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Philosopher of physics: Physics and physicalism are mutually incompatible

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Physicalism is a variant of naturalism: “Physicalism is the thesis that everything is physical, or as contemporary philosophers sometimes put it, that everything supervenes on the physical. ” (Stanford Plato)

Naturalism: “… reality is exhausted by nature, containing nothing “supernatural”, and that the scientific method should be used to investigate all areas of reality, including the ‘human spirit’” (Stanford Plato)

Philosopher of physics Dr. Bruce Gordon (Houston Baptist University) talks about the tension between Quantum physics and physicalism:

Note: Gordon was one of the editors of The Nature of Nature

See also: Consciousness as a state of matter

Hat tip: Philip Cunningham

Comments
Doesn't all of science have a problem with physicalism? If everything is physical, then so are the mathematical models discovered by science. Somewhere, there is the f=ma piece of matter, and if I smash it, it is no longer the case that f=ma. This is obviously false, so is physicalism.EricMH
September 18, 2017
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