The Origins of Scientific Naturalism


Peter Harrison (University of Notre Dame, Australia)

Dates: Monday, 17/03/2025
Time: 5:30pm
Venue: F09.331. Madsen Building. Madsen Seminar Room 331
How to register: Free, no registration required

Abstract: The expression ‘scientific naturalism’ dates from the late nineteenth century when Thomas Henry Huxley first used it to characterize what was distinctive about the approach of the natural sciences.  As part of his strategy to cement the connection between naturalism and science, Huxley constructed a history for naturalism, now commonplace, according to which it began with the pre-Socratic philosophers, fell into neglect with the inception of Christianity, and was revived during the scientific revolution.  According to Huxley, the history of civilization was characterized by a perennial struggle between naturalism and supernaturalism, with progress consisting in the slow but inevitable triumph of the former over the latter.  This paper considers the relevant history and suggests that Huxley’s widely accepted account gets almost everything backwards. It shows how for most of history ‘supernatural’ assumptions have been fundamental to scientific endeavour.

Bio: Peter Harrison is Professor Emeritus of History and Philosophy at the University of Queensland and a Professorial Research Fellow at the University of Notre Dame, Australia.  Previously he was the Andreas Idreos Professor of Science and Religion at the University of Oxford. His twelve books include The Territories of Science and Religion (Chicago, 2015) and, most recently, Some New World: Myths of Supernatural Belief in a Secular Age (Cambridge, 2024).