The Taboo of Subjectivity Towards a New Science of Consciousness

by Wallace, B. Alan

• ISBN13: 9780195132076
• ISBN10: 0195132076
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2000-11-09
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

This book takes a bold new look at ways of exploring the nature, origins, and potentials of consciousness within the context of science and religion. Alan Wallace draws careful distinctions between four elements of the scientific tradition: science itself, scientific realism, scientificmaterialism, and scientism. Arguing that the metaphysical doctrine of scientific materialism has taken on the role of ersatz-religion for its adherents, he traces its development from its Greek and Judeo-Christian origins, focusing on the interrelation between the Protestant Reformation and theScientific Revolution. He looks at scientists' long term resistance to the firsthand study of consciousness and details the ways in which subjectivity has been deemed taboo within the scientific community. In conclusion, Wallace draws on William James's idea for a "science of religion" that wouldstudy the nature of religious and, in particular, contemplative experience. In exploring the nature of consciousness, this groundbreaking study will help to bridge the chasm between religious belief and scientific knowledge. It is essential reading for philosophers and historians of science, scholars of religion, and anyone interested in the relationship between science andreligion.

Author Biography

B. Alan Wallace teaches in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Table of Contents

Introduction: The No Man's Land of Consciousness	3	(17)
PART I The Ideology of Scientific Materialism
Four Dimensions of the Scientific Tradition	17	(24)
Theological Impulses in the Scientific Revolution	41	(18)
PART II Toward a Noetic Revolution
An Empirical Alternative	59	(16)
Observing the Mind	75	(22)
Exploring the Mind	97	(26)
PART III The Resistance
The Mind in Scientific Materialism	123	(22)
Confusing Scientific Materialism with Science	145	(14)
Scientific Materialism: The Ideology of Modernity	159	(18)
Conclusion: No Boundaries	177	(12)
Notes	189	(8)
Bibliography	197	(12)
Index	209