The Present Phase of Stagnation in the Foundations of Physics Is Not Normal

I think most work-a-day scientists are focused on useful repeatable results, and aren’t too bogged down in the metaphysical underpinnings. They may reflect on these things privately I guess, as we do here. In my experience, if they equate ‘naturalism’ with ‘materialism’ they’ll consider ‘the material’ in broader terms than normally presented here.

That has been my experience as well. Most of the scientists I know are dismissive of metaphysics. The most they might agree to is that the methods which produce useful results falls under “methodological naturalism”. Since paranormalists also use this method when making claims, it becomes silly for anyone to claim that science assumes a materialist or naturalist metaphysic. It doesn’t, regardless of whether or not individual practioners also adopt those metaphysics.

However, this strawman is too entrenched to be given up.

Imagine a group of scientists completely obsessed with the metaphysical underpinnings of their experiments, proudly designing experiments around their conclusions. This sort of bias wouldn’t be best practice, and may lead to results that are only marginally statistically significant and tricky to replicate.

Cute.

Linda