Dewey, John - Antinaturalism In Extremis

05/08/2009

Naturalism & The Human Spirit, ch 1 Columbia University Press, 1944

This paper is more polemical and rhetorical than many current philosophy papers usually are. The main point is to defend naturalism from criticism leveled by 'supernaturalists'. Author argues against what he considers to be the orthodox position that moral virtue is only acquired through supernatural means, instead arguing that all virtues we find worthwhile come solely from human nature. Author considers this the 'Pauline' and 'Augustinian' doctrines of natural degradation and supernatural salvation. (pg2)

Author points out the tremendous advancement that naturalism (in this case considered scientific materialism) has made through the centuries and how the same scientific inquiries relating to humans have been blocked by a religion's supernaturalist doctrines (pg3-4).

The main bulk of the paper is devoted to taking examples of anti-naturalist statements and rebutting or attacking them. (part II) Notably GK Chesterton writes that democracy would not survive if it didn't have a catholic or christian underpinning (pg8), to which author responds with a fundamental thesis: 'naturalism finds the values in question, the worth and dignity of men and women, residing in human nature itself, in the connections, actual and potential, that human beings sustain to one another in the natural environment.' (pg9)

The consequences of being an anti-naturalist, author argues, is to discount the natural resources available for the betterment of humans and to discount the possibility of gains made by the sciences into human nature. (pg10-11) The biggest rub comes from the problem of whether to accept the numerous biological findings placing humankind 'squarely within the natural world' (pg11). Yet at the same time (some) anti-naturalists wish to deny that humans are 'simply a highly developed animal' (pg7). This tension leave anti-naturalists in a contradictory position when it comes to accepting scientific discovery.

The final discussion is about moral virtue and normative standards; anti-naturalists hold that naturalism cannot provide for them. (pg12-15) Author finds this is a deeply pessimistic view of human nature, and of scientific progress.