373 lines
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373 lines
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<title>Naturalism</title>
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<meta name="author" content="Amr Gharbeia">
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<p lang="en-US" dir="rtl" class="western" align="left" style="margin-left: 1.27cm; margin-right: 2.54cm; margin-top: 0.49cm; margin-bottom: 0.49cm; line-height: 100%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">
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<font color="#ff0000"><font face="Verdana, sans-serif"><font size="3" style="font-size: 12pt"><span lang="en-US"><b>N<img src="data:image/png;base64,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" name="OdcNNat_up" align="right" hspace="5" width="129" height="39" border="0">aturalism.</b></span></font></font></font><font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman, serif"><font size="3" style="font-size: 12pt"><span lang="en-US">
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Naturalism is the first assumption of ontological philosophy. It is
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the belief that the world is </span></font></font></font><font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman, serif"><font size="3" style="font-size: 12pt"><span lang="en-US"><i>just
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</i></span></font></font></font><font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman, serif"><font size="3" style="font-size: 12pt"><span lang="en-US">the
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natural world. By the "natural world," I mean the world
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disclosed to us by perception, the world where we find ourselves,
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each having a body alongside others as parts of a world of objects in
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space that move and interact over time. That is the world of our
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daily lives. </span></font></font></font>
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</p>
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<p lang="en-US" dir="rtl" class="western" align="left" style="margin-left: 2.54cm; margin-right: 1.27cm; margin-top: 0.49cm; margin-bottom: 0.49cm; line-height: 100%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">
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<font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman, serif"><font size="3" style="font-size: 12pt">It
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is the world to which we are all referring when we speak to one
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another, as language-using animals, about ordinary matters. We refer
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to objects in space, attribute properties and relations to them, and
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explain what happens to them. But some of the objects in space are
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also subjects, like ourselves, and we describe them in a special way.
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To them we attribute intentions, desires, thoughts, beliefs,
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perceptions and other subjective (or psychological) states. They are
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known by reflection, rather than perception (though knowing about the
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subjective states of others usually depends on perception as well).
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But that does not mean that subjective states are not parts of the
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natural world. They are parts of the natural world because they are
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states of beings like us, who exist as animals in the natural world.
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The natural world includes, therefore, not only what is known by
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perception, but also what is known by reflection. </font></font></font>
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</p>
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<p lang="en-US" dir="rtl" class="western" align="left" style="margin-left: 1.27cm; margin-right: 2.54cm; margin-top: 0.49cm; margin-bottom: 0.49cm; line-height: 100%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">
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<font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman, serif"><font size="3" style="font-size: 12pt"><font color="#800000"><font face="Verdana, sans-serif"><b>W<img src="data:image/png;base64,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" name="OdcNWe_up" align="right" hspace="5" width="120" height="49" border="0">hat
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exists.</b></font></font><font color="#ff0000"> </font>The role of
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naturalism in ontological philosophy is to identify what needs to be
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explained, and for that purpose, it is appropriate to understand it
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in terms of its implications about what exists and what does not
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exist. </font></font></font>
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</p>
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<p lang="en-US" dir="rtl" class="western" align="left" style="margin-left: 1.27cm; margin-right: 2.54cm; margin-top: 0.49cm; margin-bottom: 0.49cm; line-height: 100%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">
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<font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman, serif"><font size="3" style="font-size: 12pt"><font face="Verdana, sans-serif"><b>P<img src="data:image/png;base64,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" name="OdcNPos_up" align="right" hspace="5" width="73" height="50" border="0">ositively.</b></font>
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Positively, naturalism is the belief nothing exists but what is
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located in space and time. All the objects we perceive are located in
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space. Indeed, they are all related to one another as parts of a
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single world, since all the locations in space are connected to one
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another continuously in three independent dimensions. But objects can
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also move and interact with one another, and the events involving
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them are also parts of the same world, because all moments in time
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are connected continuously in a single dimension. </font></font></font>
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</p>
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<p lang="en-US" dir="rtl" class="western" align="left" style="margin-left: 2.54cm; margin-right: 1.27cm; margin-top: 0.49cm; margin-bottom: 0.49cm; line-height: 100%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">
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<font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman, serif"><font size="3" style="font-size: 12pt"><span lang="en-US">Though
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naturalism assumes that whatever exists is located in space and time,
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that does not mean that whatever has a location in space and time
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exists. Though events in the past and future have locations in space
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and time, they may not exist. Whether they do or not depends on how
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we resolve a profound ontological issue about the relationship
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between existence and time. We must decide whether to believe that
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existence itself is in time, so that only the present moment exists
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(or "presentism"), or to believe that time is just another
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kind of relation, like space, which holds among the things that
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exist. (See </span></font></font></font><a href="/F:/Philosophy/Existentialism/The%20Wholeness%20Of%20the%20World/www.twow.net/Lo/L/LoOtdOTemp.htm" target="Lo"><font color="#0000ff"><font face="Times New Roman, serif"><font size="3" style="font-size: 12pt"><span lang="en-US"><u>Ontology:
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Temporality</u></span></font></font></font></a><font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman, serif"><font size="3" style="font-size: 12pt"><span lang="en-US">
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and </span></font></font></font><a href="/F:/Philosophy/Existentialism/The%20Wholeness%20Of%20the%20World/www.twow.net/Lo/L/LoOtfSTime.htm" target="Lo"><font color="#0000ff"><font face="Times New Roman, serif"><font size="3" style="font-size: 12pt"><span lang="en-US"><u>Spatiomaterialism:
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Time</u></span></font></font></font></a><font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman, serif"><font size="3" style="font-size: 12pt"><span lang="en-US">.)</span></font></font></font></p>
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<p lang="en-US" dir="rtl" class="western" align="left" style="margin-left: 1.27cm; margin-right: 2.54cm; margin-top: 0.49cm; margin-bottom: 0.49cm; line-height: 100%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">
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<font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman, serif"><font size="3" style="font-size: 12pt"><font face="Verdana, sans-serif"><b>N<img src="data:image/png;base64,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" name="OdcNNeg_up" align="right" hspace="5" width="74" height="50" border="0">egatively.</b></font>
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Space and time are so inclusive that naturalism may seem to be
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obviously true, but the significance of this assumption comes into
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better focus when we consider it negatively. For naturalism is also
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the denial that anything exists outside space or time. </font></font></font>
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</p>
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<p lang="en-US" dir="rtl" class="western" align="left" style="margin-left: 2.54cm; margin-right: 1.27cm; margin-top: 0.49cm; margin-bottom: 0.49cm; line-height: 100%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">
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<font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman, serif"><font size="3" style="font-size: 12pt"><i><b>G<img src="data:image/png;base64,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" name="OdcNGod_up" align="right" hspace="5" width="61" height="39" border="0">od.</b></i>
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God, for example, is supposed to exist outside both space and time.
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That is, at least, what traditional theists (and deists) must hold,
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for they believe that God is the creator of the natural world. (Nor
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is God part of the natural world by virtue of being ubiquitous, for
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that means existing everywhere in space at once, and if that were how
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God exists, He would be space.) Belief in a creator-God is a kind of
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supernaturalism. In fact, that is what was being scorned by those who
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first called themselves "naturalists" in the eighteenth
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century. They expected to be able to explain everything in the world
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without appeal to anything outside nature, and that negative sense of
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"naturalism" is what is intended here. </font></font></font>
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</p>
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<p lang="en-US" dir="rtl" class="western" align="left" style="margin-left: 2.54cm; margin-right: 1.27cm; margin-top: 0.49cm; margin-bottom: 0.49cm; line-height: 100%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">
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<font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman, serif"><font size="3" style="font-size: 12pt"><i><b>F<img src="data:image/png;base64,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" name="OdcNForms_up" align="right" hspace="5" width="60" height="39" border="0">orms.</b></i>
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It is not just God, however, that naturalism denies. Neither are
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there any Platonic Forms. Plato held that there are objects knowable
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only by reason, such as mathematical objects, justice, and the nature
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of human beings, and even The Good Itself, which exist independently
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of the natural world. By that he meant that they existed not only
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outside space, but also outside time, for he he described it as a
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Realm of Being, opposite in nature from the Realm of Becoming, or
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nature. </font></font></font>
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</p>
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<p lang="en-US" dir="rtl" class="western" align="left" style="margin-left: 3.81cm; margin-right: 2.03cm; margin-top: 0.49cm; margin-bottom: 0.49cm; line-height: 100%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">
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<font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman, serif">Plato's
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main reason for postulating the Forms was to explain the nature of
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goodness objectively. He held that all the other forms follow from
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The Good itself, making them, and what participates in them, good.
