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	Sociological naturalism - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
		Sociological naturalism is a theory that natural world and social world are roughly identical and governed by similar principles.
		Sociological naturalism, in sociological texts simply referred to as naturalism, can be traced back to the philosophical thinking of Auguste Comte in the 19th century, closely connected to positivism, which advocates use of the scientific method of the natural sciences in studying social sciences.
		A similar form of naturalism was applied to the scientific study of art and literature by Hippolyte Taine (see Race, milieu, and moment).
	en.wikipedia.org /wiki/Sociological_naturalism (230 words)

	Methodological Naturalism and Philosophical Naturalism
		The charge is that methodological naturalism, by excluding a priori the use of supernatural agency as an explanatory principle in science, therefore requires the a priori adoption of a naturalistic metaphysics.
		Naturalism as a philosophy not only accepts this method but also the broad generalizations which are established by the use of it; viz, that the occurrence of all qualities or events depends upon the organization of a material system in space-time, and that their emergence, development and disappearance are determined by changes in such organization....
		Methodological naturalism does exclude the supernatural as an explanatory principle because it is unknowable by means of scientific inquiry, whereas philosophical naturalism, both by definition and because of the methodological and epistemological inaccessibility of the supernatural, excludes the latter from its ontological scheme.
	www.infidels.org /library/modern/barbara_forrest/naturalism.html (8991 words)

	Naturalism (literature) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
		Naturalism is a movement in theater, film, and literature that seeks to replicate a believable everyday reality, as opposed to such movements as Romanticism or Surrealism, in which subjects may receive highly symbolic, idealistic, or even supernatural treatment.
		Naturalism was criticized in the mid-20th century by Bertolt Brecht and others who argued instead for breaking the illusion of reality in order to encourage detached consideration of the issues the play raises.
		French naturalism, as exemplified by Gustave Flaubert, and especially Emile Zola, can be regarded as a programmatic, well-defined and coherent theory of fiction that self-consciously rejected the notion of free will, and dedicated itself to the documentary and “scientific” exposition of human behaviour as being determined by, as Zola put it, “nerves and blood”.
	en.wikipedia.org /wiki/Naturalism_(literature) (1006 words)

	Society for Philosophy and Technology - volume 1, numbers 3 & 4
		So, for example, Shapin (1982) says: "In the sociological approach to knowledge people produce it against the background of their culture's inherited knowledge, their collectively situated purposes and the information they receive from natural reality." These purposes are collectively designed, he says, and can pertain to both the technical scientific culture, and society in general.
		For Collins presents relativism in the first place not as a thesis about the nature of science, but as a strategy for the study of science.40 The interesting point is that the aim of this strategy in Collins's work is the same as that of other authors, with their other strategies.
		Now enters sociological naturalization, which asks for such an explanation, and it gives one: its status is that of "culturally accepted practices." With this move, cognitive phenomena appear as part of the realm of social convention.
	scholar.lib.vt.edu /ejournals/SPT/v1_n3n4/Alvarez.html (6858 words)

	Knowledge and Naturalism: Newsroom: The Independent Institute
		The question as to whether Naturalism can accommodate knowing and knowledge is then replaced by the question of whether the various normative issues that arise with reference to knowledge and belief formation in the course of human life and scientific endeavors can be replaced by mere descriptions of actual processes of belief formation.
		This would yield what is now widely referred to as a "naturalized epistemology." Hilary Putnam, Jaegwon Kim and others hold, by contrast, that the normative (non-descriptive) element cannot be eliminated from epistemology, and therefore that a naturalized epistemology is impossible.
		Naturalism staggers back and forth between physicalism (materialism) as a general ontology and first philosophy, and outright physics-ism or scientism (which need not take the form of physics-ism)—often, though not always, trying to derive physics-ism from scientism and then physicalism from physics-ism.
	www.independent.org /newsroom/article.asp?id=1725 (10334 words)

