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Zusatztext '... a meaningful discussion of the human situation at the dawn of the 21st century.' Informationen zum Autor Willem B. Drees Klappentext Can one call nature 'evil'? Or is life a matter of eating and being eaten, where value judgments should not be applied? Is nature beautiful? Or is beauty in the eye of the beholder? Scientists often pretend that their disciplines only describe and analyze natural processes in factual terms, without making evaluative statements regarding reality. However, scientists may also be driven by the beauty of that which they study. Or they may be appalled by suffering they encounter, and look for technical or medical means 'to improve nature'. Outside of the scientific community, value judgments are even more common. Humans evaluate nature and natural processes in moral, aesthetic and religious terms as cruel, beautiful, hopeful or meaningless. Is nature ultimately good, with all suffering and evil justified in the context of the larger evolutionary process? Or is nature to be improved, via culture or technology, as it is considered less adequate than it could be? In this book, some major scientists, theologians, and philosophers discuss these issues. As a study on the relations between religion and science, this is unique in emphasizing the evaluation of nature, rather than treating religion and science as competing or complementary casual explanations. Zusammenfassung Is Nature Ever Evil?, considers the different ways in which reality is understood between the disciplines of ethics, religion and science focusing on the ethical evaluation of nature itself. Inhaltsverzeichnis Willem B. Drees, This vale of tears-the best of all possible worlds? Part I NATURE, SCIENCE AND VALUE Willem B. Drees, Nature, science and value: Introduction to Part I 1. Mary Midgley, Criticizing the cosmos 2. Silvia Völker, Response to Midgley's 'Criticizing the cosmos' 3. Hans Radder, Midgley on science, nature, metaphysics and ethics: Some comments 4. Joachim Leilich, Mind and value: Reflections on Max Weber 5.Tatjana Visak, The moral relevance of naturalness 6. Angela Roothaan, The experience of nature: A hermeneutic approach 7. Peter Scheers, Human interpretation and animal excellence Part II: EVIL EVOLUTIONAY JUSTIFIED? Willem B. Drees, Evil evolutionary justified? Introduction to Part II 8. Holmes Rolston, III, Naturalizing and systematizing evil 9. Jacobus J. de Vries, Cooperation or competition-comments on Rolston 10. Jozef Keulartz, Rolston: A Contemporary physico-theologian 11. Jan Smit, Are catastrophes in nature ever evil? 12 Arthur Petersen, Contingency and risk: Comment on Smit 13. Fred Spier, Nature does not care indeed, but humans do: A commentary 14. Claudia Sanides-Kohlrausch, The Lisbon Earthquake, 1755: A discourse about the 'nature' of nature 15 Arnold Benz, Tradegy versus hope: A theological response 17. Neil A. Manson, Cosmic fine-tuning, 'many universe' theories and the goodness of life Part III IMPROVING NATURE VIA CULTURE AND TECHNOLOGY? John H. Brooke, Improvable nature? 19. Leo P. ten Kate, Victims of nature cry out 20. Henk. G. Geertsema, 'Improvable nature?' Some meta-historical reflections 21. Kris Dierick, Is nature neutral? The concept of health 22 Philip Hefner, Nature good and evil: A theological palette 23. Wessel Stoker, Nature Good and Evil: A theological evaluation 24. Eduardo R. Cruz, The quest for perfection: Insights from Paul Tillich 25. Mathew Illathuparampil, Normativity of nature: Natural law in a technological lifeworld 26 Anne Kull, Exploring technonature with cyborgs Part IV VALUES AS EXPLANATIONS OR VALUES EXPLAINED? 27.Keith Ward, Two forms of explanation 28 Martien E. Brikman, Two forms of explanation: A response to Ward 29 Ronald Meester, Two forms of explanation: A response to Ward 30. Edwin Koster, The evaluation of natural reality: A watertight case? 31. Lindon B. Eaves, 'Ought' in a world that ju...
