DOCSLIB.ORG

The Argument from Logical Principles Against Materialism: a Version of the Argument from Reason

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
The Argument from Logical Principles Against Materialism: a Version of the Argument from Reason University of Calgary PRISM: University of Calgary's Digital Repository Graduate Studies The Vault: Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2019-04-30 The Argument from Logical Principles Against Materialism: A Version of the Argument from Reason Hawkes, Gordon Hawkes, G. (2019). The Argument from Logical Principles Against Materialism: A Version of the Argument from Reason (Unpublished master's thesis). University of Calgary, Calgary, AB. http://hdl.handle.net/1880/110301 master thesis University of Calgary graduate students retain copyright ownership and moral rights for their thesis. You may use this material in any way that is permitted by the Copyright Act or through licensing that has been assigned to the document. For uses that are not allowable under copyright legislation or licensing, you are required to seek permission. Downloaded from PRISM: https://prism.ucalgary.ca UNIVERSITY OF CALGARY The Argument from Logical Principles Against Materialism: A Version of the Argument from Reason by Gordon Hawkes A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS GRADUATE PROGRAM IN PHILOSOPHY CALGARY, ALBERTA APRIL, 2019 © Gordon Hawkes 2019 i Abstract The argument from reason is the name given to a family of arguments against naturalism, materialism, or determinism, and often for theism or dualism. One version of the argument from reason is what Victor Reppert calls “the argument from the psychological relevance of logical laws,” or what I call “the argument from logical principles.” This argument has received little attention in the literature, despite being advanced by Victor Reppert, Karl Popper, and Thomas Nagel. The versions of it that exist are more outlines than fully developed arguments. My aim in this thesis is (i) to clarify the argument, especially with regard to what issues are at stake; (ii) to develop the argument beyond Popper and Reppert’s initial versions of it; and (iii) to evaluate it as an anti-materialist argument. I have isolated five key premises in the argument: (1) the laws of logic are objectively real, (2) the laws of logic are abstract entities, (3) materialism entails that we cannot have knowledge of abstract entities, (4) knowledge of logical principles is essential for justified rational inferences, and (5) we have knowledge of logical principles. I break down each premise in detail, evaluating each in light of materialist responses. The goal of this thesis, then, is to fill in the gaps, so to speak, in an argument that merits more attention than it has received up until now. ii Acknowledgements First and foremost, I want to thank my wife, Sarah, who has supported me through all stages of this project. I couldn’t have done it without you. Would you like to go for a walk now? Thank you to my daughter, Emma, for constantly reminding me to get to work. (“Get in your office, daddy! You need to write your thesis!”) Even though I know you’ll never read it, I must thank you, Denise, for all you’ve done. “The Best = Denise Retzlaff” really is a tautology at this point. Justin Caouette, you were an invaluable mentor. Aaron Thomas-Bolduc, thanks for answering many of my logic questions. Mark, Ann, and Nicole, thank you for providing a spirit of fun in the department. To my office mate, Rob Armstrong: thanks for the late night conversations when I should have been working, for The Protomen, and for eating all my ham. To all my friends and family who prayed for me, encouraged me, dropped off meals when we were sick (especially in the last few weeks of writing), thank you. There are too many of you to list here, and I’m blessed to have you all in my life. John Baker, I thought you were a ruthless philosopher, demanding and exacting in argument; it turns out you’re a saint: thank you for giving up an entire day to help me format this beast. Last but not least, thank you, Noa, for shepherding this project from start to finish. I enjoyed our conversations very much, and thank you for challenging my thinking all along the way. iii Table of Contents I. A Very Brief History of the Argument from Reason ............................................................. 1 Overview ..................................................................................................................................... 1 A Very Brief History of the Argument from Reason .................................................................. 1 Karl Popper’s Argument from Logical Principles ....................................................................... 8 Thesis Statement .......................................................................................................................... 9 II. The Argument From Logical Principles .............................................................................. 12 A. The Argument from Logical Principles ................................................................................ 