Naturalism (philosophy)

Naturalism is any of several philosophical stances, typically those descended from materialism and pragmatism, that does not distinguish between the supernatural and the natural. It does not claim that phenomena or hypotheses commonly labeled supernatural necessarily do not exist or are wrong, but insists that they are not inherently different from any other hypotheses or phenomena and can be studied by the same methods.

Related Topics:
Materialism - Pragmatism

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Any method of inquiry or investigation or any procedure for gaining knowledge that limits itself to natural, physical, and material approaches and explanations can be described as naturalist.

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Distinctions are sometimes made between methodological naturalism or scientific naturalism and ontological naturalism or metaphysical naturalism. The two terms are ways that various people (especially those involved in the creation-evolution controversy) have tried to distinguish between two approaches to the philosophy. The first refers only to the application of the scientific method to science that assumes that observable events in nature are explained only by natural causes. The second refers to the metaphysical assumption that the natural world is all that exists.

Related Topics:
Creation-evolution controversy - Scientific method - Science - Observable - Nature - Assumption

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