List,

It appears to me that many scientists--although not all by all means--who
have looked into it think that Rupert Sheldrake's hypothesis of "morphic
resonance" http://www.sheldrake.org/research/morphic-resonance
is at very least unsupported by experimental testing of it and, well, even
a bit whacko. Sheldrake would argue in part that much of this negative
assessment is the result of most scientists being intellectually bonded to
materialism, what he also calls 'philosophical materialism'.

Although several years ago I read some of his books and followed the
experiments then being made in an attempt to prove/disprove his theory, I
haven't much thought about it for some time now. When this video was posted
to the biosemiotics list, however, and intrigued by the knowledge that this
TED talk had been censored, I played the video, watching it with some
considerable interest.

For in it Sheldrake offers what he calls "ten dogmas of science" and
references Peirce, suggesting that Peirce's understanding of 'habit' led
Sheldrake to a sense that *this* notion, as Peirce conceived of it, ought
replace that of 'law' (and constants, etc.) in science, Sheldrake seeing
'law' as an "anthropological metaphor" at best.

It seems to me that at least 9 of the "dogmas" he offers (although not the
9th) are either implicit or explicit in Peirce's work.

But as mentioned, I have not followed Sheldrake's work for years; when
doing so I viewed his hypothesis as then not fully supported by
experimental testing of it--although he has argued that those tests do in
fact support his theory--so that I offer this short video as an opportunity
for us to consider (1) whether these 10 are indeed dogmas of science, and
(2) if listers think any of them concur with the views of Peirce. (I think
it would be unwise at this point to get into a discussion of morphic
resonance.)

Best,

Gary R


--------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Prisca Augustyn
Date: Mon, May 29, 2017 at 4:56 PM
Subject: [biosemiotics:9235] Rupert Sheldrake TED Talk
To: "[email protected]" <[email protected]>


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKHUaNAxsTg
Rupert Sheldrake - The Science Delusion BANNED TED TALK
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKHUaNAxsTg>
www.youtube.com
Re-uploaded as TED have decided to censor Rupert and remove this video from
the TEDx youtube channel. Follow this link for TED's statement on the
matter and Dr ...


Some of you may enjoy this (formerly banned) TED talk. Sheldrake questions
scientific dogma by foregrounding Peircean habit.


Prisca Augustyn
Professor
Department of Languages, Linguistics & Comparative Literature
Florida Atlantic University
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