As naturalism makes headway as a world view, there are many allies of the Center for Naturalism out there doing good work to advance the cause. Some are listed below, and more will be added as they are discovered. Are you a friend of naturalism? If so, please make your presence known, and send us (or direct us to) your papers, analyses, and other items that pertain to applying naturalism to our personal lives and social policy.
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Tamler Sommers, Ph.D. candidate in philosophy at Duke University, is writing a book on free will and moral responsibility. See his essay for Naturalism.Org, "Darrow and determinism: giving up ultimate responsibility", written on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of trial lawyer Clarence Darrow's defense of Leopold and Loeb. |
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Joshua Greene and Jonathan Cohen, psychologists at Princeton University, have written a first class paper on the implications of neuroscience and naturalism for our criminal justice system. Their views are exactly in line with the CFN's recommendations for criminal justice reform. See "For the law, neuroscience changes nothing and everything." |
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Edward Rubin, a law professor at the University of Pennsylvania, has written an important critique of the imminent re-write of the Model Criminal Code which would make retribution the primary rationale for criminal sanctions. See "Just Say No To Retribution." |
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Derk Pereboom, a philosopher at the University of Vermont, has written "Meaning in Life Without Free Will," in which he makes a strong case against retribution, and for the claim that we don't need contra-causal free will to sustain meaning and moral worth. |
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Owen Flanagan, professor at Duke University, has written what might be the best single book on naturalism and why it's not a threat to anything we hold near and dear, but rather the best way forward. See The Problem of the Soul. |
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Ted Honderich maintains an excellent web page, the Determinism and Freedom Philosophy Website. His own position is decidedly naturalistic and in favor of rethinking common assumptions and policies founded on free will. |
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Bruce Waller has written some excellent books on free will and moral responsibility from a naturalistic perspective, one of which, The Natural Selection of Autonomy, is reviewed at this site. |
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John Symons, professor of philosophy at the University of Texas, El Paso, William Casebeer, Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the US Air Force Academy (Natural Ethical Facts), Brian Leiter, Professor of Philosophy at the University of Texas, Austin (The Leiter Report), and Paul Bloom, psychologist at Yale (Descartes' Baby) have all expressed support for the CFN mission to promote a positive naturalism. |
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