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The Scientific Worldview Also by Glenn Borchardt The Scientific Worldview Also by Glenn Borchardt The Ten Assumptions of Science The Scientific Worldview Beyond Newton and Einstein Glenn Borchardt, Ph.D., Director, Progessive Science Institute iUniverse, Inc. New York Lincoln Shanghai The Scientific Worldview Beyond Newton and Einstein Copyright © 2007 by Glenn Borchardt All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. iUniverse books may be ordered through booksellers or by contacting: iUniverse 2021 Pine Lake Road, Suite 100 Lincoln, NE 68512 www.iuniverse.com 1-800-Authors (1-800-288-4677) ISBN-13: 978-0-595-39245-2 (pbk) ISBN-13: 978-0-595-83773-1 (cloth) ISBN-13: 978-0-595-83637-6 (ebk) ISBN-10: 0-595-39245-8 (pbk) ISBN-10: 0-595-83773-5 (cloth) ISBN-10: 0-595-83637-2 (ebk) Printed in the United States of America Grateful acknowledgment is made to the following for permission to reprint pre- viously published material: Allen & Unwin Inc.: Excerpts from Where is Science Going? by Max Planck. Reprinted by permission of the publisher, Allen & Unwin Inc. Progress Publishers: Excerpts from Dialectics of Nature by Frederick Engels.. Reprinted by permission of the publisher, Progress Publishers. Philosophical Library Publishers: Excerpts from Dictionary of Philosophy edited by D. D. Runes. Copyright ©1960 by Philosophical Library Publishers. Reprinted by permission of the publisher, Philosophical Library Publishers. CBS College Publishing: Excerpts from Types and Problems of Philosophy (Third Edition) by Hunter Mead. Copyright ©1959 by Henry Holt and Company, Inc. Reprinted by permission of the publisher, CBS College Publishing. A limited edition of The Scientific Worldview was published in 1984. I dedicate this book to: Marjorie, Arnold, Bertha, Coutchie, Roger, Marilyn, Jim, Marion, Francis, Rod, Moyle, Art, Elizabeth, Dennis, Elia, Nina, Hasu, Chuck, Doug, Karl, Harry, Edward, Fred, Bob, Tom, and Natalie. Contents Tables ..........................................................................................................xxi Illustrations ................................................................................................xxiii Preface ........................................................................................................xxv Chapter 1 Introduction ....................................................................................................1 Organization of the Book ........................................................................4 Objectives ................................................................................................6 Part One The Philosophy ..............................................................................................7 Chapter 2 The Renaissance of Determinism ....................................................................9 The Philosophy of Philosophy ..............................................................10 The Philosophical Continuum ..............................................................11 The Reality ....................................................................................11 The Ideality ..................................................................................12 -ix- x The Scientific Worldview Progression of the Determinism-Indeterminism Spiral ..........................14 Determinism Gets a Voice: Democritus and Atomism (Fifth Century BC) ........................................................................16 Indeterminism Imagines Reality: Plato and Idealism ......................16 Double-talk Becomes Explicit: Descartes and Classical Dualism (Seventeenth Century) ..................................................................17 Determinism Reacts: Spinoza and Pantheism ................................18 Indeterminism Reaches a Dead End: Berkeley and Subjective Idealism (Eighteenth Century) ......................................19 Dualism Finds Spirited Matter: Hegel and Objective Idealism (Nineteenth Century) ....................................................................19 Determinism Divides the World: Marx and Dialectical Materialism ..................................................................20 Indeterminism Wakes Up with Science: James and Pragmatism ....21 Dualism Finds Atheism: Sartre and Existentialism (Twentieth Century) ......................................................................21 The Call to Determinism ......................................................................23 Part Two The Assumptions ..........................................................................................25 Chapter 3 The Ten Assumptions of Science ..................................................................27 The First Assumption of Science: Materialism ..........................................................................................31 Matter ..........................................................................................32 Confirmation ................................................................................33 Faith and Matter ............................................................................34 The Second Assumption of Science: Causality ..............................................................................................35 Glenn Borchardt, Ph.D. xi Specific Causality ..........................................................................35 Finite Universal Causality ..............................................................37 Infinite Universal Causality (Causality) ..........................................39 Example of Causality ..............................................................39 Causality, Motion, and Objectivity ........................................41 The Third Assumption of Science: Uncertainty ..........................................................................................41 The Search for Certainty ..............................................................42 Determinism: Uncertainty is Subjective ..........................................43 Indeterminism: Uncertainty Is Objective ......................................45 Chance ..........................................................................................46 Is Chance Acausal? ................................................................46 Is Chance a Singular Cause? ..................................................47 Is Chance Ignorance? ............................................................49 Uncertainty and the Unknown ......................................................52 The Fourth Assumption of Science: Inseparability ........................................................................................53 The Inseparability of Matter and Motion ......................................54 Classical Mechanism ......................................................................56 Deterministic Critique ..........................................................56 Indeterministic Critique ........................................................57 Absolute Zero: Matter Without Motion? ......................................58 Energy: Motion Without Matter? ..................................................60 Conceptualizing Matter and Motion ............................................62 Thing-Event ..........................................................................64 Structure-Function ................................................................64 Mass-Velocity ........................................................................64 Spacetime ..............................................................................65 xii The Scientific Worldview Inseparability and Clear Thinking ................................................67 The Fifth Assumption of Science: Conservation ........................................................................................67 From Atomism to Evolution ..........................................................68 Challenges to Conservation ............................................................70 Geology ................................................................................70 Biology ..................................................................................71 Cosmology ............................................................................72 From the Static to the Dynamic ....................................................72 The Sixth Assumption of Science: Complementarity ..................................................................................73 The SLT-Order Paradox ................................................................73 System-Oriented Rationalizations of the Paradox ..........................75 Schroedinger (1967) ..............................................................75 Whyte (1974) ........................................................................75 Makridakis (1977) ................................................................76 Prigogine (1978) ....................................................................76 Resolution of the Paradox ..............................................................77 Subjectivity of Order-Disorder ..............................................79 Objectivity of Divergence-Convergence ................................80
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