Naturwissenschaften und manifestes Weltbild. Über den Naturalismus

Abstract

Abstract It is argued that an attractive version of naturalism may be characterized by five theses: 1. There is no substantial evidence that there are supernatural entities or forces that have an effect on the world. 2. The core of the modern scientific world view – the theory of atoms that tells us that all things in the world are made up of atoms and molecules and that all properties of any object can be explained by reference to the atoms it consists of and their spatial arrangement – is a very well confirmed empirical theory. 3. There is no methodological a priori to the effect that science is limited to the investigation of natural facts and to explanations that only refer to natural phenomena. 4. The scientific image of the world is not in conflict with the manifest image, it is rather an enlargement and an improvement of this image. 5. In case of seeming conflict, it is not a good idea to assume that there are aspects of reality that are beyond the scope of science or that above the natural world which is accessible to science there is another world in which things are different from what science tells us. Whatever the manifest image of the world tells us about reality must be compatible with what science tells about it. It is further argued that there are very good reasons to accept all these five theses as true.