	Metaphilosophy of Naturalism
		A real or hypothetical person who knows the nature, goals and consequences of naturalist philosophy may be called an “informed naturalist.” An informed naturalist is justified in drawing certain conclusions about the current state of naturalism and the research program that naturalist philosophers ought to undertake.
		They may have a true belief in naturalism, but they have no knowledge that naturalism is true since they do not have an undefeated justification for their belief.
		If naturalism is the true world-view, and a “Dark Age” means an age when the vast majority of philosophers (and scientists) do not know the true world-view, then we have to admit that we are living in a Dark Age.
	www.qsmithwmu.com /metaphilosophy_of_naturalism.htm (7108 words)

	Moral Naturalism (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
		While "moral naturalism" is sometimes used to refer to any approach to metaethics intended to cohere with naturalism in metaphysics more generally, the label is more usually reserved for naturalistic forms of moral realism according to which there are objective moral facts and properties and these moral facts and properties are natural facts and properties.
		Natural facts are understood to be facts about the natural world, facts of the sort in which the natural sciences trade.
		But in a narrower sense "moral naturalism" often picks out a far more specific sort of view that stands in contrast to all these variously "anti-realist" views, in holding that there are objective moral facts and properties and that these facts and properties are natural facts and properties.
	plato.stanford.edu /entries/naturalism-moral (14060 words)

	English 221
		Naturalism: A term reserved for a literary movement in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
		Social Darwinism was a late 19th century sociological theory which was primarily based on the writings of Herbert Spencer.
		Nature then determined that the strong survive and the weak perish.
	www.viterbo.edu /personalpages/faculty/GSmith/NotesNaturalism.htm (1303 words)

	pinker
		This is to pretend that good and evil are somehow not a function of the natural, material realm, in effect placing them beyond the reach of our understanding or influence.
		For instance, it is widely thought that if we indulge in sociological or psychological explanations of crime, that we are in effect excusing the criminal.
		This led New York Governor George Pataki to declare recently that "The root causes of crime are the criminals who engage in it," and he went on to call for the enforcement of harsher penalties, including the death penalty.
	www.naturalism.org /freewill3.htm (4972 words)

	eBooks.com - Naturalism: A Critical Analysis eBook
		Naturalism: A Critical Appraisal presents a rigorous analysis and critique of the major varieties of contemporary philosophical naturalism.
		Currently, throughout a large sector of professional philosophy, philosophical naturalism determines the way philosophy is to be done, what counts as good methodology, and what it taken to be a worthwhile topic for study.
		This book provides a thorough and searching critique of philosophical naturalism which is squarely within the analytic tradition and which avails itself of the new and exciting literature in philosophy of religion that has burst onto the scene in the last decade.
	www.ebooks.com /cj.asp?IID=168501 (394 words)

	More on Sociology
		Sociology is interested in our behavior as social beings; thus the sociological field of interest ranges from the analysis of short contacts between anonymous individuals on the street to the study of global social processes.
		His own sociological scheme was typical of the 19th century; he believed all human life had passed through the same distinct historical stages and that, if one could grasp this progress, one could prescribe the remedies for social ills.
		Early sociological studies considered the field to be similar to the natural sciences like physics or biology.
	www.artilifes.com /sociology.htm (1574 words)

	ArtandCulture Movement: Naturalist Fiction (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-22)
		Incited by the biological theories of Darwin and the socio-economic determinism of Marx, Naturalism grafted scientific principles to its form.
		Sociological portraits of sexual obsession, poverty, and urban blight sprang to life in Emile Zola’s zealous fictional arguments for social reform.
		With its spirit of divine discontent, Naturalism bespoke a fresh awareness of the vice-grip that history and environment had on most human life -- notions of "self" and "other," of "fiction" and "escapism" were forever altered as a result.
	www.artandculture.com /cgi-bin/WebObjects/ACLive.woa/wa/movement?id=460 (304 words)

	Hierarchy in International Law: A Sketch
		Classical and modern naturalisms, for instance, often conceptualize the law in terms of systemic derivations that assume the existence of relationships of entailment between normative units and levels.
		The naturalism of an argument in this respect (i.e., in respect of superior norms), however, is not dependent on its being an explicit part of naturalist theory.
		The mode of philosophy is expressed normally in terms of various theories that are often borrowed from outside the legal discipline and seeks to grapple with the ontological and epistemological issues of legal control and exegesis.
	www.ejil.org /journal/Vol8/No4/art2.html (2015 words)

