Sir, – Frank Conroy (October 1st) writes that if "evidence for the existence of something other than the empirical realm" were to emerge, then scientific rationalists "would sit up and take notice". But such evidence is all around us. The phenomena of truth and falsehood, good and evil, for example, are powerful realities that are not reducible to materialist terms. If rationalists were to dismiss these as mere figments, they would have lopped off a large part of human awareness and would have undercut the scientific enterprise as well. We cannot open our mouths or make a judgment without being involved with realities that go far beyond what empiricist and materialist mindsets can handle. – Yours, etc,
JOSEPH S O’LEARY,
Sophia University, Tokyo.