Reforming Science - Beyond Belief

The author, emeritus professor of physics at the University of Essex, has written an erudite and engaging book about the history of science and the human tendency to crystallise beliefs into dogmas, setting up authoritarian structures and denouncing heretics who do not share this belief system. I don't believe it is possible for anyone to move beyond belief in a pure sense, as the title implies, and indeed the author sets out his own beliefs at the beginning of the book. The important point is to be aware of these as lenses or presuppositions and not to confuse theories and facts. The reformed science which the author has in mind is encouraged to acknowledge its limitations, especially in the analysis of life in evolutionary genetics, and in relation to the neurophysiology of the brain. He notes the closed-mindedness among certain influential elements of the scientific establishment and regards heresies when rationally challenging received wisdom as a good thing. And while he does not subscribe to a naïve materialism, he nevertheless states that nothing exists in the universe that is not matter and force, and that mind and body are different aspects of matter and force. His predilection is to think of life as a creative force animating matter, and indeed quotes Bergson with some approval. This is a refreshing and vigorous book that engages with some central Issues in the history and philosophy of science.