TRAGEDY THEN FARCE

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Tragedy Then Farce is focused on constructively battling the illnesses our age through creativity, curiosity, and communication. If you want any higher quality copies of my photographs to download, just let me know and I'd be happy to oblige. Welcome.

A Philosophy and Photography Blog

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Friday, April 8, 2011

Practicing Physics with a Philosophy of Nature

The biggest names in modern philosophy, and the most remember in modern science, Newton, Descartes, Bacon, Locke, etcetera, were prominent positivists at the cusp of the industrial revolution. These thinkers held that there exists objective reality, that our minds are able to grasp that reality by reasoning through our empirical senses, and that it was humankind’s job to dissect nature and to master it. The idea that humans are able to observe nature implies that humans are outside of nature, however, much forgotten German idealist philosopher, enemy of the mechanistic empiricists, and reactionary to Kant dared to develop a new system of philosophical inquiry.
Schelling saw that modern science promotes a view of the world that is unsustainable because the system makes fundamentally corrupting presuppositions about the human condition. Modern science saw human beings as pinnacles of creation, as God’s manifestation on earth. Man could do no wrong so long as we were looking for truth; the ends (truth) justified the means (using the earth as a means). This fundamentally closed metaphysical manifest destiny understood nature as a collection of resources that solely to make human life better. The essence of science and the trajectory of our relationship with the natural world to them was simply to manipulate and control it.  Schelling’s philosophy of nature, however, provides a metaphysical infrastructure of a very different kind insofar as it allows for organic growth to take place and the adoption of a reciprocal relationship between man and nature to unfold.
 Rather than the cold separation of a mechanistic positivistic dualistic philosophy, philosophy of nature has key metaphysical differences that allow for a more creative, holistic, sustainable, and organic system of meaning. How is this done? Through Schelling’s legendary speculative physics. Speculative physics is physics practiced with the backdrop-contextualizing qualification that we know only the self produced; knowing, in the strictest sense, is therefore a function guided by ideas, a priori, before experience. How can science take place in this kind of a environment, where our senses are not capable of representing realty?
 Schelling’s answer is this: although we project ideas and patterns onto reality, the reality of patterns reciprocally and inevitably project onto our ideas; we cannot help but see patterns, because patterns exist in nature, with our without a reasoning human mind to rip the patterns out of context and label them. Accepting the necessity of working in patterns and thinking with purposiveness, physics can continue to be practiced with a more examined methodological approach, and a two way system of validity that make sure that no matter what happens in the scientific foreground; the nature bound backdrop must be cared for and cultivated as well. A much more healthy, yet just as pragmatic, system of thought.



47 comments:

  1. The last picture is awesome!

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  2. beautiful pictures. interesting ideas as well. followed!

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  3. I first thought the 3rd picture was marihuana and the sixth said "stoner" but on a second glance, I think I made out, what it really was. cool pictures, wise words.

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  4. Very, very interesting. Following :)

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  5. That's interesting to think about.

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  6. I've never thought about something like that... appreciate your insight.

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  7. Very inspirational pictures, I'm a photographer myself

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  8. Why would any decent scientist think that reality is exactly what we see and hear and taste and touch? There are plenty of examples in other animals/plants of more advanced sense abilities and different sense abilities. Reality has to be interpreted to be experienced.

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  9. Agree with Trelin.
    Perception is reality.
    2nd from bottom picture is nice.

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  10. Wow, deep shit bro. Great post.

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  11. This is pretty interesting. Plus I LOVE the pictures. Keep up the good work!

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  12. Heavy shit as always

    bigunicorn.blogspot.com

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  13. Awesome post bro... You should do one of your thoughts on Chaos Theory: everything that can go wrong, over time, will go wrong.

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  14. the picture of the playing cards is really cool

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  15. cool post. I'm a phil major so this stuff is le interesting for me :) following + supporting

    epicmoustacheblog.blogspot.com :D

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  16. Agreed, positivism did not consider the long-term implications and, as you point out, ignored the reciprocal nature of ... well, nature.
    Spiritualism and New Age, surprisingly enough, have a lot more support from science than the positivist ideals do. What's baffling is our society still clings to the old ideas.

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  17. really interesting , really ...

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  18. I love how the shallow depth of field in the pics comprehend the meaning of your message.

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  19. I'm not quite sure I'm correctly grasping what he was arguing against in the scientific method.

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  20. Great pictures AND thought-provoking philosophy? Sign me up. Following.

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  21. Very interesting, I'm not very familiar with Schelling though.

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  22. You took those. Someone should pay you a lot for those.

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  23. I was always better at philosophy then physics =p

    also, the close-up of the playing card looks awesome.

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  24. Wonderful pics, esp. the closeups! Following

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  25. Interesting read; contemplating the last quote for a moment . . .

    BTW: Where did you the the idea to take a pic fo the chairs?

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  26. Beautiful pics, and I liked the final quote of yours.

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  27. Great blog and great pictures! :-)
    very interesting!!
    followed
    http://ttroton.blogspot.com/

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  28. Wow I never thought of coinciding physics with philosophy!

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  29. Very interesting read. Gave me a lot, maybe too much, to think about with my coffee this early morning.

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  30. @JohnBear
    If you would like a larger resolution copy of the card photo for use as a wallpaper, let me know and I can send one to you.

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  31. Its amazing how pictures can conjure up such philosophical ways of thinking. As a philosophy nut myself, great post lol thanks. Followed!

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  32. I think one interesting thing to note is that far too many hold human exceptionalism as a universal truth when in fact, we simply exist and exploit our strength as an animal; just as any other animal would do.

    I think that in trying to separate ourselves from the natural world (trying to draw that line that makes us "special") we lose, at the very least, a bit of perspective.

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  33. I's an interesting stance, but it seems to go against the anthropic principle in general, and its manifestation in quantum mechanics in particular.

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  34. nice photos and really interesting history

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  35. Those photos are quite amazing i must say, so too is the history you wrote. You are being followed.

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  36. Those photos are deep stuff, bro. Forgive me if I sound ignorant.

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  37. I love your blog... everything from my Philosophy course... mixed with a favourite pastime of mine... lovely. I never really compared the nature of humans seeking patterns, to our empirical senses and how they affect our world. Impressive stuff!

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  38. Herbie, Given your avatar I'd think you'd be all about patterns =p.

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