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But this motive for believing that something exists outside space and
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time now generally takes the form of the belief in a supernatural
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God. Platonism is still defended, however, in the philosophy of
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mathematics. For example, numbers are supposed to be abstract
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objects. But since what makes them abstract is that their existence
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is not supposed to depend on anything located in space and time,
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naturalism must deny their existence. </font></font>
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</p>
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<p lang="en-US" dir="rtl" class="western" align="left" style="margin-left: 2.54cm; margin-right: 1.27cm; margin-top: 0.49cm; margin-bottom: 0.49cm; line-height: 100%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">
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<font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman, serif"><font size="3" style="font-size: 12pt"><i><b>M<img src="data:image/png;base64,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" name="OdcNMinds_up" align="right" hspace="5" width="60" height="40" border="0">inds.</b></i>
|
|
Minds are also denied by naturalism, if they exist outside space, as
|
|
the tradition of modern philosophy would have it. Though Descartes
|
|
assumed that minds are in time, he denied that they are in space. (He
|
|
argued that mind has a unity that precludes its being extended, which
|
|
he took to be the essential property of objects in the natural world.
|
|
Thus, he believed that mind is an opposite kind of substance from
|
|
body, with mind and body existing independently of one another.)
|
|
Insofar as minds are supposed to exist outside space, naturalism must
|
|
deny their existence. </font></font></font>
|
|
</p>
|
|
<p lang="en-US" dir="rtl" class="western" align="left" style="margin-left: 1.27cm; margin-right: 2.54cm; margin-top: 0.49cm; margin-bottom: 0.49cm; line-height: 100%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">
|
|
<font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman, serif"><font size="3" style="font-size: 12pt"><font color="#800000"><font face="Verdana, sans-serif"><b>P<img src="data:image/png;base64,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" name="OdcNProb_up" align="right" hspace="5" width="115" height="51" border="0">roblems.</b></font></font>
|
|
Naturalism holds, therefore, that there is nothing to be explained
|
|
but the natural world. However, that does not mean that it can simply
|
|
deny the existence of Cartesian minds, Platonic Forms, a transcendent
|
|
God, and whatever else is supposed to exist outside either space or
|
|
time. Naturalism must explain everything in space and time, and in
|
|
each case, certain natural phenomena have led people to believe in
|
|
the existence of these supernatural entities. Though those phenomena
|
|
may depend on reflection, not just perception, they are clearly part
|
|
of the natural world, for they occur to subjects like us in space and
|
|
time. Thus, like everything else in space and time, they need to be
|
|
explained. </font></font></font>
|
|
</p>
|
|
<p lang="en-US" dir="rtl" class="western" align="left" style="margin-left: 1.27cm; margin-right: 2.54cm; margin-top: 0.49cm; margin-bottom: 0.49cm; line-height: 100%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">
|
|
<font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman, serif"><font size="3" style="font-size: 12pt"><font face="Verdana, sans-serif"><b>C<img src="data:image/png;base64,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" name="OdcNCon_up" align="right" hspace="5" width="109" height="50" border="0">onsciousness.</b></font>
|
|
What makes the mind seem immaterial is consciousness, that is, the
|
|
way in which whatever we experience has an appearance to us. When we
|
|
perceive a green leaf, for example, the color of the leaf has a
|
|
certain intrinsic quality, and even though that quality seems to be
|
|
located in the leaf, it has an appearance to us which we could not
|
|
explain to someone who was blind from birth. The same holds not only
|
|
for other colors, but also for sounds, odors, tastes, and bodily
|
|
sensations of all kinds. These peculiar objects of reflection are
|
|
called "phenomenal properties," "qualia," "raw
|
|
feels," or the like, and they abound in normal perception. In
|
|
perceiving the leaf, for example, we see many green qualia as
|
|
covering its surface along with color qualia of other kinds on its
|
|
stem and other nearby objects. Other kinds of sensory qualia seem to
|
|
make us aware of its odor, its coolness, its taste, and the like.
