08-28-2020, 10:03 AM
There is science and there is philosophy. Philosophy is filled with position-taking and argumentation about things without evidence. Philosophy tends to fill the areas which science doesn't currently deal with, a little like religion often does. For example, there's been a fierce battle between materialism and monotheism, but it was only in part a battle between science and religion. The bigger part was a battle between philosophy opposing religion and religion.
Each age has its philosophical dogmas, and the materialism of mainstream science is an example. Though, if you look at mathematics, a significant portion of mathematicians are quietly Platonist, persuaded intuitively that what they explore exists independently of them and humanity, in and of itself, and independently of matter as well. (In the Soviet Union, by contrast, such positions were politically incorrect, and mathematics textbooks sometimes included statements affirming the official state materialist philosophy, by asserting the material nature of mathematical reality.)
More generally, Plato's influence lives on in philosophies which hold that there's a greater, abstract reality which transcends time and space, and is more real and significant than the transient stuff of the material world. Agnostic people say they simply don't know anything about that, just like they don't know whether God exists or not. As for religions, their philosophies may or may not collide with that of Platonists.
The materialism of today reaches back to Aristotle, but has developed in many stages. It's an example of Aristotle being among the most influential handful of persons in the history of Western civilization. On account of other things objected to, Bertrand Russell claimed that "almost every serious intellectual advance has had to begin with an attack on some Aristotelian doctrine".
Each age has its philosophical dogmas, and the materialism of mainstream science is an example. Though, if you look at mathematics, a significant portion of mathematicians are quietly Platonist, persuaded intuitively that what they explore exists independently of them and humanity, in and of itself, and independently of matter as well. (In the Soviet Union, by contrast, such positions were politically incorrect, and mathematics textbooks sometimes included statements affirming the official state materialist philosophy, by asserting the material nature of mathematical reality.)
More generally, Plato's influence lives on in philosophies which hold that there's a greater, abstract reality which transcends time and space, and is more real and significant than the transient stuff of the material world. Agnostic people say they simply don't know anything about that, just like they don't know whether God exists or not. As for religions, their philosophies may or may not collide with that of Platonists.
The materialism of today reaches back to Aristotle, but has developed in many stages. It's an example of Aristotle being among the most influential handful of persons in the history of Western civilization. On account of other things objected to, Bertrand Russell claimed that "almost every serious intellectual advance has had to begin with an attack on some Aristotelian doctrine".