Naturalistic Paganism

Cahoone describes a complex non-reductive view of nature which might better be called a “tropical rainforest ontology”

Analytical philosopher Bertrand Russell wrote in “A Free Man’s Worship” that the world which science presents to us is purposeless and void of meaning, and our lives are nothing but the “outcome of accidental collocations of atoms.”  Similarly, Steven Weinberg explains in his book on the Big Bang, The First Three Minutes: “The more the universe seems comprehensible, the more it also seems pointless.”  These are bleak visions of reality.  But is such a reductive materialism the only option for naturalistic Pagans?

Deserts and rainforests

Lawrence Cahoone, author of Orders of Nature (2013), draws on the work of philosopher William Wimsatt to create a systematic understanding of reality consistent with modern science that leaves room for the human mind and the experience of meaning.  Ontology is the philosophy of the nature of existence or reality.  Materialists favor minimalist ontology, one which is, in the words of philosopher, Daniel Dennett, “clean-shaven by Ockham’s razor”, or one that is, in the words of analytical philosopher, W.V.O. Quine, suited to those with an aesthetic “taste for desert landscapes”.  In contrast, Cahoone describes a complex non-reductive view of nature which might better be called a “tropical rainforest ontology” (Wimsatt), because it describes reality in terms of a plurality of properties, rather than just one — matter.  Cahoone’s non-reductive ontology is built on two premises: First, mind and matter are just two of many ontological properties of nature; neither is foundational, and neither may be reduced to the other.  Second, these ontological modes or properties are emergent properties of complex systems in the evolution of the universe. Read More