The Dictionary of Human Geography

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(‘discovered’) highlight their deeply social

origins. Second, resources are a dynamic cat-

egory: different parts of the non-human world

slip into (uranium, coltan) and out of (alum,

flint, osiers, guano) this category across time

and place (seeresources). The remarkable

history of natural gas, for example, demon-

strates how a single substance may be consid-

ered asvariously hazardous waste,‘neutral stuff’

or a valuable natural resource, depending on

knowledge,price,socialnormsandexpectations

(regardingpollution), and the availability of

alternatives.geography continues to make

contributions to the practical art and science of

managing natural resources, but there is also a

robust tradition of critical enquiry that acknow-

ledges how ‘natural resources are not naturally

resources’ (Hudson, 2001). gb

Suggested reading

Bakker and Bridge (2006); Rees (1991).

naturalism Apart from the denial of the exi-

stence of God or the rejection of the Cartesian

dualism of mind and body, the term ‘naturalism’

is nowadays commonly used to mark one’s

acceptance of a scientific philosophy (seephil-

osophy;science). An overwhelming majority

of Anglo-American philosophers claim to sub-

scribe to some form of naturalism. From the

vantage point of contemporary philosophy, nat-

uralism is the twofold view that: (1) everything is

composed of natural entities – those studied in

science – whose properties determine the prop-

erties of things, including persons and abstract

mathematical objects; and (2) that science con-

sists essentially in the registration of (or refuta-

tion of claims about) empirical invariances

between discrete events, states of affairs and the

like. This view, which can be aptly termed

‘scientific naturalism’, argues the strong claim

that natural science providesatrue or essential

picture ofnature. More contentious versions of

scientific naturalism or scientism assert that it is

theonlytrue picture. Thus, in the words of

Wilfred Sellars, ‘science is the measure of all

things, of what is that it is, of what is not that it

is not’ (1963, p. 173). Scientific naturalism

contends that the great successes of the modern

natural sciences in predicting, controlling and

explaining natural phenomena – mathematical

physics and Darwin’s theory of evolution are

exemplars – imply that the natural sciences’

conception of nature is very likely to be true

and, moreover, that this is our only bona fide or

unproblematic conception of nature.

Importantly, scientific naturalism rejects

any goal of First Philosophy – which claims,

as in Cartesian or Kantian thought, to provide

the epistemological and metaphysical founda-

tions for the natural sciences. Instead, scien-

tific naturalism takes the resolutely Humean

stance that the human is simply a part of

nature, not set over against it. This in turn

denies the possibility of a First Philosophy

prior to the natural sciences, such that phil-

osophy can no longer claim to be the master

discipline that sits in judgment over the claims

of natural sciences or supplies the foundations

for their operation. Instead, philosophy is

STOCK

Consumed

by use

Theoretically

recoverable

Recyclable

Oil

All

elemental

minerals

Metallic

minerals

Critical zone

Non-critical

zone

Fish Solar

energy

Tides

Wind

Waves

Water

Air

Critical zone resources

become stock once

regenerative capacity

is exceeded

Flow resources

used to extinction

Forests

Animals

Soil

Water in

aquifers

Gas

Coal

FLOW

natural resources exhaustible (stock) and renewable (flow) resources (from Rees, 1991)

Gregory / The Dictionary of Human Geography 9781405132879_4_N Final Proof page 491 31.3.2009 3:13pm Compositor Name: ARaju

NATURALISM