Product Description

A compelling account of why naturalism, or the 'scientific world-view' cannot provide a full account of who and what we are as human beings. Drawing on sources including Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty, Husserl and Sartre.

Product Details

• Published on: 2001-06-28
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 128 pages

Review
'Professor Olafson's book presents in an evenly paced and philosophically erudite but accessible manner a position that has most important implications for current philosophy of perception and mind in general.' - Professor Alastair Hannay, University of Oslo

'Olafson's work will prove to be a very useful text for students and for a general, non-academic audience. It will join the company of recent works by Anglo-American philosophers which, in various ways, offer up some resistance to the current dominance of scientific naturalism.' - David R. Cerbone, West Virginia University

From the Back Cover
Naturalism and the Human Condition is a clear and compelling account of why naturalism, or the 'scientific world-view' misrepresents what we are as human beings.
Drawing on a wide range of sources, including Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty, Husserl and Sartre, Olafson skilfully exposes the limits of naturalism. Yet he does this using examples favoured by naturalists themselves, for example, in philosophy of mind and brain sciences.
The book brings the debate into the public arena by stressing the importance of serious analysis and philosophical investigation of human nature. In doing so Olafson shows that the way our identity as human beings is understood has real consequences for us all.

About the Author
Frederick A. Olafson is one of the principal interpreters of the thought of Martin Heidegger in the English-speaking world. He is Professor Emeritus at the University of California, San Diego.