Naturalism and Agnosticism

Abstract

James Ward (1843–1925) was Professor of Mental Philosophy and Logic at the University of Cambridge. First published in 1899, this two-volume work consists of his Gifford Lectures, delivered between 1896 and 1898, in which he criticises Naturalism (the belief that all phenomena are governed by the laws of science, and that the supernatural cannot exist), and Agnosticism (the belief that the existence of spiritual phenomena cannot be proved or disproved), in favour of Idealism, in which spiritual and non-material phenomena are central to human experience. The lectures in Volume 1 set Naturalism and Agnosticism within the context of the Mechanical Theory, arguing against its claim that experience can be fully described in terms of mechanical concepts such as motion, energy and force. Exploring the ideas of prominent thinkers such as Newton, Huxley and Spencer, these thought-provoking discussions continue to inform and evoke debate among philosophers and natural scientists.

From classicism and idealism to scientific naturalism: Titchener’s Oxford years and their impact upon his early intellectual development.

“…His ideas became first known through his article “Psychology,” published in the ninth edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica , in which he criticized both the associationist and the physiological schools of psychology (Ward, 1886). 19 Later, he published his Gifford Lectures (Ward, 1899), which were considered “the most significant and systematic discussion of scientific naturalism as a would-be complete interpretation of man and nature” (Turner, 1974, p. 14).…”

Contra Kant and Beyond Nietzsche: Naturalizing Ethics in the Work of Jean-Marie Guyau

“…8Bergson’s classic study on this question is, of course, Creative Evolution of 1907. See also the remarks on ‘science and anthropomorphism’ in a study of 1899 by James Ward, Naturalism and Agnosticism. This work contains an extensive critical treatment of Spencer’s naturalism.…”