Abstract

This dissertation invites all of us to begin a dialogue, free of judgement, regarding Euro-American modern Western science's current metaphysical presuppositions. Upon reading this sentence, many scientists will have already created a polemical barrier to further dialogue, pointing out that science is not about metaphysics: its concern is instead empiricism. Ironically, it is this kind of polemicising that has served to create the many islands of controversy and pseudoscience Euro-American modern Western science claims it is seeking to eliminate. ;Referring to Euro-American modern Western science also seeks to highlight the importance of multiculturalism: that no single cultural perspective tells the complete story of the universe. This emphasis on telling all sides of the human story represents humankind's evolving narrative construction concerning the passage of time upon this earth. It is an attempt to tell the whole story, rather than a story distorted by political, social, economic and psychological motives. Moreover, telling the complete story of our universe also includes telling the story of the nonhuman world, which is the kind of awareness ecopsychologists have been to address. ;This is not to suggest that Euro-American modern Western science has arrived at erroneous conclusions about the physical world. Nor am I suggesting that the epistemology associated with the rational mind or normal consciousness is an incorrect means of investigating the physical world. I am instead suggesting that the rational mind is simply one of a plurality of possible epistemology's or states of consciousness that are useful toward our pursual of scientific understanding. This dissertation is therefore an invitation for the reader to consider alternative ontology's and epistemology's to those that Euro-American modern Western science currently uses to construct its paradigmatic framework: not by simply contemplating these alternative worldviews, but by all of us actively participating in this investigation through the process of dialogue