|
|
Each simple phenomenal property seems of have a certain location in
|
|
space relative to the others at the time, and in the case of bodily
|
|
sensations, such as itches and pains, they seem to have a locations
|
|
in some part of the body which, in turn, is located in some part of
|
|
the same phenomenal space as other objects of perception. Much the
|
|
same kinds of appearances occur to us in remembering, imagining, and
|
|
any kind of thinking about objects in space, though they are fainter,
|
|
less distinct, and not always as spatially coherent. Indeed, even
|
|
emotions, abstract thoughts, and other mental events have appearances
|
|
for the subject to whom they occur.</font></font></font></p>
|
|
<p lang="en-US" dir="rtl" class="western" align="left" style="margin-left: 2.54cm; margin-right: 1.27cm; margin-top: 0.49cm; margin-bottom: 0.49cm; line-height: 100%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">
|
|
<font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman, serif"><font size="3" style="font-size: 12pt">This
|
|
fact about experience is what will be meant here by "consciousness."
|
|
Consciousness can make it seem that the conscious subject is not just
|
|
an object in space, not merely a body alongside other objects in
|
|
space, because each subjective state involves the appearance of many
|
|
different kinds of qualia (or simple phenomenal properties) to the
|
|
subject at the same time. This is the unity of mind to which
|
|
Descartes pointed in order to show that mind is a basically different
|
|
kind of substance from body. It means that mind cannot be cut up or
|
|
divided into parts like extended objects in space. In other words,
|
|
consciousness is not located in space, like a material object, but
|
|
rather seems to contain a space of its own, because each sensory
|
|
qualia appears to have a spatial location relative to all the others,
|
|
as in the colors that appear to be on the surface of the leaf or its
|
|
stem. Descartes called these appearances "ideas" and the
|
|
subjects to whom they appear "minds," but the natural
|
|
phenomenon to which he was pointing is the fact that there are such
|
|
appearances to beings like us: qualia of many kinds all have
|
|
locations in a phenomenal space, which is distinct from the space in
|
|
which material objects exist. </font></font></font>
|
|
</p>
|
|
<p lang="en-US" dir="rtl" class="western" align="left" style="margin-left: 2.54cm; margin-right: 1.27cm; margin-top: 0.49cm; margin-bottom: 0.49cm; line-height: 100%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">
|
|
<font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman, serif"><font size="3" style="font-size: 12pt">The
|
|
essential difference between mind and body led Descartes to believe
|
|
that mind is a substance that is not located in space at all. Being
|
|
indivisible, mind could not be part of extension, and thus, it was
|
|
supposed to be an immaterial substance. Naturalism must deny that
|
|
there are any minds in that sense. But to be credible, naturalism
|
|
must somehow explain consciousness as a natural phenomenon. For we
|
|
are certainly parts of the natural world, and it is hardly plausible
|
|
to deny that we are conscious.</font></font></font></p>
|
|
<p lang="en-US" dir="rtl" class="western" align="left" style="margin-left: 1.27cm; margin-right: 2.54cm; margin-top: 0.49cm; margin-bottom: 0.49cm; line-height: 100%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">
|
|
<br><br>
|
|
</p>
|
|
<p lang="en-US" dir="rtl" class="western" align="left" style="margin-left: 1.27cm; margin-right: 2.54cm; margin-top: 0.49cm; margin-bottom: 0.49cm; line-height: 100%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">
|
|
<font color="#000000"><font face="Verdana, sans-serif"><font size="3" style="font-size: 12pt"><span lang="en-US"><b>G<img src="data:image/png;base64,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" name="OdcNGood_up" align="right" hspace="5" width="109" height="50" border="0">oodness.
