Naturalism: A Critical Appraisal

Naturalism - the thesis that all facts are natural facts, that is the facts that can be recognised and explained by a natural science - plays a central role in contemporary analytical philosophy. Yet many philosophers reject the claims of naturalism. The essays in this anthology explore the difficulties of naturalism by revealing the ambiguities surrounding it, as well as the tensions that exist among its critics. The contributors address various formulations of naturalism from a variety of perspectives, but their common aim is to uphold the autonomy and irreducibility of legitimate nonscientific discourse while respecting the naturalist's concern with intellectual standards. The mind-body problem is a natural focus for such a concern, but this volume has a much broader scope than one devoted exclusively to the mind-body problem. The discussions are divided roughly into three groups - Robert Audi, David Schatz, Richard Foley, George Bealer and George Myro critique naturalist accounts of justification, Mark Wilson, Mark Bedau and Steven J. Wagner discuss naturalist treatments of metaphysical issues and Richard Warner, Ian Pratt, Terence Hogan and Lynne Rudder Baker explore naturalist approaches to the mind-body problem.