Edward Feser

Where the Conflict Really Lies: Science, Religion, and Naturalism by Alvin Plantinga Oxford, 376 pages, $27.95 “Naturalism” is a slippery term. In one common usage, it is the methodological thesis that the only rational forms of inquiry are those using the methods of natural science. In another, . . . . Continue Reading »

To untutored common sense, the natural world is filled with irreducibly different kinds of objects and qualities: people; dogs and cats; trees and flowers; rocks, dirt, and water; colors, odors, sounds; heat and cold; meanings and purposes. A man is a radically different sort of thing from a rose, which is in turn no less different from a stone… . Continue Reading »

A Universe from Nothing:  Why There Is Something Rather than Nothing by lawrence m. krauss  free press, 204 pages, $24.99 Acritic might reasonably question the arguments for a divine first cause of the cosmos. But to ask “What caused God?” misses the whole reason classical . . . . Continue Reading »

The Atheist’s Guide to Reality: Enjoying Life without Illusions by Alex Rosenberg W. W. Norton, 368 pages, $25.95 The Atheist’s Guide to Reality is refreshingly and ruthlessly consistent. It is also utterly incoherent”and precisely because it is so consistent. In drawing out its . . . . Continue Reading »

Examined Lives: From Socrates to Nietzsche by James Miller Farrar, Strauss, and Giroux, 422 pages, $28 People saying things: That is all that the history of philosophy is, and everyone knows it.” Thus did the curmudgeonly Australian philosopher David Stove sum up his field in The Plato Cult . . . . Continue Reading »