I’ve sought to summarise the ideas and arguments of this provocative and stimulating book in 4 sections. The first, ‘positioning Sheldrake’, is concerned to locate where he’s coming from, and presents him as a composite of 3 kinds of scientist; open minded, critical and heretical. The second, ‘sociological critique’ collects under the banner of sociology, a series of historical, psychological, philosophical and sociological critiques, directed less at the content of science and more towards its human practice. The third ‘Scientific critique’ extends the argument and narrows its focus to critically examine contemporary science by its own values and standards. Together, these sociological and scientific critiques form the basis of his 10 dogmas of science, around which his arguments are built. The final section; Sheldrakes alternatives’, presents his theoretical work on Morphic Resonance and Morphic Fields, his practical suggestions for the reform of scientific practice and the new areas of free minded scientific inquiry, he believes would be made possible by moving beyond scientific materialism.
