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Circa 2020 / Excerpt
Circa 2020 / Excerpt
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naturalism_(philosophy)#Methodological_naturalism


'''''Methodological naturalism'''''
'''''Methodological naturalism'''''

Revision as of 13:16, 20 October 2021

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Naturalism, Philosophy

Via Wikipedia

Circa 2020 / Excerpt


Methodological naturalism

Methodological naturalism, this second sense of the term "naturalism", seeks to provide a framework of acquiring knowledge that requires scientists to seek explanations of how the world around us functions based on what we can observe, test, replicate and verify. It is a distinct system of thought concerned with a cognitive approach to reality, and is thus a philosophy of knowledge. It is a self-imposed convention of science that attempts to explain and test scientific endeavors, hypotheses, and events with reference to natural causes and events. [48]

Steven Schafersman states that methodological naturalism is "the adoption or assumption of philosophical naturalism within the scientific method with or without fully accepting or believing it ... science is not metaphysical and does not depend on the ultimate truth of any metaphysics for its success, but methodological naturalism must be adopted as a strategy or working hypothesis for science to succeed. We may therefore be agnostic about the ultimate truth of naturalism, but must nevertheless adopt it and investigate nature as if nature is all that there is."[25]

Studies by sociologist Elaine Ecklund suggest that religious scientists in practice apply methodological naturalism. They report that their religious beliefs affect the way they think about the implications – often moral – of their work, but not the way they practice science.[49]

In a series of articles and books from 1996 onward, Robert T. Pennock wrote using the term "methodological naturalism" to clarify that the scientific method confines itself to natural explanations without assuming the existence or non-existence of the supernatural, and is not based on dogmatic metaphysical naturalism. Pennock's testimony as an expert witness[50] at the Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District trial was cited by the Judge in his Memorandum Opinion concluding that "Methodological naturalism is a 'ground rule' of science today":[51]

"Expert testimony reveals that since the scientific revolution of the 16th and 17th centuries, science has been limited to the search for natural causes to explain natural phenomena.... While supernatural explanations may be important and have merit, they are not part of science." " It is a "ground rule" that "requires scientists to seek explanations in the world around us based upon what we can observe, test, replicate, and verify.[48]

Eugene Scott stated:

A clear distinction must be drawn between science [methodological naturalism] as a way of knowing about the natural world and science [philosophical naturalism] as a foundation for philosophical views. One should be taught to our children in school, and the other can optionally be taught to our children at home. ... Even someone who may disagree with my logic or understanding of philosophy of science often understands the strategic reasons for separating methodological from philosophical materialism [naturalism]—if we want more Americans to understand evolution.[52] She suggests that scientists can defuse some of the opposition to evolution by first recognizing that the vast majority of Americans are believers, and that most Americans want to retain their faith. She believes that individuals can retain religious beliefs and still accept evolution through methodological naturalism. Scientists should threfore avoid mentioning metaphysical naturalism and use methodological naturalism instead.[53] Schafersman writes that "while science as a process only requires methodological naturalism, I think that the assumption of methodological naturalism by scientists and others logically and morally entails ontological naturalism",[25] and "I maintain that the practice or adoption of methodological naturalism entails a logical and moral belief in ontological naturalism, so they are not logically decoupled."[25] Strahler agrees: "The naturalistic [ontological] view is that the particular universe we observe came into existence and has operated through all time and in all its parts without the impetus or guidance of any supernatural agency. The naturalistic view is espoused by science as its fundamental assumption."[29]


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Remember, in our deepest soul, is our nature, ourselves, our inherited humanity. Unmediated, without any modern device in our hands, or in front of our face delivering content and data. Nature is not mediated. Nature is best delivered as is, nature unspoiled, to be taken in, to reveal the natural world and change our world naturally, to show us, educate us, help us become more of our true and better selves. -- GreenPolicy360


Nature was always present... It was participant, impetus, and catalyst. It was the riches that made nations wealthy and powerful, and over which their armies fought; it was the wildness our ancestors insisted on taming, the scourge that left them despairing, and the blessing that kept them alive. How and where and by what design people built their homes and businesses depended on natural conditions and endowments. Inspirations for what people wrote and painted, what they wore, and said to each other, how they planned their day and spent their leisure time, and what they chose as a livelihood all flowed from an organic setting. Nature shaped strategies in war and gave form to economics, and its wealth or privation determined that of people and their enterprises.

-- The Gulf
by Jack E. Davis


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