Dialogue and Universalism

Volume 17, Issue 1/2, 2007

Wisdom of the Virtual University and Metanoia of Civilizations Network

Jan Woleński
Pages 13-19

Naturalism and Reism

This paper compares Kotarbiński’s reism and naturalism. It argues that basic ontological and epistemological reistic principles fit naturalism very well. In particular, the thesis claiming that there are only spatiotemporal things (bodies) gives a very simple naturalistic account of reality. Radical realism defended by Kotarbiński is a version of direct realism, a view about perception which is very accurate for naturalism. On the other hand, since difficulties of reism are also problems for naturalism, the former illuminates typical challenges for the latter.