Science, God's Hard Gift
James's Pragmatism Expanded and UpdatedBy Frederick R. BaueriUniverse, Inc.
Copyright © 2010 Frederick R. Bauer
All right reserved.ISBN: 978-1-4502-6250-7Contents
Some Introductory Notices.......................................xxiiiPreface.........................................................xxv1. If You Are a College Fresh(wo)man...........................12. Common Sense: Everyone's 1st Philosophy.....................123. Astronomy Isn't the Stars...................................244. Descartes & Rival Systems...................................365. The Rorty Rule..............................................446a. The Experiment: Step 1......................................616b. The Experiment: Step 2......................................626c. The Experiment: Step 3......................................637. The After-Image Experiment..................................648. The Jamesian-Quintalist Framework...........................729. James' Historic Discovery @ Thoughts........................9010. Your Brain: from Outside and Inside.........................11311. Sense-Data: Not Introspected................................12712. You Hear Sounds, Never Words!...............................14813. You See Colors, Never Light or Words........................17014. Reading: Interpreting Visible 'Code'........................20515. Pragmatic Fictions..........................................22716. Memory-Images...............................................25617. The Great Law of Habit Itself...............................29518. What Is Nature?.............................................31519. 'Laws of Nature' Are Useful Fictions........................34820. What is the Cause's 'Structure'?............................37120 (cont.) Science and Sentiment................................404Appendix........................................................429About the Author................................................455Bibliography....................................................457
Chapter One
IF YOU ARE A COLLEGE FRESH(WO)MAN ... * * *
I know that you, ladies and gentlemen, have a philosophy, each and all of you; and that the most interesting and important thing about it is the way in which it determines the perspective in your several worlds. (W. James, Pragmatism, Lecture I)
A. You Already Have a Philosophy.
Oh, you didn't know that? On Wednesday, November 14, 1906, about five hundred people gathered to hear the first of a series of lectures delivered by a famous American professor from Harvard University, William James. Near the very beginning of that first lecture, James made a momentous announcement to those assembled listeners.
I know that you, ladies and gentlemen, have a philosophy, each and all of you; and that the most interesting and important thing about it is the way in which it determines the perspective in your several worlds. (W. James, Pragmatism, Lecture I)
That may have been the first time in their lives that those people were told they had a philosophy. Do you know that you have one, too?
In his fifth Pragmatism lecture, James described in some detail the philosophy most of them probably had. His name for it was "common sense." Following his lead, this book will call your basic philosophy "common sense."
If you don't think you have a philosophy, that's a problem. It's a very big problem, and one that you will have to solve or dis-solve if you want to get your tuition-money's worth by graduating with a really good college education.
Why don't all high-school graduates know they have a philosophy? The reason James' listeners, like you, probably never thought of themselves as having a philosophy was because no one ever told them. Or it may be that, like you, they had the wrong idea of what philosophy is. Or it may be that, like you, they had the idea, but never heard it called "philosophy," the same way you may have the idea of a gaster but have never heard it called "a gaster."
Take those reasons in order. Most people have never been told they have a philosophy for one very simple reason. The teachers who told them the earth goes around the sun and that, inside their head, they have a brain which they have never seen, were themselves never told that they had a philosophy. How could they pass on to others what they never learned themselves?
The reason most people are sceptical the first time they are told that they have a philosophy is quite simple. They have been brainwashed to think philosophy is a special subject, separate from science, just the same way they have been brainwashed to believe that astronomy, theology, sociology, etc., are special subjects independent of each other. In that case, they simply have the wrong idea of philosophy and, especially, of science.
Finally, you may have the idea but have never heard anyone call it "philosophy." It's like your idea of your gaster. You may never have paged through the 27th edition of Dorland's Illustrated Medical Dictionary and come across the word "gaster." According to that dictionary, "gaster" is another word for what you are used to calling "a stomach." It has a fundus, which you would call "its bottom part." Apply this to philosophy. You already have a lot of knowledge. For instance, do you think stars are out in the woods or that your brain is near the fundus of your gaster? No, you think stars are far off in the sky and that your brain is inside your skull, not at the bottom of your stomach. Once you realize that you have a lot of beliefs about the world, and realize that those beliefs are connected the way your beliefs about your stomach, your skull, and your brain are connected, and realize that those connected beliefs about those things are pretty well 'fixed' in your mind, then put them together and realize that they are a philosophy. Your philosophy. They are your belief-system, your set of beliefs, or simply your worldview.
If you understood the preceding sentence, then you know what James meant by telling those five hundred listeners that they had a philosophy and that 'the most interesting and important thing about their philosophy was the way in which it determined the perspectives in their several worlds.'
