Nature: Its Conceptual Architecture

ISBN-13: 9783034315777 / Angielski / Miękka / 2014 / 336 str.

Louis Caruana

Opis

Many philosophers adopt methods that emulate those of the natural sciences. They call such an overall approach naturalism, and consider it indispensable for fruitful philosophical debate in various areas. In spite of this consensus however, little is ever said about how naturalism depends on the underlying idea of nature, which we often endorse unconsciously. If we can determine how naturalism reflects an underlying account of nature, we would be in a better position to distinguish between different kinds of naturalism and to assess the merits of each. This book undertakes a sustained study of the concept of nature to answer this need. It examines in detail how conceptual, historical, and scientific constraints affect the concept of nature in various domains of philosophy, and how, in the opposite sense, these constraints are themselves affected by the concept of nature. In so doing, this book relates the conceptual framework of scientific inquiry back to the lived experience that is proper to everyday self-understanding.

Spis treści

Contents: Nature: a short history - Explaining Nature - Causes - The Limits of Causation - Nature and ordinary language - Nature and Meaning - Levels in Nature - Nature, Evolution and Mind - Nature, Value, and Morality - Nature and Concepts.

O autorze

Louis Caruana, S.J., obtained his PhD from the University of Cambridge, and is now Dean of Philosophy at the Gregorian University, Rome, and Research Associate of Heythrop College, University of London, where he used to be Reader. His published books and research papers deal with points of interaction between philosophy of science, metaphysics, and philosophy of religion.