|
|
</b></span></font></font></font><font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman, serif"><font size="3" style="font-size: 12pt"><span lang="en-US">If
|
|
naturalism could explain consciousness in beings like us, it might
|
|
seem that there would be nothing left to explain about Platonic
|
|
Forms, because the abstract objects that appear to the experiencing
|
|
subject in reasoning could be explained in the same way as ideas in
|
|
the mind. (An explanation of abstract entities is, in any case,
|
|
rightly demanded of naturalists, and brief statement of the one given
|
|
here can be found in </span></font></font></font><a href="/F:/Philosophy/Existentialism/The%20Wholeness%20Of%20the%20World/www.twow.net/Lo/L/LoOtjR14.htm" target="Lo"><font color="#0000ff"><font face="Arial, sans-serif"><font size="3" style="font-size: 12pt"><span lang="en-US"><u>Relations:
|
|
Ontological theory of mathematical knowledge</u></span></font></font></font></a><font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman, serif"><font size="3" style="font-size: 12pt"><span lang="en-US">.)
|
|
There is, however, another aspect of the phenomena that led Plato to
|
|
believe in Forms that would remain unexplained. Plato believed in the
|
|
existence of Forms not merely because they are objects of rational
|
|
intuition, but also because he believed that they are ideal and that
|
|
things in nature are striving to be like them. That was his theory
|
|
about the nature of goodness. Just as we try to be virtuous human
|
|
beings, natural objects strive to be like their Forms, because the
|
|
Forms are good. </span></font></font></font>
|
|
</p>
|
|
<p lang="en-US" dir="rtl" class="western" align="left" style="margin-left: 2.54cm; margin-right: 1.27cm; margin-top: 0.49cm; margin-bottom: 0.49cm; line-height: 100%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">
|
|
<font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman, serif"><font size="3" style="font-size: 12pt">Not
|
|
only Platonists believe that there is a real difference between good
|
|
and bad. It seems obvious to many people that goodness is something
|
|
about the object, state, or event that makes it so that it ought to
|
|
exist, whatever we may believe about it. For example, what makes an
|
|
action morally right or wrong for beings like us is something about
|
|
the action itself that makes it worth choosing, not just something we
|
|
may believe or feel about it. Thus, goodness is also an aspect of the
|
|
world that naturalism must explain. </font></font></font>
|
|
</p>
|
|
<p lang="en-US" dir="rtl" class="western" align="left" style="margin-left: 3.81cm; margin-right: 2.03cm; margin-top: 0.49cm; margin-bottom: 0.49cm; line-height: 100%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">
|
|
<font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman, serif">The first
|
|
attempt to explain goodness naturalistically was made by Aristotle.