You may have gotten out of bed this morning, not realizing that you had a philosophy or that you were relying on it to know what you usually do first: use the toilet, wash your face, and brush your teeth. Beginning now, get in the habit of realizing that you always rely on your philosophy to know what to do next.
You couldn't even read this book if you didn't already have a philosophy. But you are reading it. Therefore you have a philosophy.
Check to see how many of your professors know it better than you. You shouldn't feel bad if you don't know you have a philosophy. Very few of the professors who teach the courses you'll be taking know they have one. Like you, they haven't been told they have one. Or, like you, they've been brainwashed to think it is a separate subject, like the one they once took a course in but can't remember much about. Like you, they certainly have an extraordinarily complex belief-system, but have never gotten in the habit of calling it "my philosophy."
Those facts would be amusing, if they didn't point to a problem. A very knowledgeable college professor once argued that students could learn far more from literature than they ever learn from philosophy. He found it hard to accept the fact that he had his own idea of what "literature" should refer to and his own idea of what "philosophy" should refer to, and that his opinion about the relative merits of literature (as he defined it) and philosophy (as he defined it) was a significant part of his worldview, that is, of his personal philosophy. He found it so hard, in fact, that he finally concluded "I can't get used to thinking like that."
But you are younger than he was, younger than the professors from whom you will be taking your college courses. Your brainwashing is still relatively fresh, so it may not be quite so hard for you to change your present thought-habits for the better. But, unless you begin correcting them as soon as you can, it will become more and more difficult for you to acquire science, that is, a true philosophy. In the end, you may find it as nearly impossible as that professor (now dead) and your other professors (still living) find it.
If you are a college fresh(wo)man, one important reason for you to begin thinking the right way is that, unless you do, your professors will be slipping the equivalent of Trojan Horses into your defenseless, gullible mind.
B. A Philosophy is a System
Think system. If you are a college freshman or freshwoman and want to use the word "philosophy" in its most important sense, think of it as a system. Every philosophy or worldview is a large set of beliefs. Those beliefs are interrelated. They constitute a large belief-system.
What does "system" mean here? In the pages that follow, "philosophy" will often be replaced by "worldview," "set of beliefs," "belief-system," and similar English terms. Get used to including the sense of 'a system' while you are also getting into the habit of realizing that every normal human being who has reached the age of five or six has a common-sense philosophy, set of beliefs, worldview, or belief-system.
A belief-system is a system of interconnected beliefs. "Belief" is ambiguous. Literally, we might say, a belief is a thought that you believe, that is, that you think is true. But "belief" can also be used for thoughts that are rejected. Atheists, we say, reject belief in God. As for the beliefs to which you give your assent (the ones you think are true), none of them stands in splendid isolation. Hovering in the back of your mind when you think any particular thought are all of the other beliefs to which you habitually give your assent. Together, they form your belief-system. Your philosophy. Your complex worldview.
Every philosophy has a vast number of ideas. It is convenient to think of beliefs as if they are combinations of ideas, and of words as signs or symbols of those ideas. (It is convenient, but not entirely true, as will be explained later on.)
One way to realize how complex is the philosophy of children who are only a few years old is to notice the number of words they understand. Consider this:
By age six the average child has learned over 14,000 words1. On the assumption that vocabulary growth does not begin in earnest until the age of eighteen months or so, this works out to an average of about nine new words a day, or almost one per waking hour. So we have a puzzle. Learning even a single new word involves representing a great deal of information, yet the child learns an average of nine words a day. (S. Carey, "The Child as Word Learner," in Linguistic Theory and Psychological Reality, ed. M. Halle, J. Bresnan, G. Miller, p.264; 1The estimate of 14,000 words includes inflected and derived words and is based on comprehension vocabulary. For root words only, the estimate falls to around 8,000, or roughly five new root words a day)
Saying that the six-year-old already has a philosophy or worldview is saying that the six-year-old has a system-atic framework for all of the ideas signified by all of those words. And every six-year-old can weave words together into long, complex, thought-conveying sentences. As a more-than-six-year-old, you can understand even more complex thoughts signified by more than 14,000 words.
That last sentence points to a thought-habit that must now become second nature for you. Not only are belief-systems complex. They are utterly distinct from words that convey them.
Concentrate on thoughts, not words; they are distinct. If your reading has not been interrupted, check out your present memory of the thoughts that have been going through your mind. Then notice how those thoughts seem to be connected or interrelated.
How? Just recall whether or not you've been able to read right through the above sentences and easily understand what you were reading. Understand, not necessarily believe. They're not at all the same.
We'll assume the answer is "Yes." Notice what that fact constitutes evidence for. It constitutes the evidence that you have a philosophy. In fact, it is the only kind of evidence you will ever have that you already have a philosophy, a worldview, a belief-system, or whatever else you wish to call it.
