Responses to Naturalism

During the pandemic, I have participated in an online reading group on Henri Bergson.Our group has studied Bergson's Time and Free Will and Matter and Memory and is about to continue with Creative Evolution.Bergson had a large following early in his career with his flair for writing and with his development of an exciting philosophy that offered an alternative to the prevailing scientific naturalism of his time.The scientific naturalism of Bergson's day has continued to dominate philosophical thinking even as the criticisms of the position have grown.Exploring Bergson and the way in which he tried to raise and address what he perceived as difficulties with naturalism helped me appreciate the importance and continued persistence of questions about this position and its alternatives and encouraged me to pursue these questions in further study.Although Bergson does not have a prominent place in this outstanding new volume of essays edited by Paul Giladi, Responses to Naturalism: Critical Perspectives from Idealism and Pragmatism, the book helped me follow through from my ongoing study of Bergson's work.The book shows the development and continued dominance of the naturalistic position in philosophy.The book also shows the increasing efforts by contemporary philosophers to make a creative use of the history of philosophy in order to engage with contemporary 1) I thank Brandon Beasley for his earlier review which lead me to read and review the book for myself

Epistemology · Naturalism · Medieval and Classical Philosophy · Philosophy · Psychology · Theology and Philosophy of Evil