With the availability of 24/7 news, information, and distraction, it is becoming apparent that many of us have lost a simple but very fundamental way of being in the world—to be present without encountering barrages of thoughts, plans, and ideas. And because of that loss, many of us often feel incomplete, alienated, forever restless, and angry. The authors of this hugely important book (which is based on a 2019 essay by the same authors published on Aeon, available online as a teaser to the book) do not go into this or into psychology for that matter (for good reason), but their careful work suggests that our cultural ignorance or even rejection of first-person, embodied experience likely plays a major part in this malaise.
The authors recount how the 17th-century division of the world of experience into mind (qualitative states of being) and matter (quantifiable things and entities seemingly existing "out there") by major scientific thinkers such as Galileo, Descartes, and Bacon gradually led to the overvaluing of theoretical abstraction and thinking as a means to access truth and meaning. Over time, the schism between mind and matter became enshrined in Western culture. It became what the authors dub the Blind Spot—the eventual occultation of direct experience by intellectual conceptualization and rationalization. It also led to a misappropriation and reduction of science to a mere tool to try to manipulate and exploit (and, ultimately, rule) what is now recognized as the biosphere, an intricately complex system that is inextricably linked to our existence.
The split of the world into qualitative experience and quantitative measurement was obviously very valuable but it also led to what Alfred North Whitehead (who features prominently in this book) called the "bifurcation of nature" (as the authors explain in the book, direct experience of hot and cold or of felt time is replaced by more and more sophisticated ways to measure abstract entities called temperature and clock time that are taken to be really existing from the their “own side,” rather than conceptual constructs) and the "fallacy of misplaced concreteness," in which mathematical models are mistaken (and substituted) for concrete experience—erroneously taking the map for the territory (or the menu for the meal, as Alan Watts and others have wryly observed).
Because science has been so powerful for developing conceptual ideas about the world and for providing explanatory mechanisms for what is observed, it's caused a collective amnesia of what had led to its development in the first place—science was (and still is) motivated by first-person experiences, be they driven by curiosity of "how the world works" or the goal to control and redesign nature. Among other things, it led to the fateful mind-matter division, resulting in deep metaphysical confusions (such as the hard problem of consciousness—an artifact of the artificial mind-matter division, as the authors show) that now haunt much of modern discourse. And it led to what the authors call “scientific triumphalism”—the assertion that everything can be explained with and through the scientific method of inquiry.
The authors aren’t anti-science—quite the contrary, as three individuals who actively work in the sciences—two physicists and one cognitive scientist/philosopher—they express a deep concern that the current dominance of a worldview that depicts science as the be-all and end-all not only damages the very fabric of our world (by promoting a blind faith in science and technology, increasingly divorced from fundamental human needs and understanding) but also does severe harm to the project of science itself (by gradually undermining its credibility and standing with a public that sees it as more and more detached from the concerns of most people and delivering fewer and fewer tangible benefits or even posing harm to societal stability worldwide).
The authors lay out several ideas for addressing the lopsidedness of how science is practiced, articulated, and applied today. They propose to include a wider and more comprehensive focus offered by disciplines like systems research, neurophenomenology, and the history of science and philosophy. One might argue that the goals of these fields won’t fit well into research structures that are largely geared to reinforcing the Blind Spot (such as too-big-to-fail universities and grant agencies) by emphasizing that science must “deliver values” and provide “services,” business speak for monetary profits, the narrowest of goals if there ever was one. But residues of truly critical thinking, deep inquiry, and curiosity—and the recognition that statements like “that’s what the science says” won’t cut it to effectively engage wide swaths of the public to act on climate change, rapidly diminishing cultural and biodiversity, and the threat of further global pandemics—should still exist in these institutions, and perhaps these benevolent forces can effect the necessary changes needed to move on from Blind Spot thinking.
Because the book is written by scientists for scientists and for those interested in science (and its close cousin, philosophy), the authors occasionally go into some technical details, including some light math and descriptions of major current models of quantum mechanics/physics. But these are merely used as illustrative examples, without bogging readers down in unnecessary minutiae. Moreover, these brief excursions bring home the point that this work does not stray into esoteric speculation about quantum physics or the cosmos—the theories in this book are very nuts and bolts and extremely well presented. One very ingenious move the authors make (at the start of an illuminating chapter on consciousness) is that they ask the reader to do a simple exercise to get (re-)acquainted with what forms the basis of sensory experience that brings the entire world into being—immediate, pure awareness.
I very highly recommend this book to all who have a deep concern about the scientific enterprise and the future of this living organism we call Earth.
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Top reviews from other countries
Amazon Kunde
A true gem for anyone who values science
Reviewed in Germany on April 6, 2024
Cedric Altermatt
Excellent and much needed
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 16, 2024