The Routledge Handbook of Liberal Naturalism (Routledge Handbooks in Philosophy)

The central question of naturalism - the relation of philosophy to science - was one of the defining strands of twentieth-century thought and remains a major source of debate and controversy. Today many argue that philosophy should fold itself into the sciences, especially the natural sciences. Liberal naturalists argue that such scientific naturalism demands reductive and Procrustean conceptions of knowledge and reality. Moreover, many philosophical problems are beyond the scope of the sciences, such as the nature of persons, the normativity of the space of reasons, and how best to understand the peculiar mix of objectivity and subjectivity of ethics and art. The Routledge Handbook of Liberal Naturalism is the first collection to present a comprehensive overview of liberal naturalism, a philosophical outlook that lies between scientific naturalism and supernaturalism. Comprising 37 chapters by an international team of contributors, it examines important cutting-edge topics including: what is liberal naturalism? is metaphysics a viable project? naturalism in the history of philosophy, including Hume, Dewey and Quine contemporary liberal naturalists such as P.F. Strawson, John McDowell, Hilary Putnam and John Rawls related kinds of naturalism, including subject naturalism, common-sense naturalism, and biological naturalism the bearing of liberal naturalism on contemporary debates in epistemology, philosophy of mind, ethics and aesthetics. Essential reading for students and researchers in all areas of philosophy, it will be of particular interest for those studying philosophical naturalism, philosophy of science, metaphysics, epistemology, philosophy of mind, ethics and aesthetics. Cover Half Title Series Page Title Page Copyright Page Contents Contributors Introduction Notes Part I: Historical naturalisms and their relation to liberal naturalism 1. Aristotle on (second) nature, habit and character 1. Introduction 2. Aristotle's ethical "naturalism" 3. Nature (physis) 4. Habit (hexis) 5. The unidirectionality of habits 6. Character as a second nature? Notes References 2. Spinoza and liberal naturalism Notes References 3. Hume and liberal naturalism 1. Introduction 2. Hume as scientific naturalist? 3. Hume as liberal naturalist 4. Philosophy and Hume's therapeutic liberal naturalism 5. Conclusion Notes References 4. Kant on nature and humanity 1. Introduction 2. Theoretical knowledge of nature Sensibility and understanding How nature is possible Theoretical reason: the limits of our cognition of nature Cosmos, mind, body, freedom 3. Practical reason Freedom of the will Practical assent or belief God and immortality as postulates of practical reason Symbolism, analogy and religion 4. The empirical study of human nature Abbreviations 5. Nietzsche's naturalism: neither liberal nor illiberal Notes References 6. Husserlian phenomenology and liberal naturalism 1. Introduction 2. Husserl's critique of naturalism 3. Liberal naturalism: its agenda and its strategy 4. Husserl on natural teleology 5. Husserl on nature 6. Conclusion Acknowledgments Notes References 7. Merleau-Ponty and liberal naturalism 1. Introduction 2. Liberal naturalism 3. Merleau-Ponty: perception and embodiment 4. Conclusion: Merleau-Ponty as liberal naturalist Notes References 8. Classical pragmatism and liberal naturalism 1. Introduction 2. Theoretical consequences of evolutionary theory 3. Practical consequences of evolutionary theory 4. Scientific and pragmatic naturalism 5. Pragmatic and liberal naturalism 6. Conclusion Notes References Part II: Theoretical cousins of liberal naturalism 9. Quine's naturalism: neither "reductive" nor "liberal" 1. Working from within 2. Logic 3. Regimentation and explication 4. Ontology 5. Epistemology 6. Indeterminacy 7. Meaningfulness Notes References 10. Wilfrid sellars and liberal naturalism 1. Introduction 2. Sellarsian naturalism, round one 3. Naturalism and the two images of humanity-in-the-world 4. The scientific image 5. Scientific realism: how liberal can it be? 6. Putting humanity into the scientific image Notes References 11. Philippa Foot's liberal naturalism in ethics 1. Philippa Foot's position in ethical naturalism 2. Foot's defence of ethical naturalism 3. How liberal is Foot's naturalism? 4. Foot's liberal naturalism and the explanation of normativity Acknowledgments References 12. Bernard Williams's liberal naturalism 1. Part I 2. Part II 3. Part III Notes References 13. Price's subject naturalism and liberal naturalism 1. Introduction 2. What is subject naturalism? 3. The subject-naturalist rejection of object naturalism 3.1. Blocking a route to object naturalism: representationalism 3.2. Undermining a presupposition of object naturalism: functional uniformity 3.3. Vindicating the correctness of assertions? 4. Does Price's rejection of object naturalism depend on subject naturalism? 5. Subject naturalism and liberal naturalism 6. Subject naturalism and McDowell's naturalism of second nature Notes References 14. Relaxed naturalism: a liberating philosophy of nature 1. A relaxed philosophy of nature 2. Two contrasting visions of nature 3. Naturalised conceptual analysis: a test case 4. Conclusion Notes References 15. Liberal or radical naturalism? 