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The Human Condition and Paradigms & Metanarrative
J.P. Moreland (SCM Press: Jul 31, 2009), 224 pages.
Materialistic naturalism has, for some years, been the received wisdom
in philosophy, as well as amongst much of the educated public. Many
serious philosophical arguments have been brought against this
ideology, but usually in a series of separate controversies. Professor
Morelands great service is to bring all these objections together,
whilst adding his own original contributions, in a very effective
anti-naturalist polemic. He shows us that the materialist world picture
cannot accommodate the most basic phenomena of human life: It has no
place for consciousness, free will, rationality, the human subject or
any kind of intrinsic value. Materialism does not disprove these human
realities, it is simply incapable of accounting for them in any
remotely plausible way. I would add to the list of its failures that
naturalism lacks even a coherent account of the physical world itself.
Professor Moreland makes a very good case for saying that, as a serious
world view, naturalism is a non-starter: more traditional, theistic
philosophies fare much better in the face both of the phenomena and of
argument. ~ Howard Robinson, Central European University
