, and offers a new perspective on such controversial topics as memory, paranormal experience, survival of death, and reincarnation.
The book's argument hinges on a crucial wrong turning in Greek thought, which was taken up uncritically into the foundations of modern thought. This 'fatal trap' has wreaked havoc in systematic thinking about the underlying nature of the world. Our failure to correct this mistake has led inevitably to cognitive confusion and the comprehensive materialism of today. Dismantling the fatal trap leads directly to the resolution of many long-standing problems and opens the way to a fresh understanding of both material and non-material reality.
The new account embodies the metaphysical idea that all things originate in an undivided One. It demonstrates how multiplicity arises - how the One becomes the Many - depicting the universe, in common with the Vedas and the Tao, as a continuing creative process. This constructive, emanatory conception of the universe has permeated Western thinking from Anaximander to Bergson. Few, if any, of our major philosophical systems have been untouched by it.
Philosophers in the idealist tradition have largely failed to face up to the challenge of science. But it is the ontological claims of science, underpinned by physics and biology, that have formed the Western world view. This book meets these claims head-on, exposing their conceptual inadequacy with philosophical rigour. Proposing a novel picture of reality as concrete, rational, and spiritual, it counters the complaint that spiritual philosophies are other-worldly and abstract, showing in detail how our existing empirical knowledge can be regrounded in a non-materialist world conception.
The prevailing Western world view is grounded on a body of scientific theory which fails to offer a coherent account of reality. Its conceptual foundations - secular, reductionistic, and materialistic - are now widely recognised as inadequate. These ideas - inimical to, and incapable of accommodating, human life, mind and spirit - fail both in practice and in theory.
Many people have anticipated the emergence of a new, more coherent conceptual framework. Yet attempts to articulate such an alternative have met with seemingly insurmountable theoretical difficulties. Meanwhile, mainstream philosophy has become predominantly linguistic and analytic; rather than addressing the ultimate questions of existence, it seeks to argue them away.
This book is an original philosophical response to these concerns. It offers a new account of the universe, incorporating the essential insights of contemporary physics, biology, psychology and parapsychology, to provide a rational foundation for understanding the full breadth of human experience.
The book analyses the origin and development of the concepts underpinning the scientific world view. Fundamental errors have been built into the foundations of science via mistaken concepts of matter, space, time, and force. Correcting these ideas shows how the impasse reached by modern physics can be resolved. The picture currently offered by physics is paradoxical and baffling. The book describes a new basis for physics, comprehending the results of quantum theory while linking them to the earlier tradition of physics as a rational venture.
From this new understanding of physical fundamentals and causality, the book proceeds to an examination of the biological realm. Mechanistic materialism poses insuperable difficulties as the sole explanatory principle behind life. Biologists such as Hans Driesch and Rupert Sheldrake, and philosophers such as Whitehead and Bergson, have argued that non-material causes must be a determining factor in life processes; however, they have been unable to explain how such putative forces relate to the physical world. The new theory shows precisely how the animate emerges as a natural consequence of the inanimate as properly conceived, the key to this emergence being the persistence of the past as a crucial influence on present organic life.
This leads on to a novel theory of mind, brain, and consciousness. Orthodox theory is unable to account for the origin and nature of conscious experience out of seemingly inert matter. The ideas so far presented here provide a basis for an original explanation of the mind/brain relationship, for which there is solid empirical evidence. The case involves a radical critique of much current thinking, and offers a new perspective on such controversial topics as memory, paranormal experience, survival of death, and reincarnation.
The book's argument hinges on a crucial wrong turning in Greek thought, which was taken up uncritically into the foundations of modern thought. This 'fatal trap' has wreaked havoc in systematic thinking about the underlying nature of the world. Our failure to correct this mistake has led inevitably to cognitive confusion and the comprehensive materialism of today. Dismantling the fatal trap leads directly to the resolution of many long-standing problems and opens the way to a fresh understanding of both material and non-material reality.
The new account embodies the metaphysical idea that all things originate in an undivided One. It demonstrates how multiplicity arises - how the One becomes the Many - depicting the universe, in common with the Vedas and the Tao, as a continuing creative process. This constructive, emanatory conception of the universe has permeated Western thinking from Anaximander to Bergson. Few, if any, of our major philosophical systems have been untouched by it.
Philosophers in the idealist tradition have largely failed to face up to the challenge of science. But it is the ontological claims of science, underpinned by physics and biology, that have formed the Western world view. This book meets these claims head-on, exposing their conceptual inadequacy with philosophical rigour. Proposing a novel picture of reality as concrete, rational, and spiritual, it counters the complaint that spiritual philosophies are other-worldly and abstract, showing in detail how our existing empirical knowledge can be regrounded in a non-materialist world conception.
