Scientific Materialism

A distinction can be made between Science (in its "unadorned" form) and the philosophy of Scientific Materialism. Science is concerned with rigorous and detailed observations/experimentation which aim to understand the nature of the surrounding world. Hypotheses are made which can be debunked by empirical observations and/or reasoning and new hypotheses can be formed.

The typical steps in the Scientific Method are:

1. Identify the problem
2. Gather relevant information/make observations
3. Propose a solution (scientific hypothesis)
4. Test the hypothesis (via an experiment or by making further observations)
5. If the hypotheses fails, modify or abandon it.
6. Form (or cast doubt) on a scientific theory.
7. Communicate or publish to allow for independent verification.

Unfortunately, one of the key assumptions of Science is itself unproven. This is what one would call a metaphysical assumption (i.e. an assumption about the nature of reality which cannot be proven). So what is this key assumption in Science ? This is where Science (which is by itself a mode of inquiry, a technique) moves into the realm of philosophy known as Scientific Materialism.

There are several layers of philosophical assumptions around Science, the key of which is that the objects of scientific inquiry exist independently of an observer, i.e. an objective "external" reality exists whether it is being perceived by a subject or not. Another assumption is that everything that exists is physical in nature (or can be reduced to a complex interaction of physical processes). This also means that all physical events are caused by other physical events.

In other words, scientific materialism assumes that any mental phenomenon (i.e. non physical events, the obvious one being the fact that we are all conscious and experience subjective thoughts, feelings, desires, fears etc.) cannot affect physical reality, but rather are an epiphenomenon of the complexity of matter. The dictionary defines epiphenomenon as "a secondary mental phenomenon that is caused by and accompanies a physical phenomenon but has no causal influence itself".

Scientific Materialism thus contends that matter and energy are the only true reality while downgrading the subjective experience to the dustbin of the universe. Scientific Materialism would thus appear to be extremely bottom-up in its approach in that it investigates elementary components and tries to explain high-level features (such as consciousness) COMPLETELY in terms of these elementary particles. This bottom-up approach also seems to be at odds with the concepts in Gestalt psychology where the brain is considered to have self-organizing tendencies and where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

A very important problem that reductionist science has is dealing with the concept of Qualia and the 'Hard Problem of Consciousness'. The most familiar example concerning Qualia has to do with the 'Bat Argument' in Thomas Nagel's paper "What is it Like to Be a Bat?". From Wikipedia, here is a concise description of the problem:

Nagel argues that consciousness has an essentially subjective character, a what-it-is-like aspect. He states that "an organism has conscious mental states if and only if there is something that it is to be that organism — something it is like for the organism. Nagel also suggests that the subjective aspect of the mind may not ever be sufficiently accounted for by the objective methods of reductionistic science. He claims that "if we acknowledge that a physical theory of mind must account for the subjective character of experience, we must admit that no presently available conception gives us a clue how this could be done." Furthermore, he states that "it seems unlikely that any physical theory of mind can be contemplated until more thought has been given to the general problem of subjective and objective."

So, in other words, we must be prepared to face the very real possibility that science cannot solve the ultimate and only problem that really matters. Even if various components of our conscious experience such as vision, sound, emotion, creativity etc. are mapped to corresponding neuronal firings, computation algorithms etc. there would still be something left over that cannot be explained solely via purely physical mechanisms.

Scientific Materialism by paying such scant attention to the subjective experience has certainly resulted in material and technological conquest of the world. Although this has bought a lot of us many comforts and alleviated the suffering caused by physical disease, materialism tends to impose a materialistic lifestyle on people. It has also failed quite badly in improving human lives on the subjective front via happiness, peace and compassion. It also fails to provide satisfying answers to fundamental existential questions by reducing us to the state of mechanical beings driven by purely physical process in pursuit of illusory material gains.

It find it extremely intriguing that many Eastern philosophies make very different assumptions from Scientific Materialism. The subjective experience takes center stage in a world of Mind and Form. Mind and Form are not considered different. Form is Mind and Mind is Form (thereby avoiding the problems with dualism)


References:
Scientific Thinking and the Scientific Method
The Taboo of Subjectivity: Toward a New Science of Consciousness by B. Alan Wallace
A Course in Consciousness
Taped Lectures by John R. Searle on "The Philosophy of Mind"
Qualia and The Bat Argument