|
|
He thought that every natural object (as opposed to artifact) changes
|
|
on its own for the sake of attaining an end, or final state, which is
|
|
the fullest actualization of its essential form, and he explained
|
|
this phenomenon by holding that there are "final causes" at
|
|
work in the natural world along with efficient causes. For example,
|
|
the acorn grows into an oak tree because the final cause of its
|
|
natural kind is to be a mature oak tree. Growth and development are
|
|
due to what is called "final causation." Aristotelian
|
|
teleology, as it is called, explains how goodness is something
|
|
objective by postulating a special kind of "force" in
|
|
nature. </font></font>
|
|
</p>
|
|
<p lang="en-US" dir="rtl" class="western" align="left" style="margin-left: 3.81cm; margin-right: 2.03cm; margin-top: 0.49cm; margin-bottom: 0.49cm; line-height: 100%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">
|
|
<font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman, serif">The belief
|
|
in final causation was decisively rejected by most naturalists with
|
|
the rise of modern science in the Renaissance. Modern science began
|
|
with the discovery of laws of nature by which events in nature can be
|
|
predicted, and explanation by such efficient causes was so obviously
|
|
explanatory that, by contrast, explanations by final causes had to be
|
|
rejected as merely descriptions of phenomena which call for
|
|
explanation by efficient causes. Thus, teleology was rejected by
|
|
naturalists. Nor could they reconcile the belief in final causes with
|
|
their new found mechanism by holding that natural objects are
|
|
designed to work mechanically toward certain ends, because that way
|
|
of explaining the objectivity of goodness required them to believe in
|
|
a God who created the natural world.</font></font></p>
|
|
<p lang="en-US" dir="rtl" class="western" align="left" style="margin-left: 3.81cm; margin-right: 2.03cm; margin-top: 0.49cm; margin-bottom: 0.49cm; line-height: 100%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">
|
|
<font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman, serif">Many
|
|
naturalists believe such that a naturalistic explanation of the
|
|
difference between good and bad has been given by Darwin's theory of
|
|
evolution. Darwin showed how organisms acquire traits that seem to be
|
|
directed toward ends as a result of the natural selection of random
|
|
variations on their heritable traits as the organisms succeed in
|
|
reproducing. That explains why organisms seem to be changing in the
|
|
direction of ends which are good for them. Thus, the difference
|
|
between good and bad does not depend on how we feel about it. And
|
|
Darwin's explanation involves only efficient causes. Thus, it is
|
|
sometimes seen as the reduction of teleology to efficient causes. </font></font>
|
|
</p>
|
|
<p lang="en-US" dir="rtl" class="western" align="left" style="margin-left: 3.81cm; margin-right: 2.03cm; margin-top: 0.49cm; margin-bottom: 0.49cm; line-height: 100%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">
|
|
<font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman, serif"><span lang="en-US">However,
|
|
most of those who believe that there is a real difference between
|
|
good and bad and between right and wrong are not satisfied with the
|
|
Darwinian explanation because of its accidentalism. As contemporary
|
|
Darwinists understand it, natural selection is caused by external
|
|
changes in the environment, which are inherently unpredictable, and
|
|
that makes what evolves far too accidental to explain the difference
|
|
between good and bad that is objective in the sense that they mean.
|
|
(For a discussion of its accidentalism, see </span></font></font><a href="/F:/Philosophy/Existentialism/The%20Wholeness%20Of%20the%20World/www.twow.net/Lo/L/LoOtkCbGeRAccidentalism.htm" target="Lo"><font color="#0000ff"><font face="Times New Roman, serif"><span lang="en-US"><u>Change:
|
|
Accidentalism.</u></span></font></font></a><font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman, serif"><span lang="en-US">)
|
|
They will insist that there is more for naturalism to explain about
|
|
this phenomenon before they will be convinced that the world is just
|
|
the natural world. Teleology is, therefore, still a problem for
|
|
naturalism.</span></font></font></p>
|
|
<p lang="en-US" dir="rtl" class="western" align="left" style="margin-left: 1.27cm; margin-right: 2.54cm; margin-top: 0.49cm; margin-bottom: 0.49cm; line-height: 100%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">
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<font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman, serif"><font size="3" style="font-size: 12pt"><font face="Verdana, sans-serif"><b>H<img src="data:image/png;base64,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" name="OdcNHol_up" align="right" hspace="5" width="110" height="51" border="0">oliness.</b></font>
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Again, however, it might seem that if naturalism could give an
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adequate explanation of the objective difference between good and
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bad, it would not be necessary to explain the belief in God. God has
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been the traditional foundation for explaining why good is different
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from bad, for it is supposed to come down to his inscrutable purpose
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in creating the natural world. But even if there were a naturalistic
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explanation of the difference between good and bad, many who believe
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in God would not be satisfied, because what they believe in is not
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just that there is an objective difference between good and bad. They
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also believe that there is something worthy of worship, something so
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inherently good that we ought to accept it as the highest good,
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submit our wills to it, and treat it in a uniquely reverential way,
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that is, as something sacred or holy. The faithful believe that they
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have experiences of a kind that reveal the actual existence of such a
