The atheistic worldview has, ironically, experienced a sort of “re-birth” in modern times. The “New Atheists,” of which Sam Harris is a prominent spokesperson, have made no secret of their desire to make converts to their worldview, liberating people from the false and repressive shackles of religion. It is their desire to officiate the funeral of religion, and usher in a new era governed by reason and science. Harris, in his book The Moral Landscape: How Science Can Determine Human Values, seeks to naturalize ethics through the means of science, so that religion might lose its grasp on a stronghold it has held for centuries. In so doing, he presents an ethical system based on the worldview of philosophical naturalism, which leaves no room for a divine foot in the door. His ethical system is supported by several presuppositional pillars, including an unwavering belief in Darwinian evolution, a neo-Aristotelian concept of well-being, a commitment to strict determinism, a confidence in moral realism, and the belief that science and religion are in irresolvable conflict with each other as modes of seeking truth. This dissertation seeks to analyze Harris’ naturalistic worldview by inspecting these five pillars as the foundation upon which his ethical system stands. In the famous words of Francis Schaeffer, I attempt to “take the roof off” of Harris’ worldview, in order to analyze the philosophical ideas he espouses. It is my assertion that Harris ultimately fails to properly defend the controversial claims his book makes, as the most important points he makes are not actually scientific at all, but philosophical. Although he approaches the issue as a scientist, his arguments rely on philosophical presuppositions of which science can only be applied a posteriori. If this is true, it is a positive force for Christian apologetics, as the Christian worldview may continue to be a valid alternative to the philosophical naturalism Harris espouses.

Orientador: Márcia Azevedo de Abreu / Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Estudos da Linguagem / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-23T10:29:50Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Almeida_LeandroThomazde_D.pdf: 1735364 bytes, checksum: c7cb2d8f47efd71585fbe1492cb96185 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013 / Resumo: O critério moralizante, presente de maneira inconteste enquanto elemento de atribuição de valor dos romances produzidos em meados do século XIX no Brasil, também esteve presente na literatura naturalista. Essa constatação, nada óbvia se considera a crítica sobre o naturalismo produzida durante todo o século XX, ampara-se tanto na recepção crítica dos romances naturalistas contemporânea ao seu lançamento, quanto na elaboração teórica do escritor Émile Zola. Ao se deter no tema da moral enquanto critério avaliativo da literatura de finais do XIX, o presente trabalho procura também explicar a relação que a literatura e o naturalismo guardaram com a idéia de natureza, muito presente nas discussões que envolveram a tarefa de representação da realidade que seria própria ao naturalismo. Ele propõe ainda uma leitura dos romances Bom- Crioulo, A carne e Livro de uma sogra, a partir das discussões teóricas tratadas na tese / Abstract: The moral criterion for evaluating the literature, unchallenged while the mid-nineteenth century in Brazil, was also present in the literature naturalist. This finding, nothing obvious if one considers the criticism on naturalism produced throughout the twentieth century, is supported by both the critical reception of contemporary naturalistic novels, as the theoretical elaboration of the writer Émile Zola. By dwelling on the theme of morality as a criterion of evaluation literature from the late nineteenth, this thesis also seeks to explain the relationship that literature and naturalism kept with the idea of nature, very present in discussions involving the task of representing reality that would be proper to naturalism. He also proposes a reading of the novels Bom-Crioulo, A carne e Livro de uma sogra, taking into account the theoretical discussions addressed in the thesis / Doutorado / Historia e Historiografia Literaria / Doutor em Teoria e História Literária

In his Treatise of Human Nature, David Hume offers an elaborate account of the origins of property and suggests modesty has a similar origin. In this paper, I draw on Hume’s discussions of modesty and property to extract his account of the origin of modesty. Modesty and property are ultimately regulated by pride and selfishness according to Hume. I argue that these choices of passions, as the grounds of their related virtues, express an intentionally irreligious and anti-Christian approach. Furthermore, I argue that reading Hume in the context of irreligion not only helps understand his own theory, but also explains his different relationships to Shaftesbury and Hutcheson. I conclude that readers of Hume must consider his irreligious motives alongside his skeptical and naturalistic methods if they are to understand him in a historically accurate way, and make sense of how he approaches his project in the Treatise.

Philosophers such as Clark and Leiter propose that Nietzsche’s position on the concept of truth, while controversial in his early and middle periods, developed into something far less radical in his later works. They claim that Nietzsche should be understood as a naturalist who contends that we can attain truth, and that his falsification thesis, along with skeptical interpretations of it, is incoherent due to self-contradiction. I challenge these thinkers and what I call the naturalist interpretations because if Nietzsche’s middle period is incoherent then little or nothing can be seen as valuable in GS, Z, or BGE. In order to defend Nietzsche from his alleged self-contradiction I examine positions offered by Clark & Dudrick and Berry who attempt to offer a coherent interpretation of his middle period. While neither provides a convincing position, they help me reveal that what Nietzsche calls “strong skepticism” is integral towards his project. Strong skepticism is the notion that we should continuously perpetuate inquiry, while also creating new values. Nietzsche’s project is to get beyond good and evil, which can be achieved by recognizing untruth as a strong skeptic. To get beyond good and evil, Nietzsche asserts that the thing-in-itself must be properly rejected along with any other metaphysical faith. In so doing philosophers of the future can create new values by being honest about their personal judgements as well as recognizing that falsification is necessary for getting around in the world. Ultimately, I conclude that Nietzsche is neither a skeptic nor a naturalist, and instead utilizes elements from both without committing to either.

