Naturalism and Religion by Oppy Graham;

Author:Oppy, Graham;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Routledge

1.9 Epistemological commitments of naturalism

We turn, next, to a consideration of the epistemological commitments of naturalism. Rea cites examples such as the following:

It is within science itself, and not in some prior philosophy, that reality is to be identified and described.

Quine (1981: 21)

There is only one way of knowing: the empirical way that is the basis of science (whatever that way may be).

Devitt (1998: 45)

In Rea’s opinion:

It is hard to see how epistemological theses like these could be presented as versions of naturalism without being either self-defeating or otherwise unacceptable from a naturalistic point of view. … [For] suppose one of [these theses] is proposed as a version of naturalism. As such, it would have to be consistent with the methodological dispositions distinctive of naturalism. But then it must not be an empirical thesis. For … theses refutable by science cannot plausibly count as versions of naturalism because naturalism involves, first and foremost, a commitment to follow science wherever it leads. Thus [these theses] would have to be taken as theses justified, if at all, by methods other than the methods of science. But now they truly are self-defeating. For … by their own lights they are precisely the sorts of theses that must be justified by scientific methods if at all.

(2002: 60–63)

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