1 - Aesthetic Personalism

Summary

In the current intellectual climate, there is a monolithic assumption that the natural sciences are our best guide to reality. While there is little doubt about the titanic significance and the necessity of physics, chemistry, and biology informing our understanding of reality, there is some doubt about the sufficiency of the natural sciences in helping us identify and explain values (what is good or evil, beautiful or ugly) in society and politics, our personal choices, our religious or secular life, and even the very existence of conscious, subjective experience. A growing range of philosophers has argued that to fully address the reality of consciousness and values we need to expand our inquiry beyond the confines of the natural sciences. In this book we undertake such an expanded exploration, looking into the aesthetic dimension of religious worldviews and their secular alternatives, including those that limit inquiry to the natural sciences.