Naturalism without Scientism

Let us begin with naturalism itself. These days, most philosophers seem eager to regard themselves as naturalists, but this is possible only because there is so little agreement about what naturalism actually involves or requires. There is, of course, a straightforwardly (and self‐consciously) scientistic form of philosophical naturalism, which simply assumes that the claims of our best scientific theories should serve as both starting point and boundary conditions for any serious form of inquiry. Alexander Rosenberg, for instance, boldly announces that “Naturalism is the label for the thesis that the tools we should use in answer­ ing philosophical problems are the methods and findings of the mature sciences – from physics across to biology and increasingly neuroscience” (2014, 17). Likewise, according to the “radically naturalistic metaphysics” defended by James Ladyman and Don Ross (2007, 1), “Naturalism requires that, since scientific institutions are the instruments by which we investigate objective reality, their outputs should motivate all claims about this reality, including metaphysical ones” (2007, 30). Like Rosenberg, Ladyman and Ross cheerfully plead guilty to the charge of “scientism” (2007, 65), and they insist that metaphysical claims should not even be taken seriously unless they seek to unify the independent findings of our best scientific theories: