Humanistic naturalism

Humanistic naturalism is the branch of philosophical naturalism wherein human beings are best able to control and understand the world through use of the scientific method. Concepts of spirituality, intuition, and metaphysics are not pursued because they are unfalsifiable, and therefore can never progress beyond personal opinion. A boundary is not drawn between nature and what lies "beyond" nature; everything is regarded as a result of explainable processes within nature, with nothing lying outside of it.

The belief is that all living things are intricate extensions of nature, and therefore deserves some degree of mutual respect from human beings. Naturalists accept the need for adaption to current change, however it may be, and also that life must feed upon life for survival. But they recognize as well, the necessity for a fair exchange of resources between all species.

Industry and technology are sometimes regarded as enemies to naturalism but it is not always the case. For the ones who do believe that, the thought is that the majority of human history, societies were largely agricultural and hunter-gatherer and lived in relative harmony and balance with nature. But with the dawn of the Industrial Revolution, naturalists see this balance as being increasingly threatened.

References

• Titus, Harold H. Living Issues in Philosophy (4th ed.; New York: American Book Company, 1963). OCLC 2658919