Expanding Horizons: Recognizing the Ontological Limits of Materialism

A reductionist lens often fails to capture that pivotal moment of a medicinal plant's efficacy in situ, in vivo, because of a narrow fixation upon the lock-and-key model of receptor and active compound or the focus upon the pharmacokinetic activity of an individual molecule or solvent extract rather than on whole plant material (for example, as traditionally administered in those settings in which it is reported to be effective). Those same technologies which are uninspiringly recruited to rule out candidates as line items on a checklist could instead be used to bridge the apparently irreconcilable differences separating a materialist scientific outlook from those of the world's rich ethnobiological traditions. Our presentation will be a dynamic student/teacher dialogue with the student’s insightful questions and comments keeping both the student and teacher dancing, while exposing fallacies of dominant paradigmatic thought.