	TOWARD A THEORY OF LEGAL NATURALISM* (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-22)
		Hart characterized the classical theory of natural law as the view "that there are certain principles of human conduct, awaiting discovery by human reason, with which man-made law must conform if it is to be valid".
		Legal Naturalism is an extension of the natural rights theorists' concern with the proper substance of law.
		In addition to its obvious association with the substantive concerns of natural law theory, the Naturalist outlook seems to overlap a number of the meanings of the word "nature": (1) As should be clear, the bedrock of concern is the nature of law and the legal process.
	www.randybarnett.com /towardatheory.html (6423 words)

	Parrington ADDENDA
		Naturalism is pessimistic realism, with a philosophy that sets man in a mechanical world and conceives of him as victimized by that world.
		The philosopher of naturalism, in practice he abandoned his principles and became a reformer, attacking the church, the capitalistic order, etc. His J'accuse letter is characteristic of this.
		The tragedy of naturalism lies in the disintegration and the pity or irony with which we contemplate man and his fate in the world.
	xroads.virginia.edu /~Hyper/Parrington/vol3/addenda_naturalism.html (1561 words)

	DARWIN: SCIENCE OR PHILOSOPHY? Chapter 11a
		It is more than a sociological fact that, and I quote Shapiro, "the phenomenal growth of science in the last few centuries has been largely at the expense of religion.
		The nature of this God, his relation to the world, and his causal powers to affect the world are part and parcel of any theological position.
		Once one realizes that natural selection is precisely the vehicle needed to transform a theory of evolution into a fully naturalistic theory of evolution, the implication follows at once.
	www.leaderu.com /orgs/fte/darwinism/chapter11a.html (1795 words)

	CSLI Publications: What Brain for God's-eye?
		Ecological naturalism emphasizes the non-separation between the mind and the medium in which it evolves, their biological co-determination, and the supra-individual nature of the biology of mental phenomena.
		That is, the very recursive nature of the biology of the observer observing the mind, the biology of the explainer explaining the mind, the biology of the scientist doing cognitive science, and the biology of the philosopher doing philosophy of mind.
		The recursive nature of the fact that we intend to explain the mind as a living phenomenon while being a living system, is often forgotten or avoided, or simply unwittingly ignored by assuring the ultimate status of IFOWs by means of a Mind in situ or God's-eye.
	csli-publications.stanford.edu /papers/CSLI-95-194.html (12823 words)

	Realism Study Guide: Movement Variations
		Naturalism was an important offshoot of Realism, although many critics agree that the differences between the two movements are so minimal that Naturalism is actually a subcategory of Realism.
		Naturalism extended and intensified the tenets of Realism in that the naturalist writers sought to apply the evolutionary principles of Charles Darwin to their fiction.
		They believed that the course of each individual's life is determined by a combination of his or her hereditary traits and the historical and sociological environment into which she or he was born.
	www.bookrags.com /studyguide-realism/mov.html (178 words)

	Top20Sociology.com - Online Directory for Sociology Education.
		Sociologists are concerned with the characteristics of social groups, organizations, and institutions; the ways individuals are affected by each other and by the groups to which they belong; and the effect of social traits such as sex, age, or race on a person’s daily life.
		Unlike disciplines within the âobjectiveâ natural sciences -- such as physics or chemistry -- social theorists are less likely to use the scientific method and other fact-based methods to prove a point.
		This sociological insight (or sociological imagination) has through the years appealed to students and others dissatisfied with the status quo because it carries the assumption that societal structures and patterns are either random, arbitrary or controlled by specific powerful groups -- thus implying the possibility of change.
	www.top20sociology.com (3317 words)

