Modern Science And Materialism Essays (1942 words) - Ontology

Modern Science And Materialism Modern Science and materialism What is real? This question has puzzled many what is really real or what is reality. Reality as I shall explain is one that is according to materialism and proven by science. Materialism is defined, as the metaphysical view holding that matter alone is real. This is what Hugh Elliot proves in his argument Modern Science and Materialism. By use of his argument I will answer the questions of what is real, what humans need to know, if it is possible to know what is real and how, how to distinguish real for non-real, where humans fit in, and how we can benefit from materialism. First, what is real? Reality is only one thing, and it is all principles of matter and energy. When you reach out and touch something it is matter, when you look to the skies all around you sense this reality of matter and energy from the light in the sky to the ground beneath us. Elliot says that the ?universe consists of matter and energy in a state of permanent change.?(Pg. 307 Modern Science and Materialism, Hugh Elliot) What Elliot is saying is matter is all objects being discerned, energy consisting of motion, heat, light, sound, electricity, and etc., and permanent change is real. This permanent change means that everything when you take a look around our universe it never stands still relative to the rest of the universe, and even science has proven this with the second law of thermodynamics it states that all systems will change spontaneously to less ordered. Now this is a scary thought that we wouldn't be able to grasp reality if it always changes on its own. This raises a serious question, how can we understand or live according to reality if it always is changing? Well, there is no need to worry about this fact of change, because we can understand how it works we our not helpless against nature. The universe will change according to Elliot and science, but the universe is not a chaotic place. It has procedures or fixed sequences that is follows it gives us humans' knowledge about events so certain that we can predict the future. Elliot also states this he says that the universe ?it follows certain fixed sequences-usually called laws-which are so definite that even in the present state of knowledge many future events can be prophesied with certainty.?(Pg. 308 Modern Science and Materialism, Hugh Elliot) Yes, now we have something to follow according to reality it is these, as Elliot states, laws. But unlike the laws of the government that are sometimes hard to follow these laws of the universe our ?fixed sequences? that can't be broken, and what a relief. I have already mentioned one of these laws, but there is still others that govern us for our good. One is the law of gravity that states that large masses will exert a pull on other masses, and this is a law for the good of mankind. For if large masses didn't attract we would lose our atmosphere to space and so too we would be blown out into space. Yet, we have these laws that govern reality, but is it possible for us to gain the knowledge of all reality? Well, for us as humans to have knowledge we must have the facts, the ultimate facts of reality. When a mind has a small amount of real facts the reality that he constructs is less real. The more facts that we can accumulate the closer we get to true reality or what is really real. Hugh Elliot knew this he states ?before we can discern the deeper relationships of existence and the universe, we must know about these ultimate facts.?(Pg. 308 Modern Science and Materialism, Hugh Elliot) This is how is we know reality we must construct it out of facts, and as Elliot stated we must know about these ultimate facts. This is what makes Elliots argument so easy to believe because he knew where to go to get these facts he gained knowledge before he gave his argument. To make this easy how many times have you thought that for sure you knew