Metaphysical naturalism

shapes the Evolutionary Argument Against Naturalism, which begins with a premise titled “Darwin’s Doubt.” This premise argues that true belief, given the existence of evolution by way of naturalism, is extremely low, if not entirely impossible. Plantinga strengthens this argument by discussing material naturalism (specifically reductive and nonreductive materialism). However, over the course of his argument, he ignores the logical possibility of immaterial naturalism, a theory that I argue…

Is action free or determined, Spinoza argues that it is determined but there is a freedom of will in the doctrine of the conatus. This view rests on three metaphysical positions that Spinoza advocates for, namely immanent necessitarianism, reductive naturalism and monism. All that exists and has is and will happen is immanent and inevitably going to happen. This he argues is because nature is constructed by a free uncaused cause (that which has no external constraint). This uncaused cause…

American journalist, author, and poet, Stephen Crane utilized the standard fiction writing style of the late 1800s: realism. He grew up in an atmosphere where literacy was not only a common-day skill, but also a career focus for many in his family of eleven. Crane made his fame and fortune as the author of the Civil War novel, The Red Badge of Courage, in 1893. Two years later, he went on to write a book of poetry entitled The Black Riders and Other Lines. His modern, stylish approach to…

Naturalism unlike realism adopts more a philosophical position and holds man responsible for his actions and negates divine interventions. Naturalism considers human beings to be determined by their heredity and environment. The individual is at the mercy of determining social and economic forces. Each human being is determined by heredity and environment and "subject to the social and economic forces in the family, the class, and the milieu into which that person is born" (Abrams 153).…

The Baroque artistic style came to fruition in the 15th and 16th centuries, and had a dominant presence in Europe. However, it did not surface in European countries in the same manner, and Baroque artists were not necessarily working with the same types of subjects or themes. That being said, overall, it was a movement focused on motion, and did its best to portray details and ideas that could be easily interpreted. Furthermore, while not every artist utilized religious themes, most were…

The purpose of this paper is to explore the two different arguments provided by two different philosophers regarding the metaphysical and science. John Polkinghorne’s ontological argument and Richard Dawkin’s unwavering belief of evolution. Although I believe Polkinghorne’s argument to be undeniably incorrect. I plan to present the strongest evidence for both arguments in an attempt to ultimately see which one is most viable. I may add supporting claims from other philosophers throughout the…

The metaphysical position with which Holbach is most often associated is a negative one: atheism. Although indeed Holbach devotes the entire second volume of Système de la nature and all of Le Bon Sens to the defense of atheism and the criticism of particular claims about God, his views do not hold great philosophical interest. They emphasize well worn topics such as the problem of evil, the impossibility of discussing intelligibly what is unknowable, the suspect psychological origins of…

the world they saw in terms of natural things. These early philosophers believed that the universe was more systematic and rational, that the world functioned apart from the gods or divine authority, and that it was more scientific and fact-based. Naturalism centered on empirical facts, and scientific principles and laws, however, not all of the pre-Socratics agreed on how the world should be understood. Parmenides, also called the Father of Western Philosophy, rejected change in the universe,…

disposition, I soaked up the many principles and virtues of Plato’s epistemology and metaphysical concepts, and, to this day, I remember his works as vividly as I had when I first read them many weeks ago. His concepts appeared to me, at first, as original, radical, and intriguing. Today,…

Like Pannenberg’s hypothetic consonanitst model, Russell’s “Creative Mutual Interaction” model looks at the dialogue both in terms of “consonance” and “dissonance” in pursuit of “coherence” between natural sciences and theology. In such a mutual dialogue, theology should not merely serve as science’s religious interpreter as is normally done in so-called “two-worlds” perspectives. Rather, “theology can indeed offer creative suggestions in the form of questions, topics, or conceptions of nature…