After naturalism : wild systems theory and the turn to holism ; a reply to Saskia K. Nagel

Abstract

We agree with Dr. Nagel’s assertion that explanations within cognitive science can be thickened by an infusion of pragmatism and anthropology. We further propose that because of its direct challenge of the correspondence thinking that tends to underlie contemporary indirect- and direct realism, Wild Systems Theory provides a coherence framework that conceptualizes reality as inherently context dependent and, therefore, inherently meaning-full. As a result, pragmatists can appeal to the reality of lived experience, anthropologists can appeal to the meaningful, multi-scale influences that shape an individual, and both can do so without having to justify the reality status of meaning in relation to the meaning-less view of reality we have been led to via the indirect- and direct-realism inherent in contemporary naturalism.