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Tim Gyles's avatar

I think the problem you are facing here, Nate, stems from when ‘modern science’ stopped being natural philosophy and decided to dissociate itself from the rest of philosophy in the misguided belief that metaphysical questions posed by philosophy have nothing to do with ‘real’ physics (where you can measure physical things). As Jessica intimated, we (and, indeed, our living planet and the whole universe) are organizations, so this dissociation has universal implications. In order to understand the universe and its purpose we need to ask the most fundamental of ‘metaphysical’ questions, but we have to use simple ‘physics’ to answer it. Therefore, the rift between ‘modern science’ and ‘modern philosophy’ has left us with a seemingly impossible paradox, where modern science has the means to answer the question, but can’t ask it, and modern philosophy can ask the question, but hasn’t the means to answer it. I’d love to explain all this properly, Nate, but I’d soon run out of space.

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