	Harriet Martineau and the Quiet Revolution
		The book's major thesis is that -- in evolutionary naturalism -- we finally have the outlines of a conceptual framework capable of providing an integrating paradigm for the entire field of social-psychological-cultural relations.
		The premise here is that it is impossible to understand Martineau's contributions to evolutionary naturalism without some awareness of the seeds of her subsequent ideas that were floating around in family discussions, classrooms and readily available books of the period.
		Furthermore, the very title of my book echoes the words with which she described her breakthrough into evolutionary naturalism: "I felt the fresh air of nature," she wrote in her autobiography, "after imprisonment in the ghost-peopled cavern of superstition." In so many ways, this is the defining chapter of Leaving the Cave.
	humanists.net /pdhutcheon/Books/martin.htm (553 words)

	ANTH 503
		It focuses on key problems around which theory is generated, paradigms from naturalism through the socialization of culture to contemporary emphases on practice and identity in global settings.
		It takes a hands-on approach to the principal theoretical capital of anthropological thinking, substantive issues that have framed the subject and central concept of culture, and methodological issues of objectivity, causality, and representation in the study of social life, its loci, and their comparison.
		Relations of culture and practice such as whether cultural is a natural phenomenon or a mental one, has objective features, organizes subjectivity, is derived from practical activity or structures it, and how it may be operationally understood in relation to other perspectives on meaning in social action.
	faculty.cua.edu /anderson/anth503.htm (1123 words)

	The WSCR Archive: Mats Ekstrom: "Causal Explanation of Social Action: The Contribution of Max Weber and of ...
		That the basic aim of sociological theorization (and conceptualization) should be to contribute to an explanatory science is a notion which Therborn would appear to share with the majority of modern theorists.
		Third, there is a positivist naturalism that asserts the general applicability of the empiricist concept of causality in both natural and social science (albeit in a somewhat modified form in the case of the latter).
		Fourth, and last, there is an anti-positivist naturalism that questions the empiricist concept of causality and advocates a unified science of causal explanation resting on another foundation.
	www.raggedclaws.com /criticalrealism/archive/mekstrom_cesa.html (7795 words)

	ENGL 209 Sample Lesson - Introduction to Fiction (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-22)
		Four shipwrecked men in a tiny lifeboat, caught in the grip of an apparently indifferent Nature, are trying to reach the safety of shore.
		Repeatedly, their hopes are raised and then dashed; and even when they do finally succeed in making shore, one of the men drowns in the surf.
		Remember that they're designed to get you moving toward carving out theses for your essays—they're too general in nature to serve you well as strong theses in themselves.
	www.kuce.org /isc/previews/engl/engl209_lesson.html (2372 words)

	Libertarianism
		Running away from personal responsibility and the basic truth that each person has a conscience is to deny that each person is called by human nature to be moral, not because of society or government, but in spite of them.
		Admitting we are not exceptions to nature can only further the humanitarian mission of learning how and why we behave as we do, whether in sickness or in health.
		This is to say that, on a scientific understanding of ourselves, our autonomy and its uses are fully natural and fully determined, ultimately arising out of conditions that were not within our control.
	www.naturalism.org /libertar.htm (3829 words)

	Critical Theory (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
		Faced with a sociological naturalism that relativized claims to truth and justice are necessary for social criticism, the challenge could be answered by detranscendentalizing truth without losing its normativity (Horkheimer 1993, 6; McCarthy, in McCarthy and Hoy 1994, 10).
		On the one hand, naturalism gives priority to the third-person or explanatory perspective; on the other hand, the anti-reductionism of interpretive social science argues for the priority of first- and second-person understanding and so for an essential methodological dualism.
		In keeping with the nature and scope of entrenched pluralism, not all actors and groups experience the constraints of pluralism in the same way: from the perspective of some groups, pluralism enables their flourishing; for others, it may be an obstacle.
	plato.stanford.edu /entries/critical-theory (18982 words)

	[No title]
		In the line of postmodern theories of art and science, postmodern jurisprudence denies that law is a mirror of nature, and that there exist natural classes.
		The argument goes that the concepts of natural law and of ethics are subjective and relative, and that there is nothing stable but the positivist interpretation of Halakhah.
		This, in essence, had been the attitude of Mordecai Kaplan, relying on naturalism and sociological jurisprudence, while Greenberg brought in the new argument of theodicy.
	www.law.harvard.edu /programs/Gruss/falk.html (7515 words)

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