The Reenchantment of Science: Postmodern Proposals

By David Ray Griffin

Book Overview

Describes the move from modern, mechanistic science to a post-modern, organismic science.

This book describes the move from modern, mechanistic science to a post-modern, organismic science. David Ray Griffin gives voice to a revisionary postmodernism, based on the work of Whitehead and Hartshorne that contrasts with the relativistic, nihilistic postmodernism of Heidegger, Derrida, and Wittgenstein. The book brings together some of today's most creative thinking about science.

Griffin's introductory essay summarizes the way in which the mechanistic view led to the disenchantment of science and the various reasons for the reversal of this process in our time. The essays on physics, cosmology, biology, ecology, psychosomatic medicine and parapsychology bring out the various dimensions of the reenchantment of science: the replacement of modern dualism and reductionism with an ecological, organismic paradigm; the priority of internal relations to external; the casal power of experience; the presence of experience, purpose, and intrinsic value throughout nature; influence at a distance; the laws of nature as habits; the presence of a divine whole in all the parts; and the history of the universe as a self-creative, meaningful story. This book gives a powerful voice to this emerging movement's proposals for a postmodern science, spirituality, and world order.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0887067859
• ISBN13: 9780887067853
• Release Date: May 1988
• Publisher: State University of New York Press
• Length: 190 Pages
• Weight: 0.62 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Postmodern Science and Process Theology

If you find the concepts of materialism, empiricism, reductionism, determinism and rationalism result in a world view which basically lacks value, spirit, purpose and meaning then This is a good read in an effort to move beyond the modern worldview and back to a more expansive world view in which the universe is seen as a holistic, enchanted and spirit filled reality without engaging in pure mysticism.

Postmodern Prospects Help Ease Readers into a New World

Beginning with the series introduction, the book's individual chapters give a cautious postmodern "preview." Combining hard scientific fact with visionary insights, an intellectual tapestry emerges that displays hopeful future prospects, even while examining challenges to human survival. The book shows numerous ways in which our fundamental assumptions about the true nature and meaning of "reality" are clearly under assault in biology, earth science, religious world modeling, ecology, brain science, and medicine. Like a multi-faceted gem, each chapter contributes its own sparkle of compelling evidence, providing yet another angle on the nature of the current world-wide paradigm shift. These essays give readers a chance to distance themselves from our conventinal cultural mind-set by providing a transitional context between "the way we were" and "the hope of things to come." This seminal source provides an informed basis for personal reflection and speculation, and it offers both hope and caution regarding the new world already entering our front door. While chapters may easily be read out of sequence, together they should help most educated readers better recognize the shifting of subtle social and cultural patterns that almost imperceptively announce, "The Modern World is dead! Long live the Postmodern World!"