12 A1. Popper’s Reconstructed Argument ..................................................................................... 15 The Key Question in Popper’s Argument: By What Standards Is It Valid or Invalid? ......... 18 Physicalistic Alternatives to Abstract Non-Corporeal World 3 Objects as the Standards of Logic ...................................................................................................................................... 20 Popper’s Argument in Syllogistic Form ................................................................................ 23 Criticisms of Popper’s Argument ........................................................................................... 31 A2. Reppert’s “Argument from the Psychological Relevance of Logical Laws” ..................... 33 Reppert’s Argument in Syllogistic Form ............................................................................... 34 Reppert’s Argument Summary .............................................................................................. 39 Improvements in Reppert’s Argument ................................................................................... 39 Problems with Reppert’s Argument ....................................................................................... 40 B. The Key Premises ................................................................................................................. 41 i. Logical principles are objectively real. ............................................................................... 42 ii. Logical principles are non-physical, abstract entities. ....................................................... 42 iii. Causal closure entails that we cannot have knowledge of non-physical entities. ............. 43 iv. Logical principles play an essential role in the process of rational inference. .................. 44 v. We know the principles of logic. ....................................................................................... 44 C. The Form and Type of the Argument ................................................................................... 46 i. The Target of the Argument from Reason .......................................................................... 46 ii. The Three Stages of the Argument from Reason ............................................................... 55 iii. The Type of Argument ..................................................................................................... 57 iv. Logical Contradiction vs. Performative Contradiction ..................................................... 66 D. Three Ways to Object to the Argument............................................................................. 68 III. The Ontological Status of Logical Principles ..................................................................... 70 Overview: .................................................................................................................................. 70 A. An Initial Sketch of the Principles of Logic ...................................................................... 70 B. The Ontological Status of the Principles of Logic and Mathematical Objects Compared (and Contrasted) ..................................................................................................................... 73 Part I. Logical Principles Exist and Are Objective .................................................................... 76 The Meaning of “Objective” and “Subjective” ...................................................................... 77 Monism, Pluralism, and Instrumentalism .............................................................................. 80 Is Logic Revisable? ................................................................................................................ 82 The Case for Objective Logical Principles ............................................................................ 86 Nagel’s Argument Against Subjectivism and for Logical Realism ....................................... 89 Summary of Part I .................................................................................................................. 96 Part II. Logical Principles are Non-Physical Abstract Objects ................................................. 98 A. Overview ........................................................................................................................... 98 B. What Are “Abstract Objects”? ........................................................................................ 100 iv C. What Are
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Critical Theory, Historical Materialism, and the Ostensible End of Marxism: the Poverty of Theory Revisited
