This book gives an account of work that I have done over a period
of decades that sets out to solve two fundamental problems of
philosophy: the mind-body problem and the problem of induction.
Remarkably, these revolutionary contributions to philosophy turn
out to have dramatic implications for a wide range of issues
outside philosophy itself, most notably for the capacity of
humanity to resolve current grave global problems and make progress
towards a better, wiser world. A key element of the proposed
solution to the first problem is that physics is about only a
highly specialized aspect of all that there is - the causally
efficacious aspect. Once this is understood, it ceases to be a
mystery that natural science says nothing about the experiential
aspect of reality, the colours we perceive, the inner experiences
we are aware of. That natural science is silent about the
experiential aspect of reality is no reason whatsoever to hold that
the experiential does not objectively exist. A key element of the
proposed solution to the second problem is that physics, in
persistently accepting unified theories only, thereby makes a
substantial metaphysical assumption about the universe: it is such
that a unified pattern of physical law runs through all phenomena.
We need a new conception, and kind, of physics that acknowledges,
and actively seeks to improve, metaphysical presuppositions
inherent in the methods of physics. The problematic aims and
methods of physics need to be improved as physics proceeds. These
are the ideas that have fruitful implications, I set out to show,
for a wide range of issues: for philosophy itself, for physics, for
natural science more generally, for the social sciences, for
education, for the academic enterprise as a whole and, most
important of all, for the capacity of humanity to learn how to
solve the grave global problems that menace our future, and thus
make progress to a better, wiser world. It is not just science that
has problematic aims; in life too our aims, whether personal,
social or institutional, are all too often profoundly problematic,
and in urgent need of improvement. We need a new kind of academic
enterprise which helps humanity put aims-and-methods improving
meta-methods into practice in personal and social life, so that we
may come to do better at achieving what is of value in life, and
make progress towards a saner, wiser world. This body of work of
mine has met with critical acclaim. Despite that, astonishingly, it
has been ignored by mainstream philosophy. In the book I discuss
the recent work of over 100 philosophers on the mind-body problem
and the metaphysics of science, and show that my earlier, highly
relevant work on these issues is universally ignored, the quality
of subsequent work suffering as a result. My hope, in publishing
this book, is that my fellow philosophers will come to appreciate
the intellectual value of my proposed solutions to the mind-body
problem and the problem of induction, and will, as a result, join
with me in attempting to convince our fellow academics that we need
to bring about an intellectual/institutional revolution in academic
inquiry so that it takes up its proper task of helping humanity
learn how to solve problems of living, including global problems,
and make progress towards as good, as wise and enlightened a world
as possible.
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