Overview

of

Science and Moral Choice: An Examination of the Foundations of Moral Philosophy

By Ronald D. Icenogle, Ph.D.

This book is available from Scrib.com at: http://www.scribd.com/doc/140279536/Science-and-Moral-Choice

Copyright 2013 by Ronald D. Icenogle. All rights reserved.

Description of Science and Moral Choice

Science and Moral Choice discusses the principles underlying our understanding of the relationship of scientific thought to moral thought. Our understanding of this relationship has defined modern thought. One of the two dominant schools of thought in modern philosophy, analytic philosophy, has placed science on a pedestal, declaring it to be the source of all truth and moral thought to be meaningless. The other school, continental philosophy, has reduced science to mere subjectivity, declaring the broad consensus of opinion within the sciences to be no nearer the truth than any individual persons own striving to make meaning of the world. Both approaches lead to the moral relativity that permeates modern thought. The author of Science and Moral Choice takes the position that scientific thought and moral thought are not fundamentally different in character. Both base their conclusions on empirical evidence as well as purposeful choicethe differences are the sources of evidence each uses and the degree of consensus that has currently been achieved within each field. The author discusses a broad range of ideas and principles that show how an integrated understanding of scientific thought and moral thought can be achieved. The book can also be considered a defense of the use of science to explain human nature in discussing ethical and political problems. According to the author, it seems that all philosophies today effectively limit or deny the use of science in understanding human nature when discussing issues of moral philosophy. They do this by denying that values can have any basis in scientific fact, by denying that human nature even exists, or by seeing human nature as separate from the rest of the physical world and subject to its own laws. This leads to a separation of science from values, of the scientific from the humanistic, and of the scientist from the humanist. It is this split between science and values that the book examines and corrects. In Science and Moral Choice the importance of each of these issues is discussed, the books unique viewpoint is developed and defended, and the ideas that are developed are applied to real-life issues to illustrate their practical utility. Amongst these real-life issues confronting moral philosophy is the issue of how society should order the social roles of men and women, and an insightful analysis of this issue is made. Although an acquaintance with science and the other background topics of the book makes it easier to appreciate the force of the argument, the ideas are written for the general reader, with a minimum of jargon, and with clear and thorough explanations.

Chapter Summaries for Science and Moral Choice

I. The Philosophical Enterprise Introduces the concept of what philosophy should be and how we should do it., relying heavily on the ideas of the American philosopher Mortimer J. Adler.

II. Basic Principles of Moral Philosophy Introduces basic commonsense ideas underlying moral philosophy, including thinking about ends and means and how we establish goals in our lives, and how growth is the concept of obtaining ends of increasing importance. III. The Split in Western Intellectual Thought Introduces the work of the humanistic psychologists and also the work of writers on the social roles of men and women and shows how it is difficult to reconcile differences in viewpoints because of the split in our thinking between the finding of meaning and purpose in life and the understanding of causes. IV. Commonsense Thought, Scientific Thought, and the Objects of Our Thought Compares the commonsense thinking of ordinary people with the thinking of scientists, illustrating that thinking in terms of purpose and thinking in terms of cause both occur together, and that a separation of the two modes of thinking has its roots in an error in modern thought about the objects of our thought. V. Logic, Mathematics, and Scientific Truth Discusses how results in logic show that establishing truth involves choices that go beyond that which can be explained by logic alone, and that this along with advances in our understanding of scientific progress shows that purposeful choice is as important to scientific understanding as is reduction of events to causal interactions. VI. Materialism, Sociobiology, and Modes of Reality Discusses the metaphysical position of materialism that denies the existence of immaterial entities such as intellect and will, and explains that this is inconsistent with our understanding of the nature of scientific truth. However, advances in science such as the new science of sociobiology still produce a valid understanding of human nature as long as we understand that we must give greater reality to the entities we understand from the macroscopic world we live in rather than to theoretical constructs such as atoms and molecules at the microscopic level.

