Course Topics:

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Course Topics

• Antecedents to Chiropractic Practice
• Chiropractic History and Development
• Antecedents to Chiropractic Philosophy
• Metaphysical Constructs
• Biological Constructs

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Antecedents to Chiropractic Philosophy

• Metaphysical Constructs

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Pythagoras

• Philosophy - the
• love of wisdom
• (or the love of discourse)

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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.
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There are 15 dots. Where does a 16th dot fit?
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Where does a 16th dot fit?
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What is the missing letter?
ciltee_nieln
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What is the missing letter?
intelli_ence
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What is the missing letter?
intelligence
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• Philosophy provides a template, or a paradigm to
  use in understanding how facts relate this gives
  meaning to reality

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• 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

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Philosophy

• An attempt, using reason alone, to gain an
  understanding of ourselves and of the world we
  live in. It is a search for what is the best kind
  of life to lead and what ideals are best worth
  pursuing.
• S. M. Engel, The Study of Philosophy

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• The purpose of philosophy To enhance our
  understanding of life, to ennoble our minds, and
  to make our hearts better.
• Richard Taylor, American scholar and philosopher

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Philosophys Main Areas

• Metaphysics
• Ethics
• Epistemology
• Logic
• Aesthetics

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Philosophys Main Areas

• Metaphysics
• Ethics
• Epistemology
• Logic
• Aesthetics

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Metaphysics

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

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Karl Sabbagh (Author of The Riemann Hypothesis)

• The human brain and its products are incapable
  of understanding the truths about the universe
• Our brains may never be well-enough equipped to
  understand the universe and we are fooling
  ourselves if we think they will.

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Metaphysical Doctrines(Ontology)

• Materialism
• Idealism
• Dualism

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Materialism (aka physicalism)

• all about matter
• mind/spirit/soul is an aspect of or function of
  the brain/body
• can become dogma- scientific exclusionism

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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

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Mind/spirit immaterial

• Not a physical phenomenon
• No location, no physical properties
• Not limited by time/space

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Mind/spirit essence (not physical)

• Eternal, unchanging, transcendent
• Concept more basic than phenomenon

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

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Dualism

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

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Two types of Dualism

• property dualism
• substance dualism

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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

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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

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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

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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

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• The brain is not the mind-it is that which is
  used by the mind.
• Edgar Cayce

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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)?

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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

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

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This could be termed dualistic interactionism

• The body and the mind are mutually interactive
  and interdependent one cant exist without the
  other

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Metaphysical statements

• only matter, never mind (materialism/physicalism
  )
• only mind, never matter
• (idealism)

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Metaphysical statements

• mind from matter (property dualism)
• mind in matter
• (substance dualism)
• mind and matter (mind/body)
• (dualistic interactionism)

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Words of wisdom on this topic
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• 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

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• Physics was given the task of examining the
  physical world. And its job is complete. Its
  examined the physical world and found that
  theres nothing there.
• David Finkelstein, Astrophysicist

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• There is nothing and even if there were, we
  couldnt know it and if we knew it, we couldnt
  communicate it.
• Gorgias, 4th Century B.C. Greek philosopher

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• 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

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• 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)

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• there are plenty of pieces to play with,
  (but ultimately) we know now for sure that we do
  not know at all what matter is. It is not even
  clear where we should draw the line around a set
  of phenomena and say these are to do with
  material things.
• Graham Cairns-Smith

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• If the universe is a universe of thought, its
  creation must have been the action of thought.
• BJ Palmer

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• Einstein on the most important question facing
  the human race
• Is the universe friendly?

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• 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

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• God does not play dice with the universe.
• Albert Einstein

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• We only have to know that the process means us
  no harm.
• Irving Oyle

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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.

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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)

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