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thing to them, and the universality of religion among the cultures of
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the world makes this a phenomenon that must also be explained by
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naturalism, even though it denies there is any God existing outside
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space or time. </font></font></font>
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</p>
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<p lang="en-US" dir="rtl" class="western" align="left" style="margin-left: 1.27cm; margin-right: 2.54cm; margin-top: 0.49cm; margin-bottom: 0.49cm; line-height: 100%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">
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<font color="#000000"> <font face="Times New Roman, serif"><font size="3" style="font-size: 12pt"><span lang="en-US">One
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way for naturalists to explain consciousness, the belief in a real
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difference between good and bad, and the sense that there is
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something in the world worthy of worship is to deny the reality of
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these phenomena. Naturalists can hold, in other words, that their
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critics are simply mistaken in how they describe these phenomena --
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that what is being referred to is something quite different from what
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they believe. </span></font></font></font>
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</p>
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<p lang="en-US" dir="rtl" class="western" align="left" style="margin-left: 3.81cm; margin-right: 2.03cm; margin-top: 0.49cm; margin-bottom: 0.49cm; line-height: 100%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">
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<font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman, serif">Consciousness
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might be dismissed as a belief that results from a linguistic
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confusion (such as the belief in a "private language" or
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the acceptance of "folk psychology"). </font></font>
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</p>
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<p lang="en-US" dir="rtl" class="western" align="left" style="margin-left: 3.81cm; margin-right: 2.03cm; margin-top: 0.49cm; margin-bottom: 0.49cm; line-height: 100%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">
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<font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman, serif">The belief
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in a real difference between good and bad might be explained away as
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a mere projection of our subjective feelings onto the world (in much
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the same way as objects in nature seem to have the colors and other
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phenomenal properties that are just ideas in the mind). </font></font>
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</p>
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<p lang="en-US" dir="rtl" class="western" align="left" style="margin-left: 3.81cm; margin-right: 2.03cm; margin-top: 0.49cm; margin-bottom: 0.49cm; line-height: 100%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">
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<font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman, serif">And the
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belief in something worthy of worship might be explained as simply
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what is feels like to submit to a higher authority. </font></font>
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</p>
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<p lang="en-US" dir="rtl" class="western" align="left" style="margin-left: 2.54cm; margin-right: 1.27cm; margin-top: 0.49cm; margin-bottom: 0.49cm; line-height: 100%; widows: 0; orphans: 0">
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<font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman, serif"><font size="3" style="font-size: 12pt">Naturalists
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have given such explanations in the past. But they have not convinced
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those who take these phenomena to be real, and thus, naturalism has
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rightly been treated as just one possible view of the world among
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others. Though naturalism may be plausible to many people without an
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adequate explanation of these phenomena, there is good reason to
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doubt its truth as long as these explanations are not accepted as
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adequate by those who appeal to these phenomena. Theists, mind-body
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dualists, and those who believe in objective goodness are rational
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beings too, and if naturalism is a reasonable view, it should be
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reasonable to them. Thus, the burden that naturalism must bear is
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rather large. It must be able to explain <i>everything </i>in the
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world, including these problematic phenomena, to the satisfaction of
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every rational being, including those who have been led to believe in
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entities existing outside space or time — that is, as long as they
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are willing to give reasons and not just be arbitrary and dogmatic in
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their assertions about what exists. </font></font></font>
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</p>
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