From: Glenn Morton (glennmorton@entouch.net)
Date: Fri Sep 19 2003 - 22:07:19 EDT
One can see the weak part of Koons views at
http://home.entouch.net/dmd/wacoday1.htm
Search on Koons. This is a report of what he said at the Nature of Nature
conference at Baylor in 2000. He assumes truth and simplicity are related,
which is not necessarily the case.
>-----Original Message-----
>From: asa-owner@lists.calvin.edu [mailto:asa-owner@lists.calvin.edu]On
>Behalf Of John W Burgeson
>Sent: Friday, September 19, 2003 11:05 AM
>To: asa@calvin.edu
>Subject: Robert Koons & I.D.
>
>
>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 may 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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