I thought I had a fairly good understanding of homeopathy; well I seem to have been wrong. A German child/adolescent psychiatrist and homeopathic physician has recently published a paper which I find most impressive. Not that it conveys new data or facts, quite the opposite. I find it impressive, because I do not understand a word of it. Here is the summary and the conclusion; if you want to read the full article, this link will take you to it.
Efforts have been made to integrate homeopathy into the system of natural sciences. In this article an alternative approach is offered. The very base of physics and mathematics, on which natural sciences are grounded are time, space and number. Since Immanuel Kant they are believed to be a priori given. Alternatively they can be explained as a consequence of life, such that the outside world in the form, as we perceive it, should no longer be considered independent from us as living beings. Having understood the base of physics, homeopathy does not have to be integrated into an existing system of natural sciences, but can be allowed to be more closely connected to the proper origin of physics, which is life itself.
We come to the conclusion that mathematics and physics are a sequel of life. What we perceive in an outside world is a projection not only of our mind, but also of life itself. It is not an individual projection, but a projection that we share with other living beings. We share some of the aspects of reality with only a few other humans, like the understanding of art, with most humans and some species we share the ability to perceive music or colours. Still broader aspects of what we perceive as reality are common to us and other animal species: firmness, light and sound. With all species we share the aspects of time, space and separateness, oneness. Thus reality is a collective subjective autosuggestion across species. Its outside reality functions on mathematical rules, because mathematics and physics share the common ground, which is time, space and number as a continuation of oneness in time, all sequels of life.
Homeopathy however does not. It does not, because it has a direct connection to life without the detour across outside physics.
If there is someone out there who understands what all this is about, please do enlighten us.
28 Responses to Help, help, help! Can someone please explain?
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Simple clarification in two words: “Special Pleading”
It is based on the old philosophical notion that reality does not exist per se, reality is created subjectively by each observer. It modifies this obsolete nonsense for the New Age by claiming that reality is the sum of the subjective experiences of sentient life forms. In other words, there is no objective reality therefore most of science is wrong/useless.
We see similar arguments presented by those who do not begin to understand quantum mechanics yet they continually claim that the double-slit experiments[1] prove that reality manifests only in the observer, therefore, without any observers, reality does not exist.
1. Many papers on quantum mechanics use the term “observer” to mean something that observes the results, which could be either a human observer or non-sentient detection hardware. However, proponents of anti-science insist that the term “observer” means only a sentient life form, not a non-sentient detector.
I must admit that the results obtained from delayed choice quantum eraser experiments are very difficult to properly explain to a lay person; and totally impossible to explain to a proponent of wishful thinking or anti-science!
Indeed and there is a simple argument against it – my first thought was, I Refute it Thus
Amazing! It’s all clear to me know. Astrology, faith healing, clairvoyance, reiki, etc. They all make sense now. There are no rules. Fabulous.
I’ll reduce that to one word – “Magic”. Magic is an action brought on by something that is not bound by the laws of physics in space/time. A bit like the action of “Divine Intervention” which is the basis for faith healing. The argument is that since we cannot appreciate reality directly but only through our senses, all bovine scat is equally likely. They ignore the power of prediction which suggests that our take on external reality is consistent with the internal model our brains create. When you are not able to make predictions with your alternate view of reality, you are likely in the realm of Magic.
[laff] Fear no more, Dr. Charlene Werner to the rescue! She explains it all, with her deep understanding of physics, Einstein and Stephen Hawkings! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hoe3ZjRV7-I [/laff]
Michael Hartmann (author of the published paper under discussion) and “Dr” Charlene Werner have both exemplified:
“[W]hat you’ve just said… is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul…”
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Billy_Madison#Mr._Oblaski.2C_Principal
How is an optometrist a doctor?
She must have missed the physics, chemistry and biology lectures if she did complete the course.
The whole of science is a figment of human imagination, and homeopathy can not therefore be evaluated by it.
“Logic and reason need not apply”
I can explain it in two words: hallucinogenic drugs.
…. and Monty Python’s Word Association sketch https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WwdYCX60GRk
ROFL!
Alternatively, it’s a Sokal hoax. It’s difficult to tell…
My translation: blah, blah, blah and finally blah
… and more blah.
Not to worry. No one understands this, least of all the bloke who wrote it.
It all sounds quite clear to me. Mr. Hartmann is not just explaining homeopathy, he is revolutionizing it: If homeopathy doesn’t “function on mathematical rules”, if it doesn’t need the “detour across outside physics”, how could it possibly matter by which factor or how many times you dilute your mother tinture? Why should anyone care if or how strongly the bottle is shaken or banged on the table? So, I expect Mr. Hartmann to suggest ditching potentisation and succussion in his next paper….. 🙂
“Mendacity”, I think. That, or a desperate need for a chat with a psychiatrist.
Love. He is in love with homeopathy so for him it is beyond everything in the universe.
He should seriously get out more.
So, if homeopathy has a direct connection to life, can we finally wake the dead?
I know I am not the only one longing for a zombie apocalypse!!
It’s written by someone claiming to be a “child psychiatrist”. This might pertain to their understanding of psychiatry being that of a child, rather than the normal interpretation – which would explain quite a lot.
This is clearly a result of the recent debates about replication in science. Someone tried to replicate the Sokal experiment.
I asked my friend Captain Subtext to help me understand that word soup, and this is what he came up with:
“Wah, real actual scientists keep using science and logic to point out the inconsistencies in homeopathic theory and thus reveal it to be nothing more than flim-flam, wah.
Wah I can’t possibly admit to this though, or people might ask for their money back, so clearly the whole edifice if science and rational thought is what’s wrong, wah”
Just stop reading after “Immanuel Kant’.
Probability theory got on quite nicely without verbose philosophers
I know this may seem off topic, but people say that Karl Marx desired
to understand more maths at the end of his life.
Most of my own comments just paraphrase stuff i read long ago in Martin Gardner’s rather
short book ‘Fads an Fallacies in the name of Science’.
‘.
Yes. Always wise to stop when you see ‘Kant’.
If the two of you hadn’t stopped reading, you might have noticed that the guy explicitely argues against Kant.