The orders of nature / Lawrence Cahoone.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Cahoone, Lawrence E., 1954-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Naturalism.

Physical Description:

xii, 375 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Albany : SUNY Press, [2013]

Summary:

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. Book jacket.

Contents:

From pluralism to naturalism

A selective history of naturalism

Reduction, emergence, and physicalism

Concepts for a pluralistic nature

The physical order

The achievements of matter

The phenomena of life

Mind and the hard problems

Meanings of the cultural mind

The evolution of knowledge

A ground of nature?

Natural religion.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781438444154

143844415X

OCLC:

772525847