In modern science, causes are equated to forces. These forces represent how change occurs; it involves explaining the creation of a trajectory. However, forces don’t explain why change occurs, which involves the goal or destination along with a moral justification of the goal. For example, if someone asks you, “How did you come here?” you can respond by saying that “I took a bus”. But if someone asks, “Why did you come here?” you might say “I wanted to see you”. If you are pushed even further, you might provide a justification: “It was very important and necessary to meet you”. This post discusses how the different aspects of causality…
Can We Study Consciousness Within Science?
In this post I will explore some philosophical ideas from Vedic philosophy and try to describe what consciousness is and argue that we cannot reduce consciousness to matter, but we can study matter using consciousness as the model. In short, we begin by assuming the soul, and then explain matter. This scientific study of matter—based on the understanding of the soul—can be theoretically and empirically confirmed, but consciousness itself (i.e. the axiom of this study) cannot be verified using science. The confirmation of the axiom needs spiritual experience. How the postulate of the soul changes material science is a very interesting topic, but the fact that knowing the soul helps…
Why the Genome Incompletely Describes the Body
Genetic determinism—or the idea that we are fully determined by our genes taken from our parents—is now a thing of the past. Empirical evidence now shows that genes may exist but may not be expressed. The expression is controlled by some ‘epigenetic’ factors (which are also molecules) but enabled and disabled by the environment. OK, says the geneticist, let’s add the epigenetic stuff into the overall picture, and we can maintain the overall (materialistic) idea that living beings are molecular soups. However, the issue isn’t as straightforward, because there are potentially many things in the genes and the environment which can potentially create different outcomes. How do we select which…