 VII. The Equivalence of Causal and Purposeful Thought Discusses in greater detail how the understanding of reality in terms of cause and the understanding of reality in terms of purpose are simply two equally valid ways of viewing the same reality, and that we exercise free will in our choices of what to believe and what we choose to do. VIII. Man's Place in the Biosphere Discusses some basic concepts in the study of biology by introducing the work of Jacques Monod and investigates further the work of Mortimer J. Adler in his assertion that there must be a radical difference in kind between humans and other living things, arguing that science has shown that such a radical difference in kind does not exist. XI. Man's Place in the Universe Discusses that materialism is not implied by the assumption that there is not a radical difference in kind between humans and other living things. Adler thinks that such a radical difference exists because he makes an error in believing that conceptual thought does not depend on the size and complexity of the brainconceptual thought does depend on the size and complexity of the brain, as is ultimately shown by a theorem of physics that arises in solving the problem of Maxwells Demon, a problem that arises in the study of the Second Law of Thermodynamics, which in turn underlies much of the thinking in the physical and biological sciences. X. Time, Chance, and the Nature of Scientific Laws Discusses the notion of time in scientific theories, how all scientific laws involve the concept of correlating the change of states with time, and how the notion of time and the notion of chance are inherent in all scientific laws. XI. The Basic Characteristic of Life Discusses the essential differences between living and nonliving things and how we understand the relationship of these differences, connecting this to our understanding of the nature of scientific laws and causal and purposeful thought developed earlier in the book. XII. Evolution and Sociobiology Discusses fundamental ideas in evolution and how these relate to the science of sociobiology, which includes a scientific understanding of human nature. Discusses the debate of nature versus nurture. XIII. Sociobiology and Common Sense Discusses what sociobiology tells us of the nature of human behavior and compares these results with our commonsense understanding of human nature. Discusses the differences in behavior of men versus women and how

our understanding of these differences can be rooted in the science of sociobiology. XIV. The Structure of Society Supplements the earlier discussion of what sociobiology tells us of the organization of society around the social roles of men and women with the insights provided by the work of the anthropologist Margaret Mead and the writer George Gilder, which help us understand what of these differences in roles is rooted in human nature and what is the result of culture. XV. The Social Roles of Men and Women Discusses how the culture establishes ideals for the behavior of men and women, and how the feminist movement has striven to change these ideals, and examines some of their arguments for this change. XVI. The Consequences of Desegregating the Sexes Discusses how the differences in social roles between men and women facilitate successful relationships between men and woman and that breaking down these differences lead to problems for both men and women in achieving successful relationships. XVII. The Forces Leading to Desegregation of the Sexes Discusses the forces in modern society that lead to a lessening of the differences in social roles between men and women, from the decline in death rates in modern society leading to longer life expectancies and the resulting change in how lives progress, to the decline in the ratio of men to women resulting in a shortage of men in the society. XVIII. The Ultimate Goal of Life Discusses how we think about the ultimate ends of our lives, including a discussion of the Aristotelian concept of happiness as being the ultimate goal of life, with happiness defined as the quality of a morally good life. XIX. The Concept of Growth Further analyzes the concept that we need to grow in our lives, that we need to make choices in our lives, and that at all stages in our lives we are faced with challenges as to what we need to do to find meaning and purpose in our lives. XX. The Characteristics of a Good Society Discusses some basic issues in politics about how to order society for the good of its members, recognizing first that government is only one of many important organizations in modern society, and that we need to understand how to successfully manage organizations for the benefit of its members and for the benefit of society.

About the Author of Science and Moral Choice

In junior high school, Ronald D. Icenogle was especially interested in chemistry, and chose to synthesize and analyze a plastic and a rubber for a science project. In high school, though, his interests turned to the humanities, particularly philosophy and psychology, and he read the works of Bertrand Russell and Sigmund Freud. During his first two years of university study, he majored in philosophy and psychology, but starting with his third year he switched to chemistry. He obtained a bachelors degree in Biochemistry from Michigan State University, and then received a doctorate in Physical Chemistry from Cornell University, where he studied the binding of small molecules to deoxyribonucleic acid. He spent much of the next decade in industrial research and development in plastic and rubber technology, a choice of fields perhaps presaged by his science project in junior high school. Despite the opportunities in industry, Icenogle's early enthusiasm for philosophy and the social sciences resurfaced, and he left industrial research to pursue the work that led to Science and Moral Choice. He now lives with his wife and son in Olympia, Washington, where he works as a computer programmer for the State of Washington. Icenogle has published his scientific research in a number of leading journals, including, for his academic research, Biopolymers, and, for his industrial research, Journal of Polymer Science: Polymer Physics Edition, Journal of Applied Polymer Science, and Macromolecules. He has received domestic and foreign patents for his industrial development work. He is a member of Phi Beta Kappa, Phi Kappa Phi, the American Chemical Society, the New York Academy of Sciences, the Authors Guild, and P.E.N. He has been profiled in Marquis Whos Who in America. It is interesting to note that almost all natural scientists first develop their interest in science around junior high school and maintain this interest unabated through high school and on through their university studies to their professional work. Only two percent of those receiving degrees in the natural sciences first start their university studies in the humanities and change later to the natural sciences, and those who do invariably pursue their careers in a manner that is atypical compared to that of most natural scientists. In the case of Dr. Icenogle, his professional experiences prior to writing this bookacademic study in philosophy and psychology, academic study in the natural sciences, and practical experience in industryserve as an ideal background for integrating ideas in the humanities with those in the sciences to achieve a practical, commonsense philosophy that avoids the pitfalls to which the marked specialization inherent in academic work can often lead.