The Orders of Nature

Lawrence Cahoone (Autor)

Buch | Hardcover

387 Seiten

2013
State University of New York Press (Verlag)
978-1-4384-4415-4 (ISBN)

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A systematic theory of naturalism, bridging metaphysics and the science of complexity and emergence.

Winner of the 2015 John N. Findlay Award in Metaphysics presented by the Metaphysical Society of America

Reviving and modernizing the tradition of post Darwinian naturalism, The Orders of Nature draws on philosophy and the natural sciences to present a naturalistic theory of reality. Conceiving of nature as systems, processes, and structures that exhibit diverse properties that can be hierarchically arranged, Lawrence Cahoone sketches a systematic metaphysics based on the following orders of nature: physical, material, biological, mental, and cultural. Using recent work in the science of complexity, hierarchical systems theory, and nonfoundational approaches to metaphysics, Cahoone analyzes these orders with explanations of the underlying science, covering a range of topics that includes general relativity and quantum field theory; chemistry and inorganic complexity; biology and telenomic explanation, or "purpose"; the theory of mind and mental causation as an animal phenomenon; and the human mind's unique cultural abilities. The book concludes with an exploration of what answers such a theory of naturalism can provide to questions about values and God.

Lawrence Cahoone is Professor of Philosophy at the College of the Holy Cross. His many books include Cultural Revolutions: Reason versus Culture in Philosophy, Politics, and Jihad and From Modernism to Postmodernism: An Anthology.

Acknowledgments
Introduction

Part I. A Kind of Naturalism

1. From Pluralism to Naturalism
2. A Selective History of Naturalism
3. Reduction, Emergence, and Physicalism
4. Concepts for Pluralistic Nature

Part II. The Orders of Nature

5. The Physical Order
6. The Achievements of Matter
7. The Phenomena of Life
8. Mind and the Hard Problems
9. Meanings of the Cultural Mind
10. The Evolution of Knowledge

Part III. Naturalistic Speculations

11. A Ground of Nature
12. Natural Religion

Notes
Bibliography
Index

Erscheint lt. Verlag	1.1.2013
Zusatzinfo	16 Figures
Verlagsort	Albany, NY
Sprache	englisch
Maße	152 x 229 mm
Gewicht	671 g
Themenwelt	Geisteswissenschaften ► Philosophie ► Geschichte der Philosophie
	Geisteswissenschaften ► Philosophie ► Metaphysik / Ontologie
	Mathematik / Informatik ► Informatik ► Theorie / Studium
	Naturwissenschaften
ISBN-10	1-4384-4415-X / 143844415X
ISBN-13	978-1-4384-4415-4 / 9781438444154
Zustand	Neuware