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Dr. Serdal Tümkaya's article titled 'Quine's Naturalism is More Inclusive than Liberal Naturalism' was published

27.10.2023
Dr. Serdal Tümkaya's article titled 'Quine's Naturalism is More Inclusive than Liberal Naturalism' was published
Dr. Serdal Tümkaya's article titled "Quine's Naturalism is More Inclusive than Liberal Naturalism" was published in Kutadgubilig Journal of Philosophy-Science Research.

Dr. Serdal Tümkaya's article titled "Quine's Naturalism is More Inclusive than Liberal Naturalism" was published in Kutadgubilig Journal of Philosophy-Science Research.

The article, published in the 48th issue of the journal, discusses the perception of naturalism by the American philosopher Willard Van Orman Quine, one of the leading analytic philosophers of the 20th century, who was often criticized for advocating an extreme form of naturalism. Contradicting the assumption that Quine's extreme naturalism excludes many things from our ontology, Dr. Tümkaya argues that although Quine's opponents put forward alternative ideas under the name of "Liberal Naturalism", a careful textual analysis will show that it is actually Quine whose ontology is more liberal. 

Quine explicitly stated that God, angels, universals, the afterlife, fairies, jinns and similar entities can be given the same scientific status as black holes and quarks, if there is an explanatory benefit in assuming them. Because Quine is an empiricist through and through and he does not have a fixed ontology, therefore his naturalism is methodological and does not impose any a priori restriction on what can and cannot be accepted into our ontology. Dr. Tümkaya's article supports this observation with a close textual reading.