    Critical Theory, Historical Materialism, and the Ostensible End of Marxism: The Poverty of Theory Revisited BRYAN D. PALMER Summary: This essay notes the extent to which poststructuralism/postmodernism have generally espoused hostility to historical materialism, surveys some representative examples of historical writing that have gravitated toward the new critical theory in opposition to Marxism, and closes with a discussion of the ironic evolution of a poststructurally inclined, anti-Marxist historiography. Counter to the prevailing ideological consensus that Marxism has been brought to its interpretive knees by a series of analytic challenges and the political collapse of the world's ostensibly "socialist" states, this essay argues that historical materialism has lost neither its power to interpret the past nor its relevance to the contemporary intellectual terrain. It is now a decade-and-one-half since Edward Thompson penned The Poverty of Theory: or an Orrery of Errors, and ten times as many years have passed since the publication of Marx's The Poverty of Philosophy.1 Whatever one may think about the advances in knowledge associated with historical materialism and Marxism, particularly in terms of the practice of historical writing, there is no denying that this sesquicentennial has been a problematic period in the making of communist society; the last fifteen years, moreover, are associated with the bleak end of socialism and the passing of Marxism as an intellectual force. Indeed, it is a curious conjuncture of our times that the
    [Show full text]
  • Network Map of Knowledge And
    Humphry Davy George Grosz Patrick Galvin August Wilhelm von Hofmann Mervyn Gotsman Peter Blake Willa Cather Norman Vincent Peale Hans Holbein the Elder David Bomberg Hans Lewy Mark Ryden Juan Gris Ian Stevenson Charles Coleman (English painter) Mauritz de Haas David Drake Donald E. Westlake John Morton Blum Yehuda Amichai Stephen Smale Bernd and Hilla Becher Vitsentzos Kornaros Maxfield Parrish L. Sprague de Camp Derek Jarman Baron Carl von Rokitansky John LaFarge Richard Francis Burton Jamie Hewlett George Sterling Sergei Winogradsky Federico Halbherr Jean-Léon Gérôme William M. Bass Roy Lichtenstein Jacob Isaakszoon van Ruisdael Tony Cliff Julia Margaret Cameron Arnold Sommerfeld Adrian Willaert Olga Arsenievna Oleinik LeMoine Fitzgerald Christian Krohg Wilfred Thesiger Jean-Joseph Benjamin-Constant Eva Hesse `Abd Allah ibn `Abbas Him Mark Lai Clark Ashton Smith Clint Eastwood Therkel Mathiassen Bettie Page Frank DuMond Peter Whittle Salvador Espriu Gaetano Fichera William Cubley Jean Tinguely Amado Nervo Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay Ferdinand Hodler Françoise Sagan Dave Meltzer Anton Julius Carlson Bela Cikoš Sesija John Cleese Kan Nyunt Charlotte Lamb Benjamin Silliman Howard Hendricks Jim Russell (cartoonist) Kate Chopin Gary Becker Harvey Kurtzman Michel Tapié John C. Maxwell Stan Pitt Henry Lawson Gustave Boulanger Wayne Shorter Irshad Kamil Joseph Greenberg Dungeons & Dragons Serbian epic poetry Adrian Ludwig Richter Eliseu Visconti Albert Maignan Syed Nazeer Husain Hakushu Kitahara Lim Cheng Hoe David Brin Bernard Ogilvie Dodge Star Wars Karel Capek Hudson River School Alfred Hitchcock Vladimir Colin Robert Kroetsch Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai Stephen Sondheim Robert Ludlum Frank Frazetta Walter Tevis Sax Rohmer Rafael Sabatini Ralph Nader Manon Gropius Aristide Maillol Ed Roth Jonathan Dordick Abdur Razzaq (Professor) John W.
    [Show full text]
  • Over Francis Bacon Van Verulam En De Methode Van Natuuronderzoek. Justus Von Liebig
    Over Francis Bacon van Verulam en de methode van natuuronderzoek. Justus von Liebig. https://archive.org/details/ueberfrancisbaco00lieb/page/n9 Dit is een geannoteerde vertaling van Ueber Francis Bacon von Verulam und die Methode der Naturforschung (1863) door Justus von Liebig (1803-1873). Noten van de vertaler zijn aangegeven met nummers in teksthaken [ ]. De vertaling is geïnspireerd door een artikel van E.-J. Wagenmakers in Skepter 32.2 (zomer 2019) getiteld: ‘Het plagiaat van Lord Francis Bacon’. Liebigs verhandeling is de schriftelijke weergave van een rede voor de k. Akademie der Wisschenschaften te München op 28 maart 1863. Justus von Liebig was sinds 1859 president van deze Akademie. In Reden und Abhandlungen von Justus von Liebig, (onder redactie van M. Carriere), C. F. Winter’sche Verlagshandlung, Leipzig und Heidelberg, 1874, staat een kortere – wellicht de oorspronkelijke – versie. In deze Reden und Abhandlungen staat een tweetal zeer lezenswaardige reacties (samen nog langer dan de toespraak in de Reden zelf) op kritiek van de zijde van een professor in de filosofie, Christoph von Sigwart (Liebig schrijft Siegwart). Sigwart had uitvoerig betoogd dat Bacons filosofie nergens op sloeg, maar dat Leibig toch te streng was wat betreft Bacons relatie met de natuurwetenschap. Een Engelse vertaling verscheen in twee delen in Macmillan’s Magazine, juli en augustus 1863. Ook daarin ontbreken sommige passages die in de Duitse versie van 1863 staan. Voor de Engelse vertalingen van teksten uit Novum Organum is de vertaling van J. Spedding uit 1858 gebruikt. De vertaler Jan Willem Nienhuys Voorwoord Twintig jaar geleden had een reeks onderzoekingen naar de levensvoorwaarden van planten en dieren mij tot duidelijker inzichten gebracht dan die toentertijd golden.
