Antecedents to Chiropractic Philosophy

1. Antecedents to Chiropractic Philosophy Metaphysical Constructs

2. Pythagoras: • Philosophy was the “love of wisdom” (or the love of “discourse”)

3. Philosophy is like working at a massive jigsaw puzzle: our inability to put the puzzle together does not lie in the fact that certain pieces are missing, but rather that we do not know how they fit together- what the finished picture should look like.

4. Philosophy provides a template, or a paradigm to use in understanding how facts relate; this gives meaning to reality

5. Philosophy is not “knowledge of new fact” but is “new knowledge of fact”; a deeper, more profound knowledge of the facts we already have, and a way to integrate new facts that are discovered with what we already know

6. Philosophy’s Main Areas: • Metaphysics • Ethics • Epistemology • Logic • Aesthetics

7. Metaphysics: • Ontology- nature of being or reality • Cosmology- origin and structure of the universe • Teleology- study of first causes

8. Metaphysical Doctrines: • Materialism • Idealism • Dualism

9. Materialism: (aka “physicalism”) • all about matter • mind/spirit/soul is an aspect of or function of the brain/body • can become dogma- scientific “exclusionism”

10. Idealism: • Mind/spirit is reality, but immaterial in nature • Objects of perception (matter) are only ideas of the perceiving mind • Matter is a creation of mind

11. Mind/spirit= immaterial • Not a physical phenomenon • No location, no physical properties • Not limited by time/space

12. Mind/spirit= essence (not physical) • Eternal, unchanging, transcendent • Concept more basic than phenomenon

13. Examples: 7, seven, VII, seiben acorn, sapling, tree, stump embryo, fetus, child, adult, corpse The concept, not the symbols, is the essence, or reality

14. Dualism: • Attributed to Descartes • Reality has two elements (mind and matter) and functions on two levels (mental and physical)

15. Two “types” of Dualism: • “property” dualism • “substance” dualism

16. Materialistic or physicalistic metaphysics tended to lead to “property” dualism: • Mind is a “property” of the body; it is epiphenomenal; mind does not cause bodily activities; it is an effect of them

17. “property” dualism: • Body gives rise to the mind • So, when the body dies, the mind ceases to exist • The mind is to the body as smoke is to fire

18. Idealistic metaphysics tended to lead to “substance” dualism: • Mind, distinct from the body, is a real substance which can cause things to happen by acting

19. “substance” dualism: • The mind can exist independent of the body (i.e., after death) • Tends to support a theistic view; mind becomes equated with the soul or spirit

20. The dilemma: what is the relationship between body and mind? • How can matter (body) affect the immaterial (mind)? • How can the immaterial (mind) affect matter (body)?

21. Descartes had no ultimate answer to the body/mind problem • BJ Palmer labeled this the “Great Divide” and attempted to resolve this with the Triune of Life

22. Intelligence (mind) gives the form • Matter/energy (body) expresses form • Force (interaction) links intelligence with matter BJ: this is “Bridging the Great Divide”

23. This could be termed dualistic interactionism: • The body and the mind are mutually interactive and interdependent; one can’t exist without the other

24. Metaphysical statements: • “only matter, never mind” (materialism/physicalism) • “only mind, never matter” (idealism)

25. Metaphysical statements: • “mind from matter” (property dualism) • “mind in matter” (substance dualism) • “mind and matter” (mind/body) (dualistic interactionism)

26. Meaningful quotes on this topic:

27. “our ideas about the objective character of the physical world, and hence of the nature of truth, have been revised. In other words, mind looks less psychic and matter looks less materialistic…” Max Delbruck, Nobel Prize-winning scientist

28. “Physics was given the task of examining the physical world. And its job is complete. It’s examined the physical world and found that there’s nothing there.” David Finkelstein, Astrophysicist

29. “There is nothing; and even if there were, we couldn’t know it; and if we knew it, we couldn’t communicate it.” Gorgias, 4th Century B.C. Greek philosopher

30. “The world itself, it is said by some, is … an inkblot in which different people see different forms, symptomatic of the psychology of their own fantasizing minds.” Dr. Joseph Campbell

31. “Today there is a wide measure of agreement, which on the physical side approaches unanimity, that the stream of knowledge is heading toward a non-mechanical reality; The universe begins to look more like a great thought than a great machine.” Sir James Jeans (1937)

32. Einstein on the most important question facing the human race: “Is the universe friendly?”

33. “I want to know how God created the world. I am not interested in this or that phenomenon, in the spectrum of this or that element; I want to know his thoughts. The rest are details.” Einstein

34. “God does not play dice with the universe.” Albert Einstein

35. “We only have to know that the process means us no harm.” Irving Oyle

36. The point is: The current metaphysical view of reality from the perspective of physics and chemistry is more energy-based (less materialistic, hence more idealistic); while from the perspective of biologists, it is still more materialistic or physical, often to the point of dogma.

37. Chiropractic Philosophy Applications: • BJ Palmer termed the mind/body dilemma the “great divide” • BJ felt that the Chiropractic Triune of Life “bridged the great divide”: 1. Intelligence provides the form 2. Matter/energy (material) expresses the form 3. Force links intelligence with matter (this is essentially dualistic interactionism)