Naturalism in the goldilocks zone: Wittgenstein’s delicate balancing act

Abstract

Naturalism comes in many stripes and strengths. At one extreme, naturalists of a super strict sort advance a unification agenda along combined methodological and ontological fronts. At the other extreme, by way of response to the confining and austere conception of nature proposed by strict naturalists, liberal naturalists are pluralists who accept the existence of diverse ways of knowing and entities other those recognized by the sciences. Neither of these naturalisms is satisfactory-the first is too hard, the latter too soft. In Wittgenstein’s philosophy, we find inspiration for a Liberating, Relaxed version of naturalism that proves more habitable and viable-one that occupies a Goldilocks Zone and offers the right conditions for understanding how philosophy and the sciences can be distinct and yet productively connected.