Naturalism: A Critical Analysis (Routledge Studies in Twentieth Century Philosophy) (Hardcover)

by William Craig (Editor), J.P. Moreland (Editor) "Many philosophers have held, in the tradition of Plato and Aristotle, that there are uniquely philosophical, non-empirical methods of inquiry and that there are things..." (more)
Key Phrases: Core Scientism, New York, Cambridge University Press (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review
'This book provides a good introduction to work by some contemporary American theistic philosophers of religion. Moreover, it gives clear expression to the recent resurgence in polemical Christian philosophy of religion in American academic philosophy' -  Australian Journal of Philosophy

This book provides a good introduction to work by some contemporary American theistic philosophers of religion. Moreover, it gives clear expression to the recent resurgence in polemical Christian philosophy of religion in American academic philosophy - Australian Journal of Philosophy

Product Description
Advocating the abandonment of contemporary naturalism in light of serious difficulties, the contributors draw on a wide range of topics including epistemology and the philosophy of science, mind and agency to prove their theory.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Routledge; 1 edition (October 17, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0415235243
• ISBN-13: 978-0415235242
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,966,554 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

77 of 86 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Perhaps the most profound book of philosophy in a generation, January 8, 2001

By	Vince Page (Brookshire, TX USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This is a college-level philosophy text in which the words naturalism, etiology, epistemology, ontology and so forth are used without definition, but it is perhaps the most profound book of philosophy in a generation.

The preface would have been better if it had defined such terms for the uninitiated, but reading the text with a dictionary will solve most of these problems. I personally felt that Chapter 2 was writtem in much more of an introductory style than Chapter 1 and should have preceded it for that reason. For these reasons alone, the book gets four stars instead of five. The book itself it excellent.

The book contains 10 chapters, each written by a different author, as follows:

1 - Farewell to philosophical naturalism - Paul Moser & Dave Yandell

2 - Knowledge and Naturalism - Dallas Willard

3 - The incompatibility of naturalism and scientific realism - Robert Koons

4 - Naturalism and the ontological status of properties - J.P. Moreland

5 - Naturalism and material objects - Michael Rea

6 - Naturalism and the mind - Charles Taliaferro

7 - Naturalism and libertarian agency - Stewart Goetz

8 - Naturalism and morality - John Hare

9 - Naturalism and cosmology - William Lane Craig

10- Naturalism and design - William Dembski

In subjecting naturalism -- the rejection of all things supernatural -- to a critical analysis, the authors expose in convincing fashion the complex incompleteness of our current naturalistic thought processes. William Lane Craig's chapter on Naturalism and Cosmology is particularly excellent in this regard and should not be missed by any serious student of physics.

It does not take long while reading this book to realize that the authors may well be erecting a new philosphical structure for the 21st century. They show repeatedly that we ignore some types of information when the information doesn't fit the standard naturalistic model. They emphasize that we cannot hope to achieve our full potential as a species unless we can overcome these self-imposed bounds.

25 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The irrationality of naturalism, October 11, 2002

By	John Smith "Protagoris" (Nowhere) - See all my reviews

This is a first-rate academic dissection of naturalism, which is the view that nothing exists but the natural world -- i.e., the world without God in the picture. The essays in this volume explore the consequences of naturalism on morality, free will, consciousness and other areas. Each essay is top-notch and written by a theistic philosopher.

There are so many problems with naturalism one hardly has to look far to find them. For one thing, naturalism entails physicalism, which holds that our mental states and physical bodies are one and the same. Physicalism, however, seems unable to explain the non-physical properties possessed by our mental states (beliefs, memories, desires, etc), for how can my recollection of last Thanksgiving be explained as existing 2 inches behind my right ear, 4 centimeters in length and smelling of cranberry sauce? Also, J.P. Moreland pointed out in another book that while a brain surgeon may know more about my brain than I do, he is not privy to the fear I experience before I'm opened up or what I dream about while I'm unconscious. Moreover, it seems almost impossible for physicalism to account for the intentionality of our mental states. Our mental states possess the property of intentionality, or "aboutness." That is, they are directed as certain things. People don't just "desire"; they desire something. Physicalism seems unable to adequately explain this.

Genetic determinism is touched on as well as naturalism implies genetic determinism. Genetic determinism is self-refuting, as the belief that genetic determinism is true is itself determined. Believing genetic determinism to be true is no more rational than picking your nose. If a determinist has genes that determine him to be a determinist, how can he convince anyone of anything given that everyone else's beliefs are putatively determined by their genes? Also, accepting genetic determinism would mean acccepting a radical re-evaluation of morality. If genetic determinism is true, then all we are is a collection of accidentally arranged atoms. When a bomb hits them, they become rearranged. Ergo, any gut feeling that such acts as murder and rape are evil is illusionary. The type of morality naturalism prescribes is an evolutionary morality. For instance, murder wasn't socially-advantageous at one time in the distant past, so it became taboo; but there is nothing really wrong with killing someone. It is not hard, then, to understand why naturalism provides a very, very poor foundation for morality.

An important book.

3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Impressive Volume With Critical Essays on Naturalism From a Diverse Field of Scholars, June 21, 2006

By	Discovery Reviewer (Seattle, WA) - See all my reviews

This impressive volume contains critical essays on naturalism from the perspectives of theology, ethics, cosmology, ontology, and epistemology. Various Discovery Fellows make contributions including Robert C. Koons, J.P. Moreland, William Lane Craig, and William Dembski.

Koons begins by noting that there is a simple correlation between existence and the requirement of some non-natural first cause. He observes an irony that science thinks it requires naturalism, when our very ability to practice science, due to the orderly, reliable, and predictable behavior of the universe implies a non-natural intelligent cause. Scientific dependence upon naturalism is self-refuting.

Moreland's quotes Plato to reveal that there really is nothing new under the sun: scholars have been debating naturalism for millennia, and naturalists have been ever pugnacious in their insistence that mutual co-existence is not an option. Moreland recounts that the great philosopher wrote in Sophist:

"They [naturalists] define reality as the same thing as body, and as soon as one of the opposite party asserts that anything without a body is real, they are utterly contemptuous and will not listen to another word. ... On this issue an interminable battle is always going on between the two camps."

Yet the battle may eventually be over if the cosmological data presented by William Lane Craig has anything to do with it. Craig recounts the history of cosmology from when where scholars celebrated an eternal universe with no beginning or end, to one where the universe either has a "supernatural cause" or "one must say that the universe simply sprang into being out of nothing" (Big Bang cosmology mandates an expanding universe that is finite in both space and time.). Craig recounts the words of one team of scientists: "The problem of the origin [of the universe] involves a certain metaphysical aspect which may be either appealing or revolting."

William Dembski closes the volume by arguing that naturalism is no more supported by the scientific data in biology than it is supported in cosmology. Irreducible complexity in nature disallows the possibility that life arose via naturalistic mechanisms. It also signifies an intelligent cause that scientists cannot deny any longer.