Human Immortality VI

See recent numbered posts on "Human Immortality." For the full reference to the work cited, see the first such post here.

In Part I, McTaggart explains how he thinks that science can function without matter:

scientific observations tell us what has been experienced;

established uniformities connect the experiences;

statements about the past or future tell us what has been or will be experienced;

thus, science is about nothing more than experiences.

"What more does science tell us, or what more could it desire to tell us?" (p. 44)

When it seems to tell us about independently existing matter, is this merely:

"...the unconscious and uncritical metaphysics of ordinary language..."? (ibid.)

It is not just that but is also the critical metaphysics of philosophical materialists. But science does more than tell us about experiences. Its findings are also tested in practice. Applications of science have changed the world for good or bad. We use technology, like this computer, all the time. Scientists tell us that a devastating explosion was caused by the splitting of an atom. An idealist philosopher replies that the atom does not exist and that a scientist has merely connected the experience of constructing an artifact called an atomic bomb with the experience of witnessing an explosion - whereas scientific theory explains the connection. In practice, "uncritical" language assuming the existence of the elements and particles described by scientists covers the phenomena far more effectively than these metaphysical arguments which cannot influence the course of events and which therefore become, in practical terms, irrelevant.