    [Show full text]
  • Chapter 1, the Sense and Task of Phenomenological Research
    University of Alberta Heidegger’s Critique of the Cartesian Problem of Scepticism by Sean Daniel Hartford A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Philosophy ©Sean Daniel Hartford Spring 2010 Edmonton, Alberta Permission is hereby granted to the University of Alberta Libraries to reproduce single copies of this thesis and to lend or sell such copies for private, scholarly or scientific research purposes only. Where the thesis is converted to, or otherwise made available in digital form, the University of Alberta will advise potential users of the thesis of these terms. The author reserves all other publication and other rights in association with the copyright in the thesis and, except as herein before provided, neither the thesis nor any substantial portion thereof may be printed or otherwise reproduced in any material form whatsoever without the author's prior written permission. Examining Committee Dr. Marie-Eve Morin, Philosophy, University of Alberta Dr. Robert Burch, Philosophy, University of Alberta Dr. Wesley Cooper, Philosophy, University of Alberta Dr. Leo Mos, Psychology, University of Alberta Abstract: This thesis deals with Martin Heidegger’s critique of the Cartesian problem of scepticism in Being and Time. In addition to the critique itself, Heidegger’s position with regards to the sense and task of phenomenological research, as well as fundamental ontology, is discussed as a necessary underpinning of his critique. Finally, the objection to Heidegger’s critique that is raised by Charles Guignon in his book, Heidegger and the Problem of Knowledge, (namely, that it suffers from the problem of reflexivity) is evaluated.
    [Show full text]
  • CURRICULUM VITAE (Last Revised 10/19/2017)
    CURRICULUM VITAE (Last Revised 10/19/2017) KEITH McKENDREE PARSONS POSITION: Professor of Philosophy University of Houston-Clear Lake Dates of Employment: September 1, 1996 to present. Assistant Professor, 9/96-9/2002 Associate Professor, 9/2002-9/2006 Promoted to Professor, 9/2006 ADDRESS: Box #296 University of Houston-Clear Lake 2700 Bay Area Boulevard Houston, TX 77058 Office Phone: (281) 283-3361 Home Phone: (281) 309-1944 E-mail: [email protected] EDUCATION: Ph.D.--History and Philosophy of Science, The University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA; 1996 Dissertation: Wrongheaded Science? Rationality, Constructivism, and Dinosaurs; Supervisor: James Lennox Ph.D.--Philosophy, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada; 1986 Dissertation: Science, Confirmation, and the Theistic Hypothesis; Supervisor: C.G. Prado; M.A.--Philosophy, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA; 1982 Thesis: Miracles and Christian Apologetics; Supervisor: James Humber Master of Theological Studies--Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia; 1981; awarded cum laude B.A.--Religion and Philosophy, Berry College, Rome, Georgia; 1974; awarded magna cum laude AREAS OF SPECIALIZATION: Philosophy of Science; History of Science and Technology; Philosophy of Religion AREAS OF COMPETENCE: Darwinism; History of Philosophy; Logic; Critical Thinking PUBLICATIONS: Books: Polarized: Confronting the Collapse of Truth, Civility, and Community in Divided Times, Co-authored with Paris N. Donehoo, D. Min. Prometheus Books, (forthcoming, 2018). Bombing The Marshall Islands: A Cold War Tragedy. Co- authored with Robert Zaballa, Ph.D. Cambridge University Press (2017). It Started with Copernicus; extensively revised and expanded (three new chapters) edition of Copernican Questions, Prometheus Books (2014). Selected by Choice Reviews as an Outstanding Academic Title in 2015.
