Naturalism in Question

Instead of attempting to force human nature into a restricted scientific image of the world, these papers represent an attempt to place human nature at the centre of renewed - but still scientifically respectful - conceptions of philosophy and nature.

Review :
De Caro and Macarthur's ambitious collection "Naturalism in Question" is a call to arms for opponents of the set of related doctrines that constitute scientific naturalism. It includes critiques of these doctrines from such luminaries as Barry Stoud, Hilary Putnam, John McDowell, Donald Davidson, Jennifer Hornsby, and Stanley Cavell, among others. Scientific naturalism is, in a nutshell, the view that the physical sciences should be given pride of place in our ontological, epistemological, and semantic endeavors. Operationally, this involves requiring that the concepts, posits, and methodologies of disciplines outside the physical sciences be shown to be suitably related to scientific concepts, posits, and methodologies, or be judged suspect. And suitable relatedness to the physical sciences is more often than not taken to require some form of reducibility..."Naturalism in Question" contains a number of gems.--Peter Alward"Philosophy in Review" (02/06/2006) De Caro and Macarthur's edited collection "Naturalism in Question" is a timely contribution which questions the nature and status of naturalism and hints at alternative conceptions to the influential widespread "scientific" form.--Tim Thornton"History and Philosophy of Life Sciences" (01/01/2007) It is a remarkably congenial collection of papers by a distinguished lineup of philosophers. There are two different types of argument to be found in these papers. The first shows how an uncritical adoption of this orthodox naturalist institution either misconstrues or underdetermines phenomena such as science itself, the mind, agency, ethics, and personal identity. On the second line, what is needed to avoid straying into the impasses of underdetermination (as the orthodox naturalist does) and dualism (as the normativist does) is a fresh and unbiased look at our conception of 'nature, ' 'the natural, ' 'naturalism, ' and kindred concepts such as those of 'dispositions, ' 'causation, ' and 'science'...The result is a critical view of the explanans that is taken for granted by the orthodox naturalist, and used by the normativist as a foil for defining normative relations. Pursuing this line of argument is necessary if we want to avoid the shortcomings of both orthodox naturalist and nor De Caro and Macarthur's ambitious collection Naturalism in Question is a call to arms for opponents of the set of related doctrines that constitute scientific naturalism. It includes critiques of these doctrines from such luminaries as Barry Stoud, Hilary Putnam, John McDowell, Donald Davidson, Jennifer Hornsby, and Stanley Cavell, among others. Scientific naturalism is, in a nutshell, the view that the physical sciences should be given pride of place in our ontological, epistemological, and semantic endeavors. Operationally, this involves requiring that the concepts, posits, and methodologies of disciplines outside the physical sciences be shown to be suitably related to scientific concepts, posits, and methodologies, or be judged suspect. And suitable relatedness to the physical sciences is more often than not taken to require some form of reducibility... Naturalism in Question contains a number of gems.