Scientific Realism 2

While Materialism is certainly an area of concern for those embracing alternatives, such as Idealism, it is not the only problem that faces those seeking a deeper understanding of reality in a philosophical manner. For I have come to realize that the very field of Philosophy, at least in the modern sense, has isolated itself from any semblance of dialectics; favoring mathematical expositions of logical arguments. This, in and of itself, is not a bad thing. However, when the discipline is flooded with theses that look more like a physicist's blackboard than an earmarked copy of Hegel's 'Phenomenology of Spirit' I think there is a problem. Recently, I was participating in a conversation on the topic of Idealism in a Facebook group centered on the topic of the same name. Some members would make posts in reference to this or that theory related to Idealism, some being more grounded than others.

But there was one post in particular that struck me; and quite frankly gave me a bit of a headache just glancing at it. The post was a complicated series of predicate, modal logic symbols all with technical references to specific arguments in current philosophical circles. These symbols all were related to an analytical abbreviation of recent perspectives on quantum mechanics and its relation to consciousness and mental states. The moderator of the group applauded the poster while I was still sitting there thinking, 'what the hell did I just read?' I began to consider whether I had any idea of what 'real' Philosophy was. Perhaps I had only been able to grasp popularizations or annotations of Philosophical themes. Maybe I hadn't really 'gotten it' as far as Philosophy is concerned. But as I began thinking over the whole thing more clearly, I didn't remember reading these sorts of symbolic representations in earlier works of Philosophy. And, indeed, they were only present in more recent academic philosophical publications. Not all of them, but a large part of current philosophical works embraced this mode of logical exposition and theorizing. One would not find it, however, in European Continental Philosophy, Philosophy of History, Meta-Philosophy and some journals dedicated to Metaphysics. But in spite of this, there is an impression that when one philosophizes, one does nothing but mathematics. And certainly there is a mathematical element to logic. Modus Ponens, Modus Tollens, Syllogisms and etc.

But, after reading a forward to a work by Hegel, I was reminded why I had come to love Philosophy. It was the dialectic that is missing in these modern expressions of the love of wisdom. J. N. Findley once said about Philosophy, and the idealism of Hegel, that "dialectic is a richer and more supple of thought-advance than mathematics." It is the etymologies of words, deductive propositions of ideas and literary tradition of Philosophy that really holds the true basis of wisdom, not simply the concise arithmetic nature of symbolic logic in reference to scientific theories.