Pneumatology of Matter

This is a major philosophical treatise elaborating a new metaphysic of subjective materialism that overcomes many of the issues raised by a mechanistic outlook. The word pneumatology is meant to suggest that active spiritual powers are inherent in matter rather than being a property of a transcendental or metaphysical dimension. The author points out that physics has long since discarded mechanism and treats matter in what he calls a more pneumatical way. In the meantime, biology remains solidly entrenched in mechanistic ways of thinking, having initially followed physics down that route. The author now hypothesises that biology will eventually follow physics in moving beyond mechanism. He shows how these issues were also a concern of the ancient Greeks and the role played by Descartes and Newton in reframing the relationship between matter and mind. This was further developed with field theory leading to a decline of mechanism in physics and elaborations in both relativity and quantum theory. Gunn treats in great detail the dynamics of fields, but strangely, systems thinking, self-organisation, autopoiesis and the work of Eddington, Jeans and Prigogine are absent from the index, even though this line of thinking could have reinforced his argument.

The upshot of the 20th century revolution in physics is that Nature can no longer be understood as a machine, but rather that everything is governed from within. This short circuits many philosophical issues arising from a mechanical relationship between mind and matter, where matter is regarded as entirely passive. This in turn opens up the need for a different principle to explain movement and the power to act. Nor, in the view of the author, is there any need to posit a supernatural designer in order to give purpose to Nature when understood as a machine. The final chapter addresses material nature and human nature, elaborating a physical theory of human nature, reason, free will and the soul, which is understood as an anthropic force. According to this view, the soul exists but is material and mortal. This is a very neat philosophical formulation, but it ignores all the evidence that there is a component of the human being that is nonphysical. However, the book usefully points the way towards biology transcending mechanistic thinking, and as such is an important contribution.