VDM Heineman-Pieper, J: Reclaiming Responsibility

Our human capacity for responsible agency infuses our lived experience yet seems impossible to situate fully within a materialistic scientific worldview. This book indicates how we can reconcile scientific and personal perspectives without eroding the integrity of either. The structural solution both amends foundational assumptions for understanding scientific activity, meaning and reality, and also recognizes our own participation in constituting each of these domains. The book reanalyzes the requirements for scientific objectivity, and then reconstructs and aligns both an external/causal and an internal/subjective account of our potential for genuine mental causation and responsibility. An Appendix presents original experimental data from the author's journey. This book is intended for anyone who has struggled with the tensions between scientific and humanistic conceptions of ourselves; for anyone interested in a conceptually unified solution to diverse problems in philosophy of science, mind and meaning; and for scientists wanting to take authentic responsibility for their science.