    [Show full text]
  • Materialism and Metaphysics Mcluhan Between Innis and Teilhard De Chardin
    Conference: Re-reading McLuhan Bayreuth, Feb. 2007 Hartmut Winkler Materialism and Metaphysics McLuhan between Innis and Teilhard de Chardin. translated by Michael Barchet 1 McLuhan Strictly speaking, my paper shall neither attempt a re-reading nor a novel interpretation of McLuhan. What I am rather interested in, however, is the specific direction media discourse took with McLuhan – especially since this direction is still vivid in our days. Although my paper starts with McLuhan, it actually takes the opposite way from the present back to McLuhan. Let me begin with an irritation. It has caught the attention of many, who have read McLuhan more carefully, and there are countless rather astonished comments: While Understanding Media in 1964 presents a point of view that is relaxed, easy going, ironic and utterly sympathetic with the media in a manner very much of this world, and also refuses for the most part to apply moral considerations, McLuhan’s first book about media, The Mechanical Bride made its points in 1951 by an explicitly judgemental, moral critique of the media.1 His second book made McLuhan more famous than The Mechanical Bride could have ever done, and this was certainly well deserved. Undoubtedly, the new media-friendly attitude must be seen as an achievement and the renunciation of moral considerations may well have made possible a new kind of neutral description. Yet what happened between the two books? How did this switch of positions come to pass, this drastic change of attitude? In his biography2, Marchand notes a turning point in 1953 – years before the National Association of Educational Broadcasters (NAEB) commissioned McLuhan to conduct the research that would be the basis of Understanding Media.3 Marchand offers a biographical explanation: McLuhan encountered the books by Harold Innis, who had approached the subject of media from the very worldly aspect of economics.
    [Show full text]
  • Priestley and Kant on Materialism
    Intellectual History Review ISSN: 1749-6977 (Print) 1749-6985 (Online) Journal homepage: https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rihr20 Priestley and Kant on materialism Udo Thiel To cite this article: Udo Thiel (2020) Priestley and Kant on materialism, Intellectual History Review, 30:1, 129-143 To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/17496977.2020.1688481 © 2019 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group Published online: 19 Dec 2019. Submit your article to this journal View related articles View Crossmark data Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at https://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=rihr20 INTELLECTUAL HISTORY REVIEW 2020, VOL. 30, NO. 1, 129–143 https://doi.org/10.1080/17496977.2020.1688481 Priestley and Kant on materialism Udo Thiel Department of Philosophy, University of Graz, Graz, Austria ABSTRACT KEYWORDS Kant maintains in the Critique of Pure Reason that both materialism materialism; soul; and spiritualism cannot explain our existence. This paper argues that consciousness; unity; Kant’s relation to (psychological) materialism is more complex than simplicity; identity; this rejection suggests and is usually thought, and it evaluates this apperception relation in a new and more positive light. The paper shows that Priestley anticipates some of Kant’s arguments against rationalist psychology, and that Kant’s rejection of materialism does not commit him to an immaterialist metaphysics of the soul. These arguments involve a discussion of the problem of the unity of consciousness and of notions such as simplicity and identity. Kant argues in the Critique of Pure Reason that materialism is “incapable” of “explaining my existence”.1,2 Several commentators, including, notably, Henry Allison, take Kant’s rejection of materialism to be a “refutation”, suggesting that Kant attempts to prove that materialism, as a metaphysical thesis, is false.
