Sheldrake and the Habits of Nature
I found this interesting video surfing around on YouTube. It is Rupert Sheldrake debating his idea of laws of nature as habits of nature evolving through time (justified by his idea of morphic resonance) and defending it against the skepticism of Freeman Dyson, Daniel Dennett and Stephen Jay Gould (the other two, I believe, are Oliver Sacks and Stephen Toulmin). I have no idea where this comes from, must be sometime in the late 80s (on YouTube you can find another bit focused on Dennett and artificial intelligence/consciousness) but it looks quite good. The ‘academic boy’s Club’ vibe is a bit irritating, but it was a real all-star cast with academics that were at the peak of their discipline (were because Toulmin and Gould are dead). Much better than the usual one-man lecture or ’roundtables’ which are actually pre-written papers and pre-written responses.
Fabio Cunctator
Wow he actually uses the phrase ‘radical contingency.’ It is like listening to a proto-Meillassoux especially when he touches on habit and the Humean argument in the background.
What is this taken from? I’d love to see the whole thing.
It’s a shame the way in which Sheldrake is pounced on. Current physics indeed suggests that space-time is a product of some previous event, such that gravity is secondary to the three other forces.