nationalism: political antithesis of Federalism, a decentralized system of uniting separate politically geographic areas, and bearing only those powers given it by the terms of the unionization. " Nationalism is not to be confused with patriotism. Nationalism is inseperable from the desire for power. The abiding purpose of every nationalist is to secure more power and more prestige, not for himself but for the nation or other unit in which he has chosen to sink his own individuality." George Orwell "Notes on Nationalism"; May, 1945 [emphasis in Orwell's original] Such power may take the form of fascism, as in Nazi Germany; communism as in modern China; the Russia of Vladimir Putin; or Venezuala under Hugo Chávez. The U.S. may be said to have become nationalistic under President George W. Bush, but not to secure prestige nor power for power's sake; instead, the growth of political and military power came after September 11, 2001, for the purpose of protecting the geography and the property of the U.S. and its citizens and their lives. The means and moral ends of gathering this power are debated by all sides of the political spectrum, but its proponents lay claim to the fact that it worked; no attacks on U.S. property or soil were subsequent to 9-11 during the remainder of the Bush administration.
natural law: "is the science of all human rights; of all a man's rights of person and property; of all his rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." Lysander Spooner; Natural Law; Part First; Chapter 1;The Science of Justice; Section I.
naturalism, metaphysical; also ontological: [Note: Given the divided nature of the many categories of "naturalism," which include "strong" to "weak" definitions, it is necessary to state the position of this Glossary as "strong."
Just as necessary are the caveats as part of the definition, in order to distinguish this definition from other metaphysical schools and categories of naturalism. At some future time, the caveats will be integrated into the whole. I would add that the terms "strong" and "weak" are vague as used by other schools of thought, and that the categorical names are better, such as metaphysical; teleonatural; ontological; Christian; humanist; deterministic; non-deterministic; reductive; non-reductive; etc. See each by category [coming.]
The use of ‘naturalism’ here is a metaphysical position – a view about the nature of the world. It is also a methodological or epistemological position – a view about how the world, or some aspect of it, should be studied. The word has many meanings. [Editor: CEC]
"Naturalism, metaphysical: challenging the cogency of the cosmological, [1] mechanical, [2] and moral arguments [3], holds that the universe requires no supernatural cause and government, but is self-existent, self-explanatory, self-operating, and self-directing, that the world-process is neither mechanistic nor anthropocentric, but purposeless, deterministic (except for possible tychistic* events, and), except in the affairs of mind; and is only accidentally productive of man; that human life as physical, mental, moral and spiritual phenomena, are ordinary natural events attributable in all respects to the ordinary operations of the laws of nature; and that man's ethical values, compulsions, activities, and restraints can be justified by non-reductive monism, [http://freeassemblage.blogspot.com/2008/09/non-reductive-monism.html] without recourse to supernatural sanctions, and his highest good pursued and attained under natural conditions, without expectation of a supernatural destiny"-- [amended from B.A.G.Fuller http://www.ditext.com/runes/n.html see Naturalism]
* (Tychism: any theory which regards chance as an objective reality, operative in the cosmos; [ibid])
[caveats]
AND that this description neither explicitly nor implicitly exlcudes the existence of the human soul, nor of free will, when:"'soul' is a "veridical perception"** of consciousness;" and "'free will' is the mind’s freedom "to think or not;" (Ayn Rand) AND that "consciousness" is "the faculty of awareness—the faculty of [veridically] perceiving that which exists;" (AR)
AND that "that which exists" is "an 'existent' be it a thing, an attribute or an action;" (AR)
AND that "an existent" is "veridical perception and memory, or abstract and ideal e.g. in conception and valuation;" (Runes)
**"Veridical perception" is: a direct relation of awareness between a conscious subject and an object of empirical or abstract content.
[1] Where cosmology is taken to mean that which treats of the origin and structure of the universe. Cosmology also refers to the structural view where it is the world view of physics. However, as to cosmological origin, let me be clear: There is no origin. If existence itself had an origin, then the pre-existing condition of existence would be non-existence, which by definition can have no existence and therefore cannot have been a state of being prior to existence.
[2] Where mechanical is taken to mean the explanation of the present and the future in terms of the past. The opposite of mechanical is teleology, i.e., the explanation of the past and the present in terms of the future. [see above for comparison]
[3] Where the moral argument is taken to mean an argument for God based on man's moral nature, an objective nature that gives him cause to make moral assertions about existence but has no basis for conclusions of the supernatural. The only moral argument acceptable is teleological, meaning it must be the answer to the question of whether, not why, Man needs ethics; and what those ethics must be in terms of the objective nature of Man himself as "all there is" in terms of deducing the natural while excluding the super-natural existence of existence itself.
naturalism, methodological, or scientific: has the same ends in empirical science as does metaphysical naturalism. However, any statement of these types of naturalism should "be grounded on observed data. Thus--from a naturalistic point of view--the mission of science is to explain the observable world." internet source These forms of naturalism, therefore, deny the human soul as something not scientifically observable. That which others call soul is described as a phenomenon which is fundamentally physical, and is not given the metaphysical significance attributed by other philosophies.
Also disputed by this form of naturalism is the concept of free will. Because it sees all things as occurring from physical causes, it attributes mental effects to physical causes. Since the will is not capable of changing prior physical events or over-riding their effects, free will is dismissed as impossibly contra-causal, or [same as] libertarian will.
nothingness: Parmenides said, "Thou canst not speak nor think upon Nothing, for there is no Nothing. The Mind must have something before it at all times! When one thinks one is thinking of Nothing, he is thinking of something which represents Nothing."
|