1. Introduction 2. Orthodox and liberal naturalisms 3. Scientific understanding in practice 4. Two-dimensional biological normativity 5. Liberal and radical conceptions of normativity as "natural" Notes References 16. Naturalism as a stance 1. Scientific naturalism: a troubled doctrine? 2. Naturalism as a stance 3. A stance in action: criticism of analytic metaphysics 3.1. Simplicity in science Likelihoods and base rates Curve fitting and model selection 3.2. Simplicity in metaphysical reasoning 4. Liberal naturalism and the naturalistic stance Notes References Part III: Challenges for liberal naturalism 17. Liberal naturalism: origins and prospects 1. The placement problem 2. When science divorced from the ordinary view of the world 3. Kant and the fracture between the subjective and the objective views 4. Scientific naturalism and the placement problem 5. Liberal naturalism and the reconciliation problem Notes References 18. Liberal naturalism and God 1. Introduction 2. Liberal naturalism 3. Rethinking God 4. Responding to Baker and Cottingham 5. Moving ahead Notes References 19. Taylor and liberal naturalism 1. Introduction 2. Historicising naturalism 3. Philosophical anthropology 4. Moral sources and supernaturalism References 20. Can selves be naturalised? The problem of temporal perspective 1. Introduction 2. Persons as objects 3. Temporal perspective and reidentifiability 4. Selves and persons 5. Natural selves? Note References 21. Liberal naturalism, ontological commitment and explanation 1. Introduction 2. Liberal naturalism 2.1. The upward path: naturalness, presupposition and irreducibility 2.2. The downward path: delimiting the supernatural 3. Liberal naturalism and moderate naturalism about metaphysics 4. The upshot: liberal naturalism 2.0? Notes References 22. Naturalism with Chinese characteristics 1. Introduction 2. Beginnings 3. Confucianism 4. The Daodejing 5. The Zhuangzi 6. Neo-Confucianism 7. The comparison with liberal naturalism Notes References Part IV: Applications of liberal naturalism 23. Liberal naturalism and aesthetics: art up close and personal 1. Introduction 2. Can scientific naturalism be nonreductive? 3. Triangulation and "thick" explanations 4. The case of empathy 5. Must we go subpersonal in aesthetics? 6. A liberal naturalist aesthetics: a brief sketch 7. Thick and thin explanations of art 8. Cavell's problem of the other and film spectatorship Notes References 24. Liberal Naturalism, Aesthetic Reflection, and the Sublime 1. Introduction: liberal naturalism and a perceptual affordance 2. Reflective judgment 3. Intentional pleasure 4. Non-perceptually represented perceptual properties 5. Intersubjectivity 6. The Sublime and morality 7. Conclusion Notes References 25. Philosophy of perception and liberal naturalism 1. Introduction 2. The traditional problems of perception 3. How does philosophy of perception interact with questions about naturalism? 3.1. Naïve realism and liberal naturalism 3.2. "Indirect" views of perception and liberal naturalism 3.3. Representational views and liberal naturalism 4. McDowell and Putnam 5. Color 6. Conclusion Notes References 26. Ethics and liberal naturalism 1. Introduction 2. No naturalistic fallacy 3. A naturalistic understanding of nature 4. A naturalistic understanding of value in general 5. A naturalistic understanding of ethical normativity Notes References 27. Kantian constitutivism and the naturalistic challenge 1. Introduction 2. Wronging and punishing 3. Ethical naturalism and the paradox of punishment 4. The claim of universal authority 5. The constitutivist claim 6. Conclusion Notes References 28. The rational wolf. Moral philosophy as key to John McDowell's liberal naturalism 1. Our conceptual capacities and their place in nature 2. Animality and rationality: the rational wolf thought experiment 3. McDowell's case for liberal naturalism (I): responsiveness to (moral) reasons 4. McDowell's case for liberal naturalism (II): the place of value in the natural world 5. Some conclusions regarding liberal naturalism: the fight against an ungrounded attraction and a transformative (and pragmatist) view of rationality Notes References 29. Rawls and liberal naturalism 1. Realism, constructivism and the method of avoidance 2. Naturalism, the original position and the evidential basis of the theory of justice Notes References 30. Scientific naturalism and normative explanation 1. The historical and philosophical context 2. Scientific naturalism 2.1. Naturalism and the drive for intellectual economy 2.2. Two conceptions of the Razor as requiring preference for the simpler 3. Ontological pluralism 3.1. Abstract entities 3.2. The normative domain 3.3. Property identity as an element in ontological reduction 4. Nonreductive naturalism 5. Moral realism in the intuitionist tradition 6. Normative explanation 6.1. Normative properties as consequential on natural ones 6.2. The causal element in moral perception 7. Normativity and the scientific habit of mind 7.1. Objectivity 7.2. Religion, politics, and scientific objectivity Notes References 31. Scientism and liberal naturalism 1. Introduction 2. What is this scientism thing, anyway? 3. A taste of scientism 3.1. Scientism as an unwarranted trump card against embarrassing questions 4. What is this thing called science? 