From: William Grey <wgrey@COOMBS.ANU.EDU.AU>
Subject:      Philosophy and the Paranormal
Message-ID: <9308020451.AA28817@lll-winken.llnl.gov>
Date:         Mon, 2 Aug 1993 14:50:43 +1000

>What texts do
>you use?  I have had some success with WD Gray's _Thinking Critically About
>New Age Ideas_ and Randi's _Flim Flam_.  Have you tried either of these?

I have some reservations about Gray's book, detailed in my review which
appeared in the _Australasian Journal of Philosophy_ 71 (March 1993).  I
don't use a textbook. The course is based on notes and resource material.

The central theme of my course ('Science and the Paranormal') is that
paranormal belief is a pathological manifestation of our attempts to make
sense of the world.  It is (often) motivated  by a distaste for disorder;
an urge to find a hidden underlying pattern or connectedness linking
disparate events.  This heuristic pattern-making assumption is an essential
ingredient of the world-view which has enabled us to develop a subtle and
profound understanding of the nature of our world.  But it is also a
disposition which can (and does) lead us wildly astray.

Paranormal claims usually involve ingredients which there is good reason to
reject. In this respect they present us with the same problem which claims
about miracles presented for Hume in the eighteenth century.  So a central
text of my course is David Hume, 1748, 'Of Miracles'. (In Enquiries
Concerning Human Understanding, S10, (ed) L.A. Selby-Bigge, Oxford:
Clarendon Press, 2nd ed, 1902, pp. 108-131.)  In addition to this I
currently use:

Susan Blackmore, 1985. 'The Adventures of a Psi-Inhibitory Experimenter'.
In A Skeptic's Handbook of Parapsychology,  (ed) Paul Kurtz, Buffalo:
Prometheus Books, pp. 425-448.

J.L. Mackie, 1982. 'Miracles and Testimony'.  In The Miracle of Theism.
Oxford: Clarendon Press, pp, 13-29.

Roy Holland, 1980.  'The Miraculous'.  In Against Empiricism.   Oxford:
Blackwell, Ch. 12.

Blackmore is very useful, as her careful and scrupulous investigation is
devoid of the impatience and disparaging tone which sometimes blemishes
critiques of the paranormal.  The most difficult part of the presentation
is to make sure that the students see that issues are being treated
honestly and seriously; in this respect Blackmore is beyond reproach.

>Last year I was one of three people who taught a course here called "Great
>Ideas in Science".  When my students -- all science majors in their senior
>year -- wrote their essays on Darwin, almost to a person there were
>religious disclaimers (e.g., "I am writing this essay under duress", "It
>is a violation of my religious freedom...",  "While this is an account of what
>Darwin said, I do not believe any of it...").  When I complained to the
>committee overseeing this new new course that we needed to do more in the
>teaching of theoretical biology to overcome superstition, I became a sort
>of stalinist non-person.  When the new courses were described in a newspaper
>interview (campus newspaper), I discovered that not only had my report been
>ignored, but that I was not even mentioned as a participant in the new
>programs (unlike my two colleagues, who remained silent).

I find this exceedingly depressing, and congratulate you for continuing
against these pressures.  Fortunately the pursuit of philosophical inquiry
in Australia (in my institution at least, and I suspect generally) does
not, thankfully, require such moral courage!

I hope that the above is helpful.  Best wishes.
_______________________________________
William Grey                              +61 6 249 3313 w
Philosophy Program, RSSS (Jul-Dec 1993)   +61 6 249 2341 messages
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