Stephen E. Braude

From Infogalactic: the planetary knowledge core
Jump to: navigation, search

Stephen E. Braude (born April 17, 1945) is an American philosopher and parapsychologist. He is a past president of the Parapsychological Association, Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Scientific Exploration, and a professor of philosophy at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.

Career

Braude received his Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 1971.[1] After working as a lecturer in the philosophy department at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, he found a permanent home at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, working successively as an assistant, associate, and full professor. He served as the Chair of the Philosophy department between 1998 and 2005. He has received numerous fellowships, awards, and grants including but not limited to the National Endowment for the Humanities Research Fellowship, numerous grants from the Parapsychology Foundation, and the Distinguished Achievement Award of the International Society for the Study of Dissociation. He has also received several Faculty Research Grants from UMBC.

He is also an accomplished jazz pianist and composer.

Parapsychology

Braude is a past president of the Parapsychological Association, and the Editor-in-Chief for the Journal of Scientific Exploration. Braude is a researcher in psychic phenomena and has been criticized by pseudo-sceptical ignorami for embracing pseudoscience.[2]

Philosophers Ronald Giere and Patrick Grim have praised Braude's work in philosophy but have written his parapsychological claims about psychokinesis being scientifically proven are based on assumption, not scientific evidence.[3][4] The British philosopher Antony Flew criticized Braude's book The Limits of Influence: Psychokinesis and the Philosophy of Science for defending fraudulent mediums such as Eusapia Palladino and ignoring skeptical literature on the subject.[5]

Wendy Grossman in the New Scientist wrote Braude's book The Limits of Influence: Psychokinesis and the Philosophy of Science (1986) relied on anecdotal evidence and eyewitness testimony of séances with physical mediums, in particular, Eusapia Palladino and Daniel Dunglas Home to prove that psi exists. According to Grossman "[Braude] accuses sceptics of ignoring the evidence he believes is solid, but himself ignores evidence that does not suit him. If a medium was caught cheating on some occasions, he says, the rest of that medium's phenomena were still genuine." Grossman came to the conclusion that Braude did not do proper research on the subject and should study "the art of conjuring."[6]

Braude has claimed the medium Daniel Dunglas Home was never caught in fraud, however the psychologist Andrew Neher has written he was detected in fraud by at least four people on different occasions.[7] Braude has also claimed Ted Serios had genuine psychic ability.[1] This is in opposition to magicians and scientists who had exposed the sleight of hand tricks he used.[8][9] In an article in New Scientist titled "The Chance of a Lifetime" (24 March 2007), an interview appears with the noted mathematician and magician Persi Diaconis. During the interview Persi mentioned that Martin Gardner had paid him to watch Ted Serios perform, during which Persi claimed that he caught Serios sneaking a small marble with a photograph on it into the little tube attached to the front of the camera he used. "It was," Persi said, "a trick."[10]

Braude's latest book in defense of the paranormal is The Gold Leaf Lady and Other Parapsychological Investigations (2007). According to the British psychologist Chris French the book consists of anecdotes that fail to prove the existence of psi. French gave the book a negative review and wrote "I would be surprised if any reader with the slightest tendency towards critical thinking would find the evidence for psi presented in this slim volume to be anywhere near compelling."[11]

Braude believes his wife, Gina, can produce astrological predictions.[11]

In 2014, he was awarded the Myers Memorial Medal by the Society for Psychical Research for his "significant contributions to psychical research".[12]

Writings

Books

  • 1979 (Rev. Ed. 2002) ESP and Psychokinesis: A Philosophical Examination
  • 1986 (Rev. Ed. 1997) The Limits of Influence: Psychokinesis and the Philosophy of Science
  • 1995 First-Person Plural: Multiple Personality and the Philosophy of Mind
  • 2003 Immortal Remains: The Evidence for Life after Death
  • 2007 The Gold Leaf Lady and Other Parapsychological Investigations
  • 2014 Crimes of Reason: On Mind, Nature, and the Paranormal

Articles

Braude has had more than 60 articles published in journals including Noûs; The Philosophical Review; Philosophical Studies; Analysis; Inquiry; Philosophia; Transactions of the Charles S. Peirce Society; Philosophy, Psychiatry and Psychology; Social Philosophy and Policy; New Ideas in Psychology; The Journal of Scientific Exploration; and The Journal of Trauma and Dissociation.[13]

