If Science and Philosophy are going to get together, we must resolve a serious problem in the field of scientific study. The problem is that many in the scientific community believe that everything can be explained scientifically. This approach (which is really a philosophy itself) is dangerous to legitimate scientific investigation and fatal to an understanding of chiropractic. It would not be so bad except for the fact that modern science has excluded the supernatural or metaphysical from scientific study and concluded that nothing but science is legitimate study.
This is really a rather modern phenomena. From the ancient magi to Kepler, Copernicus, Boyle and Newton, men of science saw religion and philosophy as totally compatible with science. In fact, for many it was their strong faith that prompted them toward scientific study. Modern scientists have an altogether different perspective. One only has to read Sagan, Dennett, Dawkins, Weinberg and/or Crick to see their prejudice. The latter two have actually written that their desire to refute the metaphysical has driven them to scientific study. Of course, there are exceptions like biologist, Francis Collins; astronomer, Owen Gingerich; and many of the men and women who attend Sherman’s IRAPS conventions (see last issue).
It seems we have two areas of thinking: procedural mechanism and philosophical mechanism. Procedural mechanism is the study of natural, material phenomena to give us the reality of what we can see. It is the research scientist’s area of study because his procedures must of necessity function in the natural realm. It is entirely legitimate as long as we do not conclude that it is the only reality. That is the problem with the modern scientist and many chiropractors. They adhere to a philosophical mechanism. They believe that the material is the only reality that exists. That is not a scientific observation. It is an a priori assumption. They begin with that conclusion and then merely look around for phenomena that support that conclusion, rather than look for ways to refute it (which is true science). What is more, they ignore anything that tends to contradict their prior assumptions. Yet any true scientist would admit that there are many phenomena that cannot be explained by physics and chemistry.
The true scientist does not work with blinders on. He or she sees the whole field. They may focus on one area of study, but they do not discount other areas. The chiropractor functions in a unique arena. We acknowledge that the human body has an immaterial component to it and to ignore that component or the impact that it has on the human organism is a mistake. We understand that we are addressing physical, flesh and blood phenomena, however, man is more than that and if we ignore the “more than that” we can never fully serve mankind. We already have a profession called medicine that ignores the metaphysical. We somehow forget our historical roots. It was the very fact that materialistic (only focusing on the material) medicine failed in significantly improving the health and well-being of mankind that prompted the need for a new profession that would see the interrelationship between the physical and the immaterial. That was our reason for existence and our early success. We should not abandon that reason now. V23n3