    [Show full text]
  • The Relationship Between Consciousness and Intentionality
    University of Central Florida STARS HIM 1990-2015 2013 The relationship between consciousness and intentionality Jordan Bell University of Central Florida Part of the Philosophy Commons Find similar works at: https://stars.library.ucf.edu/honorstheses1990-2015 University of Central Florida Libraries http://library.ucf.edu This Open Access is brought to you for free and open access by STARS. It has been accepted for inclusion in HIM 1990-2015 by an authorized administrator of STARS. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Recommended Citation Bell, Jordan, "The relationship between consciousness and intentionality" (2013). HIM 1990-2015. 1384. https://stars.library.ucf.edu/honorstheses1990-2015/1384 THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CONSCIOUSNESS AND INTENTIONALITY by JORDAN BELL A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Honors in the Major Program in Philosophy in the College of Arts & Humanities and in The Burnett Honors College at the University of Central Florida Orlando, Florida Spring Term 2013 Thesis Chair: Dr. Mason Cash ABSTRACT Within the Philosophy of Mind two features of our mental life have been acknowledged as the most perplexing—consciousness, the phenomenal “what it is likeness” of our mental states, and intentionality, the aboutness or directedness of our mental states. As such, it has become commonplace to develop theories about these phenomena which seek to explain them naturalistically, that is, without resort to magic or miracles. Traditionally this has been done by analyzing consciousness and intentionality apart from one another. However, in more recent years the tide has turned. In contemporary theories these phenomena are typically analyzed in terms of the other.
    [Show full text]
  • Ronald Endicott, “Multiple Realizability” (Final Draft) Forthcoming in the Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2Nd Edition, Macmillan Press, 2005
    Ronald Endicott, “Multiple Realizability” (Final Draft) Forthcoming in the Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2nd Edition, MacMillan Press, 2005 Multiple realizability is a key issue in debates over the nature of mind and reduction in the sciences. The subject consists of two parts: “multiplicity” and “realizability.” “Multiplicity” designates a kind of variability in the mechanism and materials from which a particular type of thing can be made. “Realizability” designates a specific relation that exists when there is the stated variability. Realizability Apart from the broad folk notion of realization meaning that a thing is “made real,” philosophers apply several technical notions to paradigm cases such computational states realized by engineering states, minds realized by brains, and persons realized by their bodies. The technical notions fall into three broad traditions: “mathematical,” “logico- semantic,” and “metaphysical.” The mathematical tradition equates realization with a form of mapping between objects. Generally speaking, x mathematically realizes y because elements of y map onto elements of x. The notion is useful for many purposes, for example, when constructing a formal model of a particular domain. However, since mapping extends to models as well as reality, it fails to distinguish between “simulated” versus “genuine” realizations. Heavenly stars can be mapped onto grains of sand, but grains of sand do not realize heavenly stars in any genuine sense. Similarly, the mental states described by a cognitive program can be mapped onto unthinking groups of things, but unthinking groups of things do not realize mental states in any genuine sense (Block, 1978). Hence, to capture what is essential to genuine realization, William Lycan (1987) adds ideas about evolutionary function, while David Chalmers (1994) emphasizes facts about causal structure.