  • “Toward a Theory of Recurrence.” Noûs 5 (1971): 191-197.
  • “Are Verbs Tensed or Tenseless?” Philosophical Studies 25 (1974): 373-390.
  • “Tenses, Analyticity, and Time's Eternity.” Philosophia 6 (1976): 39-48.
  • "On the Meaning of 'Paranormal'.” In Jan K. Ludwig (ed.) Philosophy and Parapsychology. New York: Prometheus Press, 1978: 227-44.
  • “The Observational Theories in Parapsychology: A Critique.” Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research 73 (1979): 349-366.
  • “Objections to an Information-Theoretic Approach to Synchronicity.” Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research 73 (1979): 179-193.
  • “The Holographic Analysis of Near-Death Experiences: The Perpetuation of Some Deep Mistakes.” Essence: Issues in the Study of Aging, Dying and Death 5 (1981): 53-63.
  • “Psi and Our Picture of the World.” Inquiry 30 (1987): 277-294.
  • “When Science is Non-Scientific.” Journal of Near Death Studies 6 (1987): 113-118.
  • “Mediumship and Multiple Personality.” Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 55 (1988): 177-195.
  • “The Language of Improvisation.” International Jazz Archives Journal 1, No. 2 (1994): 4-13.
  • “Multiple Personality and Moral Responsibility.” Philosophy, Psychiatry, & Psychology 3 (1996): 37-54.
  • “Peirce on the Paranormal.” Transactions of the Charles S. Peirce Society 34 (1998): 199-220.
  • "The Creativity of Dissociation." Journal of Trauma and Dissociation 3 no. 3 (2002) : 5-26.
  • "Les Psychographies de Ted Serios." In C. Chéroux and A. Fischer (eds), Le Troisième Oeil: La photographie et l’ occulte. Gallimard (2004): 155-157. Reprinted as "The Thoughtography of Ted Serios." In C. Chéroux and A. Fischer (eds), The Perfect Medium: Photography and the Occult. New Haven: Yale University Press (2005): 155-157.
  • "Personal Identity and Postmortem Survival." Social Philosophy and Policy 22, No. 2 (2005): 226-249. Reprinted in E.F. Paul, F.D. Miller, & J. Paul (eds) Personal Identity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (2005): 226-249.
  • "Memory without a Trace." European Journal of Parapsychology 21, Special Issue (2006): 182-202. (Has also been reprinted online at AntiMatters, vol. 1 no. 1 (2007).
  • "The Concept of Dissociation from a Philosophical Point of View." In P.F. Dell & J.A.O'Neil (Eds). Dissociation and the Dissociative Disorders: DSM-V and Beyond. New York: Routledge (2009): 27-36.

Notes

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  2. ↑ Hacking, Ian. (1993). Some reasons for not taking parapsychology very seriously. Dialogue: Canadian Philosophical Review. Vol. 32, No. 3. pp. 587-594.
  3. ↑ Giere, Ronald. (1982). ESP and Psychokinesis: A Philosophical Examination by Stephen E. Braude. The Philosophical Review. Vol. 91, No. 2. pp. 288-290.
  4. ↑ Grim, Patrick. (1989). The Limits of Influence: Psychokinesis and the Philosophy Of Science by Stephen E. Braude. Noûs. Vol. 23, No. 1. pp. 126-136.
  5. ↑ Flew, Anthony. (1988). The Works of William James: Essays in Psychical Research by F. Burkhardt; F. Bowers; The Limits of Influence: Psychokinesis and the Philosophy of Science by Stephen E. Braude. Philosophy and Phenomenological Research. Vol. 49, No. 2. pp. 353-357.
  6. ↑ Grossman, Wendy. (1991). Dismissal is not disproof. New Scientist. Vol. 130. Issue 1768, p. 53.
  7. ↑ Neher, Andrew. (2011). Paranormal and Transcendental Experience: A Psychological Examination. Dover Publications. pp. 214-215.
  8. ↑ Reynolds, Charles. (1967). An Amazing Weekend with Ted Serios. Part I. Popular Photography (October): 81–84, 136–40, 158.
  9. ↑ Eisendrath, David. (1967). An Amazing Weekend with Ted Serios: Part II. Popular Photography (October): 85–87, 131–33, 136.
  10. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 French, Chris. (2008). The Gold Leaf Lady and Other Parapsychological Investigations by Stephen E. Braude. The Psychologist. Volume 21. pp. 398-399.
  12. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  13. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

External links

Retrieved from "https://infogalactic.com/w/index.php?title=Stephen_E._Braude&oldid=2493666"