The subject of this study is the phenomenon of plant and animal illustration as an aspect of naturalism in Italian manuscript art from the mid thirteenth century to the early fifteenth century. 'Naturalism' in the context of this study is defined as the accurate representation of natural objects within the given limitations of period and style. In addition, the term is also applied to the phenomenon of the more frequent occurrence of natural objects like plants and animals in manuscript art. Chief among the factors that gave rise to this type of illustration were the demands of medieval science, in terms of practical works like herbals and hunting treatises. Secondly, the secular interests of the courts, in particular Frederick II's court in the thirteenth century, and the courts of the North Italian despots in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries encouraged the pastimes that generated a need for naturalistic illustration. Although Franciscanism has traditionally been credited with stimulating naturalism in Italian art, there is no solid evidence to suggest that the limited aspect of naturalism discussed here was directly influenced by the movement. The accurate portrayal of both plants and animals can be documented in a number of manuscripts dating from the thirteenth, fourteenth, and early fifteenth centuries. The concentration on accurate portrayal of isolated natural objects resulted in a more sophisticated and at the same time more naturalistic recording of facts about both plants and animals. Eventually, this close observation of nature contributed to certain rudimentary developments toward the mastery of landscape and pictorial space. These developments coincided with, or perhaps even encouraged, the acceptance of the International Gothic Style in Italy. This style incorporated some of the aspects of naturalism discussed in this study, and introduced them into a part of the mainstream of Italian art in the fifteenth century. / Arts, Faculty of / Art History, Visual Art and Theory, Department of / Graduate

This study explores Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s use of the dramatic form to challenge Herbert Spencer’s social Darwinism by offering feminist adaptations of Darwin’s theories of natural and sexual selection. As she does in her career-defining manifesto, Women & Economics (1898), Gilman in her lesser-known plays deploys her own brand of reform Darwinism to serve the feminist cause. Despite her absence in histories of modern drama, Gilman actively participated in the establishment and development of this literary, historical, and cultural movement. After situating Gilman in the context of nineteenth-century naturalist theater, this thesis examines two short dramatic dialogues she published in 1890, “The Quarrel,” and “Dame Nature Interviewed,” as well as two full-length plays, Interrupted (1909) and the Balsam Fir (1910). These plays demonstrate Gilman’s efforts to use the dramatic form in her early plays to “rehearse” for Women & Economics, and in her later drama, to “stage” the theories she presents in that book.

Abstract The presented study deals with Bakunin's conception of man in his anarchy period. The aim is to give evidence that his theory has legitimate place in the history of social sciences and that every attempt to disregard or to eclipse his opinions is unacceptable. This thesis tries to put his anthropological interpretation into the context of social sciences of that time and to show that the real foundation of the whole theory lies in natural evolutionism, which was a part of evolutionist theories of that time in general. This evolutionism was based on the results of the period scientific studies, widely using analogies between the natural and human worlds. The study begins with the theory of foundation and evolution of the natural world; from inorganic to organic form as the real essence of the Universe, then it moves on to the theory of foundation and evolution of the human capacity of thinking including the theory of religion, philosophy and science viewed as the historical forms of human intellect. It continues with the theory of the foundation and the history of human labour viewed as economic history. The following part of this study deals with patriotism and shows the connection between Bakunin's natural evolutionism and his interpretation of this phenomena. The last chapter deals with...

It is the purpose of this paper to make a general study of David Belasco's use of naturalism in the American theatre. More specifically, it is to determine Belasco's methods of achieving naturalism in his stage settings and lighting. From the study of his techniques and methods, and effort is made to establish his contributions to the naturalistic movement.

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Agency and desire are interdependent. Agency is not a given, but an achievement of ordered desiring. We want to control our desires rather than be controlled by them, but the dilemma is that our selves are separate neither from our desires nor our control. John Dewey articulates this dynamic and proposes a solution; we can control desire and thereby ourselves by an immanent and reflective reconstruction of the meaning and object of desire. However, Dewey over-estimates the cognitive control of meaning and desire, because he presumes that desire is always ideational, rather than explaining how desire comes into cognitive awareness and control to be available for reflective manipulation. This work will extend Dewey's theory of experience and habit by explaining the structural habitual conditions necessary for the cognitive control of desire, e.g., how desire becomes ideational and subsequently an ideal. It offers a constructive criticism and a new heterodox phenomenological method based on the works of John Dewey, Thomas Alexander, and Victor Kestenbaum.