Robert Koons & I.D.

From: John andor Carol Burgeson (burgytwo@juno.com)
Date: Thu Aug 21 2003 - 17:47:59 EDT

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    Glenn Morton challenged me to post some recent book information which is
    supportive, at least in part, of the I.D. concepts.

    One of these is NATURE, DESIGN & SCIENCE by Del Ratzsch. I intend to
    address that book in a later post.

    A second one is Realism Regained: An Exact Theory of Causation, Teleology
    and the Mind (Oxford University Press, 2000, New York) by Robert C.
    Koons. Some of us will remember Dr. Koons as the person most responsible
    for the excellent 1997 conference in Austin, Texas titled "Naturalism,
    Theism and the Scientific Enterprise." From Dr. Koons website, this about
    the book:

    Abstract: Causation has long been one of the central subjects in
    philosophy. The late twentieth century has seen a renaissance of interest
    in the subject, while the development of modal logic, probability theory,
    mereology , defeasible or "nonmonotonic" logics, and partial semantics
    (including the situation theory of Barwise, Perry and Etchemendy) have
    provided the tools needed for an exact and comprehensive theory of
    causation.

    In Realism Regained, Koons constructs a non-Humean theory of causation
    which sheds light on recent causal theories in epistemology and the
    philosophy of mind. In the process, he develops a parsimonious
    metaphysical theory, which accounts for such phenomena as: information,
    teleology and biological function, mental representation, qualia and
    mental causation, our knowledge of logic, mathematics and science, the
    structure of spacetime, the identity of physical objects, and the
    objectivity of values and moral norms.

    Realism Regained offers a broadly "naturalistic" account of norms,
    building upon and refining the teleological theories of Dretske, Stampe,
    Millikan and others. However, Koons argues against a narrowly
    materialistic view, providing seven independent lines of argument for the
    existence of non-physical facts, in particular, facts of logical,
    mathematical and natural necessity.

    There is more -- see (on Dr. Koons):

    http://www.leaderu.com/offices/koons/menus/conference.html

    and (on his book):

    http://www.leaderu.com/offices/koons/menus/book.html

    Has anyone here studied this book? Is it one worth ordering? (Del
    Ratzsch's book certainly is).

    John Burgeson

    www.burgy.50megs.com



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