    [Show full text]
  • Philosophy There Are No Good Objections to Substance Dualism
    Philosophy http://journals.cambridge.org/PHI Additional services for Philosophy: Email alerts: Click here Subscriptions: Click here Commercial reprints: Click here Terms of use : Click here There are no good objections to substance dualism José Gusmão Rodrigues Philosophy / Volume 89 / Issue 02 / April 2014, pp 199 - 222 DOI: 10.1017/S0031819114000060, Published online: 24 March 2014 Link to this article: http://journals.cambridge.org/abstract_S0031819114000060 How to cite this article: José Gusmão Rodrigues (2014). There are no good objections to substance dualism . Philosophy, 89, pp 199-222 doi:10.1017/S0031819114000060 Request Permissions : Click here Downloaded from http://journals.cambridge.org/PHI, IP address: 129.108.9.184 on 15 Aug 2014 Joint winner of the 2013 Philosophy prize essay competition There are no good objections to substance dualism JOSÉ GUSMÃO RODRIGUES Abstract This article aimsto review the standard objectionsto dualism and to argue that either they will fail to convince someone committed to dualism or are flawed on independent grounds. I begin by presenting the taxonomy of metaphysical positions on concrete par- ticulars as they relate to the dispute between materialists and dualists, and in particular substance dualism is defined. In the first section, several kinds of substance dualism are distinguished and the relevant varieties of this kind of dualism are selected. The re- maining sections are analyses of the standard objections to substance dualism: It is unin- formative, has troubles accounting for soul individuation, causal pairing and interaction, violates laws of physics, is made implausible by the development of neuroscience and it postulates entities beyond necessity. I conclude that none of these objections is successful.
    [Show full text]
  • Integral Framing-Analysis of the Online Creation-Evolution Controversy
    “The Numb vs. The Dumb” Integral Framing-Analysis of the Online Creation-Evolution Controversy Tim Stevens (2012) Date: August, 2012 Tim Stevens MSc Thesis MDR (Development and Rural Innovation) COM-80430 MSc Thesis Communication and Innovation Studies Under supervision of Prof. Dr. Noelle Aarts Second examiner: Dr. Ir. Gerard Verschoor, Rural Development Sociology Group Acknowledgements This research was driven by my personal interest and took more than two years’ time. I could not wish for a better supervisor than Prof. Dr. Noelle Aarts. She provided me with the freedom and the trust that allowed me to do this challenging research. Foreword It is hard writing this foreword. The foreword usually describes how the research originated and how the writer, in person, brought about the research and the writing. I do not know exactly how or when this research originated. My mother would say that it all started twenty years ago when I started to ask difficult questions. My supervisor Prof. Dr. Noelle Aarts would say that it started two years ago when the proposal was approved. I remain in doubt. Yet, I am confident that these doubts instigated the inspiration for doing this research, enhanced the impartiality of the process, and augmented the quality of the results. As an interpretive researcher who sneaked on the web and freely quoted disputants to deconstruct their perspectives on the issue, I think it is fair to share my perspectives on the issue, so that you can interpret mine. For me, evolution theory is the most precious theory for humankind. I have no doubts that evolution theory accurately describes how this colourful world came about: Increasingly complex structures of matter turned into life; a world that was made from matter, yet much more than that.
    [Show full text]
  • C.S. Lewis' Case Against Naturalism
    C.S. Lewis’ Case Against Naturalism Mechanism, like all materialist philosophies, breaks down on the problem of knowledge. If thought is the undesigned and irrelevant product of cerebral motions, what reason have we to trust it? C.S. Lewis 1 The man who represents all thought as an accident of environment is simply smashing and discrediting all his own thoughts – including that one. G.K. Chesterton 2 The subject to be explored in this chapter is a complex one, and one on which much more could be written than I am qualified to write. The issue is the rational value of a certain argument that Lewis presented against Naturalism. We shall refer to this argument as the argument from reason. 3 This argument became the centre of a fascinating debate between Lewis and another philosopher, G.E.M. Anscombe (1919- 2001). Many Lewis scholars have had something to say about this debate, but the majority have taken only a biographical interest in it, and have had little to say about the debate’s philosophical content. Indeed, it has been widely assumed, almost without discussion, that Anscombe conclusively refuted Lewis’ argument. 4 As we shall see, Lewis admitted that Anscombe had shown the argument must be either reformulated or abandoned. However, Lewis clearly held his argument to contain an important insight and subsequently rewrote the offending chapter of Miracles . While I am uncertain about the cogency of the argument from reason, it is not so easily rebutted as Anscombe and others seem to have supposed. The argument comes in a variety of forms, and each one highlights the existence of philosophical issues of great complexity.
    [Show full text]