Q&A: Naturalism
Naturalism
Question
Good evening!
I don’t understand several points about philosophical naturalism:
1. Naturalism argues that there are no teleological explanations, and if I understand correctly that means that nothing operates because it was planned in advance for some purpose; rather, it simply exists. If so, this is difficult for me, because when a person sets himself the goal of eating, then the definition is not that there is purposeful planning, but that this is the person’s existence. But when a person creates a computer that works according to an algorithm, why is that not called having a teleological purpose?
2. What does the naturalistic definition add beyond Aristotle’s view that there is no striving toward an ideal, but rather everything simply exists and that’s it? Isn’t that exactly the naturalistic definition?
3. Naturalists also claim that there is no such thing as the supernatural by definition, meaning that something supernatural does not exist. What is difficult for me is that this is basically a description of a material world in which there is no duality, or do they mean that even if there is spirit, it can still be explained?
Also, it isn’t clear to me whether their starting point is that reason can understand everything. If so, how do they manage with Kant’s remarks about the noumena?
Thank you very much
Answer
I didn’t understand your use of the term ‘naturalistic.’ That isn’t the accepted usage. The opposite of teleological is causal, not naturalistic.
- Those who deny teleology say that teleological intuitions are fictions. There is always a cause in the background.
- I didn’t understand even a single pair of words here.
- I didn’t understand anything.
- I suggest you ask each question separately and not several questions together, but define the question clearly. It is also advisable to use terms in their accepted sense; otherwise it is hard to understand.
Thank you very much!
I assume I’ll wait for another opportunity to phrase the questions differently (by the way, some of them are based on a description from Wikipedia). I’m just writing from an old phone, and every question is really torture…