watch and listen to a lecture by Alan Wallace (in its entirety), and answer five of the following questions, each of the responses should be about ¾ – 1 page. Below are the questions to choose from, and also a list of the slides that Wallace displays and the times when he begins to discuss each. The questions are basically paired with these sections of the talk.

ALAN WALLACE – MINDFULNESS IN SCIENCE –
posted by “PoetDox”

1. Stalled Evolution Of Science 00:00
2. Epistemological Hierarchy Of Naturalism 10:30
3. A Blind Spot In The Naturalist Vision Of Reality 13:45
4. An Illusion Of Knowledge 18:22
5. Expanding The Scope Of Naturalism 22:58

1. Wallace mentions two “revolutions” from the history of science and one revolution in science that began in the early 20th century and is still working itself out. A forth revolution in science was also initiated by psychologist William James but this revolution has “stalled.” What are these revolutions?

2. In describing the “epistemological hierarchy of naturalism,” Wallace is claiming to observe something problematic about the way that naturalism is often advanced as a theory. Briefly describe this epistemological hierarchy and what is problematic about it.

3. A blind spot is a small area in one’s visual field where no visual appearance arises. Notably, such a blind spot does not appear as a blank dot but simply does not appear at all. Therefore, we generally do not recognize this blind spot at all. By analogy, Wallace claims that naturalism suffers from a similar “blind spot” in its vision of reality. What is it that fails to show up in the naturalist vision of reality? Discuss.

4. What is an illusion of knowledge? And what illusion of knowledge is relevant to Wallace’s discussion of naturalism? He even uses the term “pseudo-science” in referring to the propagation of this illusion of knowledge.

5. Describe the principle of Occam’s Razor and its relevance to naturalism.