ANTI-NATURALISM IN EXTREMIS
25
prospect of heaven closed and refused him."* When such meas–
ure is meted out to such virtues as honor, uprightness, justice, and
generosity, one readily gathers.how conduct proceeding from appe·
tite and desire will be judged. For the latter are even more deeply
dyed with the Pauline and Augustinian view of the total corruption
of the body and the carnal lusts of flesh. The historic source of the
doctrine of the corruption of nature and the fallen estate of man
may be relegated to the background. But the western world was
reared under the influence of the doctrines and sacraments of the
Church. Contrast between the old Adam which is "natural" and
a higher self which is "spiritual" remained the assumption of
philosophers who avowedly repudiated supernaturalism - as in
the striking case of Kant. The Church never forgot to remind its
adherents of the lost condition that was due to their fallen estate.
For otherwise there would have been no need for the work of
redemption supernaturally entrusted to it. Similarly, the pro–
fessedly non-supernatural philosopher who was anti-naturalist
never ceased to dwell upon the merely sensuous and self-seeking
character of the natural man and upon the morally seductive
character of natural impulse and desire. For otherwise there
would be no place for the doctrine that the truly moral factors in
human relations are superimposed by a spiritual non-natural
source and authority.
It is needful to use such terms as non-naturalist and anti–
naturalist. For in addition to frank supernaturalism, there are phi–
losophers who claim to rest their extra-if not super-naturalism
upon a higher faculty of Reason or Intuition, or whatever, not upon
special divine revelation. While I am personally convinced that
their philosophy can be understood only as an historical heritage
from frank supernaturalism, I shall not urge that view. I wish
rather to call attention to a point of agreement and practical co·
operation between the members of the two anti-naturalistic schools.
Both of them identify naturalism with "materialism." They then
employ the identification to charge naturalists with reduction of
all distinctive human values, moral, esthetic, logical, to blind
mechanical conjunctions of material entities-a reduction which
is in effect their complete destruction. This identification thus
permits anti-naturalists to substitute name-calling for a discussion
*The word
mere
plays a large role in anti-naturalistic writings.
