> The neuroscientists, increasingly understanding how the brain works
How the brain works, yeah. But have you ever asked a practicng neuroscientist what we know about thought? They just roll their eyes in helpless and familiar embarassment. Modern neuroscience is based on giving up the very idea of thought. They don't even have a clear idea of sensation. They do have more and more exact maps of the brain doing something, and they are better at inhibited or stimulating that activity. But the advances of modern neuroscience have actually made the divide between experimental science and philosophy wider than it was 60 years ago, not closer together. Certainly wider than in the days of gestalt, when scientists and philosophers shared common concerns and vocabulary. So the idea that we can assume a convergence by mere extrapolation is nonsense. One might as well assume that the exactness of modern econometrics is about to solve the problem of value -- the reason it's exact is precisely because it skipped that problem.
Murray sounds a lot like Saint-Simon two centuries ago: physics is advancing so quickly -- soon there will be a science of social laws that is just as predictive! Yeah, it's just around the corner.
Michael
__________________________________________________________________________ Michael Pollak................New York City..............mpollak at panix.com