5. A better approach: a stereoscopic view of the manifest and scientific images of the world Notes References Online References 32. The foundations of psychoanalysis and liberal naturalism: the Freudian unconscious and the manifest image 1. Introduction 2. The foundations of psychoanalysis 3. Naturalism and the foundations of psychoanalysis 4. A liberal naturalist notion of the Freudian unconscious and the method to its discovery 5. The unconscious is manifest in free association 6. Ticking the Freudian boxes Notes References 33. Actualism as a form of liberal naturalism 1. What's in a name? 2. The real and the actual 3. The indexicality of the actual world and locating minds from within it 4. Redefining metaphysics with an actualist's account of modality Notes References 34. Critical naturalism for the human sciences 1. Naturalism descends on the human sciences 2. Fluctuat Nec Mergitur: The human sciences still stand 3. Can we make liberal naturalism more productive? 4. Why the human sciences cannot be fully naturalised Notes References 35. Habermas and liberal naturalism 1. Introduction 2. Vivat imperator scientia naturalis 3. Habermas's transcendental pragmatism in "knowledge and human interests" 4. The emancipatory interest: liberal naturalism and critical theory Notes References 36. Strawson and non-revisionary naturalism 1. Introduction 2. Strawson and naturalism: an initial checkup Metaphilosophical Naturalism Epistemological naturalism Ontological naturalism 3. "Reductive" vs. "non-reductive" naturalism 4. A naturalistic turn? 5. Anthropological naturalism 6. Relaxed realism and liberal naturalism Notes References (i) Works by Strawson (ii) Works by others 37. Putnam and liberal naturalism 1. Introduction 2. Realism in metaphysics 2.1. Conceptual pluralism 2.2. Reference 3. The pervasiveness of the normative Note References Index The central question of naturalism - the relation of philosophy to science - was one of the defining strands of twentieth-century thought and remains a major source of debate and controversy. Today many argue that philosophy should fold itself into the sciences, especially the natural sciences. Liberal naturalists argue that such scientific naturalism demands reductive and Procrustean conceptions of knowledge and reality. Moreover, many philosophical problems are beyond the scope of the sciences, such as the nature of persons, the normativity of the space of reasons, and how best to understand the peculiar mix of objectivity and subjectivity of ethics and art. The Routledge Handbook of Liberal Naturalism is the first collection to present a comprehensive overview of liberal naturalism, a philosophical outlook that lies between scientific naturalism and supernaturalism. Comprising 37 chapters by an international team of contributors, it examines important cutting-edge topics including: what is liberal naturalism? is metaphysics a viable project? naturalism in the history of philosophy, including Hume, Dewey, and Quine contemporary liberal naturalists such as P.F. Strawson, John McDowell, Hilary Putnam, and John Rawls related kinds of naturalism, including subject naturalism, common-sense naturalism and biological naturalism the bearing of liberal naturalism on contemporary debates in epistemology, philosophy of mind, ethics and aesthetics. Essential reading for students and researchers in all areas of philosophy, this volume will be of particular interest for those studying philosophical naturalism, philosophy of science, metaphysics, epistemology, philosophy of mind, ethics and aesthetics. "The question of naturalism - the relation of philosophy to science - was one of the defining strands of twentieth-century thought and remains a major source of debate and controversy today. Its proponents argue that philosophy should ally itself with the sciences, especially physics, and that science should be applied to all areas of reality. Its opponents argue that that such naturalism severely reduces the nature and scope of philosophical enquiry and, moreover, that many philosophical problems are not reducible to science, such as consciousness, the role of intuitions, the nature of concepts and ethics. The Routledge Handbook of Liberal Naturalism is the first collection to present a comprehensive overview of liberal naturalism, a philosophical outlook that lies between hard naturalism and supernaturalism. Comprising 37 chapters by an international team of contributors, it examines all the important topics including: what is liberal naturalism? metaphysics naturalism and the history of philosophy, including the scientific revolution, Hume, William James and Quine contemporary proponents of liberal naturalism in figures such as P.F. Strawson, John McDowell, Richard Rorty and Robert Brandom related theories of naturalism, including subject, common-sense, and biological naturalism liberal naturalism and contemporary debates in epistemology, ethics, philosophy of mind and aesthetics. Essential reading for students and researchers in all areas of philosophy, it will be of particular interest for those studying philosophical naturalism, philosophy of science, metaphysics, philosophy of mind and ethics"-- Provided by publisher