Just in case someone didn't get my email, here is a brief summary of the Sire book chapter on Naturalism
Sire- Chapter 4 Naturalism
- Naturalism is the middle ground between Deism and Theism, and is widely accepted today. God loses his very existence. Reason is the whole criterion for truth and not God. Important figures were Renee Descartes, John Locke, Julien offray de la mettrie.
“Prime reality is matter. Matter exists eternally and is all there is. God does not exist.”
“The cosmos exists as a uniformity of causes and effect in a closed system.”
“Human beings are complex machines; personality is an interrelation of chemical and physical properties we do not yet fully understand”- we are only part of the matter and are not above or below anything else in the world.
“Death is the extinction of personality and individuality”- people simply disappear when they die.
“Through our innate and autonomous human reason, including the methods of science, we can know the universe. The cosmos, including this world, is understood to be in its normal state”
“Ethics is related only to human beings”- We create ethics because we create and develop our futures. People have a sense of right and wrong.
History is a linear stream of events linked by cause and effect but without an overarching purpose”- The world is self-activating and sustaining.
Naturalism itself implies no particular core commitment on the part of any given naturalist. Rather core commitments are adopted unwittingly or chosen by individuals.
most significant form of naturalism in history was Marxism
Thanks!
Michelle
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