Notice the words in the sentences you've been reading: you, college, five, gathered, earth, and so on. Then notice that each of those words is only part of a sentence and that each of the complete sentences expressed a complete thought. Notice thirdly that the complete thoughts flowed, each one into the next one. In a sense, the thoughts connect in such a way that they create 'a train of thought.' In the terminology of William James, each thought flowed into the next in what might be called 'a stream of thought.'
Now compare that stream of thought with what goes through your mind as you continue reading. James was born in New York. President Clinton was impeached. Of course, the moon is a quarter of a million miles away, and I'm wondering what color your hair is.
Ask yourself whether you noticed any difference between the preceding paragraph's thoughts and those you remember having earlier.
If you noticed a difference, how would you describe it? In your own words. At first, you might describe it as 'a hodgepodge of unrelated thoughts' as opposed to 'a flowing stream of thought,' no?
However you describe the difference, if you noticed one, do not forget the important fact referred to above. "Hodgepodge" and "flow" are both English words. Most people do not use English when they 'put their thoughts into words.' It is said that there are between 3,000 and 10,000 languages. (Different experts use different criteria.) If those other-language speakers are as competent in learning as you are, then there are thousands of other ways to 'put into words' the flow of thoughts that have been going through your mind as you've been reading this ground-laying chapter. Thoughts, not words, constitute philosophy and science.
What is important, however, is that the thoughts are not words. You can see the words, but you cannot see the thoughts. The words are separated from each other by spaces. There are no gaps between the thoughts. But, even though you cannot see the thoughts, you can notice things about them. Such things as whether they flow or seem to jump around.
Review what you've been doing. You've been reading, yes. But most importantly, thinking. That's different from running a marathon. It's different from eating breakfast. It's different from driving a car. It's different from brushing your teeth. And the only reason you could understand all of the sentences you've been reading is because you are not as belief-less as you were the moment you began this present life of yours.
No newborn infant could understand so many different thoughts. No infant in the delivery room could even think the thought, "I have no clue to what the heck is going on." You are not a newborn, so you can think complex thoughts. In fact, you've been doing it. Now, you're continuing to do it. But, at any moment, you can 'stop and think' about what you have been doing. That is, you can stop and remember—short-term memory—what you were doing before you stopped to reflect on what you were doing.
For instance, notice that your belief-system is so complex that you were able to compare two strings of thoughts (simultaneously!) and recognize one as a flow and the other as a hodgepodge! (You may need to go back and notice the comparing you did without even noticing or adverting to how complex it was.)
Once you understand the idea of 'a system,' you will realize better what was stated earlier: all of the thoughts that have been going through your mind while you've been reading are related to each other, even if at first they seem haphazard. True, you can jump from one part of your belief-system (James was born in New York) to another part (Clinton was impeached). But, as future pages will explain more fully, each of those thoughts is part of a large system of beliefs about the world and your self.
Beliefs, thoughts, and systems. That is what this book is all about. Specifically. Along with everything else. But everything else only in general.
C. Reading This Text: a Laboratory Experiment
Reading: source of 99% of every scientist's observation knowledge. In Chapter XIII of Talks to Teachers, James made an observation which, as the following pages will explain, should become one of your firmest and most cherished discoveries. Except for those who teach dancing, basket-weaving, painting, etc., nearly all of all your professors' special expertise comes from their reading. For instance, probably every text used in the "Introduction to Psychology" courses has a section at the front telling you that psychology is science and describing something called "the method of science."
Here is an example:
The essence of science, from the standpoint of the scientist himself, is "a disposition to deal with the facts rather than with what someone has said about them." This means that the scientist must observe for himself and that what he observes is the primary basis of his speculations and conclusions. The importance of observation for science is brought to a focus in the following story from Francis Bacon, a leader (1605) in the history of scientific investigation. (N. L. Munn, Psychology: the Fundamentals of Human Adjustment, 5th ed., p.5)
In the back, however, is where you learn the truth. Nearly everything the textbook author and the psychology professor relies on is knowledge gained from reading the books and articles listed as 'bibliography.' In Munn's case, there are forty-one pages of footnotes, followed by an index that lists more than 1300 names of authors whose works Munn found useful.
William James knew better:
... the truth remains that, after adolescence has begun, 'words, words, words,' must constitute a large part, and an always larger part as life advances, of what the human being has to learn. This is so even in the natural sciences, so far as these are causal and rational, and not merely confined to descriptions. (Talks to Teachers, ch.13)
(Continues...)
Excerpted from Science, God's Hard Giftby Frederick R. Bauer Copyright © 2010 by Frederick R. Bauer. Excerpted by permission of iUniverse, Inc.. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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