The Answers Lie Within Us: Towards a Science of the Human Spirit

by Alistair Sinclair

Overview

This book suggests that religion, in its usual sense, can be replaced by something better, that the human spirit or subjectivity can be the subject of scientific study and that lack of purpose or design in the universe is not a handicap but a positive opportunity for intelligent beings to make of the universe and its contents what they reasonably can. The book breaks new ground in suggesting a radical alternative to religion. It offers a scientific and humanist alternative to religion which appeals to people’s critical faculties rather than emotions or intuitions. It also challenges current views of causation and the principle of sufficient reason by stressing the subjectivity of our reasoning powers and clarifying these in relation to an independent external reality. It develops and elaborates a notion of the ’noosphere’ within a theoretical system, this enables the notion to assume a scientific importance which it currently lacks because it is treated as an isolated, eccentric and rather mystical idea.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781351894883
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	07/05/2017
Series:	Avebury Series in Philosophy
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	154
File size:	397 KB

About the Author

Alistair Sinclair

Table of Contents

Contents: What This Book Is About: Introduction: Finding The Answers For Ourselves; The need for spirituality in our lives; Finding out for ourselves why we are here; The need for a science of the human spirit ; Some further implications of Noology. Rethinking Religion And Morality: The irrelevance of religion today ; Why believe in God at all?; The harmful nature of the notion of God; The notion of God as a precursor to Noology. An Outline Of This Proposed Science: The Nature of Subjective Thought: The science of the human spirit as a study of subjectivity; Subjectivity and objectivity; The activity of the human spirit; Self-reference and subjectivity; Subjectivity and the principle of sufficient reason; Subjectivity and causation. Purpose, Value And Meaning: The holistic nature of goal-seeking; Reconciling holism and reductionism; Value and meaning; Using universal notions to achieve our ends. The Evaluation Of Life And Living: The common sense limitations to universal notions; The teleological deployment of universal notions; The mystical aspects of our universal notions. The Use And Value Of The Noosphere: The Noosphere as an object of study and contemplation; The origin and use of the Noosphere; The Noosphere and its past and present equivalents; The Noosphere and the good of posterity. The Presence Of Posterity:The presence of posterity now; Our prospects for the future; Noology as a pointer towards posterity; Bibliography; Name Index; Subject Index.

Editorial Reviews

Reasserts the common spiritual inheritance of humankind and gives religious thought and moral sentiments a better basis on which to safeguard posterity. Although most humanists will resonate with the aims and methods of this argument, it is not simply a restatement of humanism. Rather, it is a restatement, in clearer and modern terms, of the vision of Teilhard de Chardin, giving his noosphere and our yearning to be at one with the world a better basis of belief. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

Booknews

’Whereas organic matter...constitutes the biosphere, the noosphere...is the global realm of thought. Sinclair develops this notion in his intriguing sketch of a philosophy that might unite scientific investigation with a spiritual fulfilment that is not in thrall to the evils of organised religion.’ The Guardian

From the Publisher