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Haase_UZ_x007E_DTh (2).pdf - South African Theological Seminary

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is called, remarkably enough, the naturalist<br />

school. This turn or return to naturalism is<br />

now dominant among philosophers of science<br />

(Kitcher, 1992; Callebaut, 1993). These<br />

philosophers believe that matters of fact are as<br />

relevant to philosophical theory as they are to<br />

science (a positivist stance), but they also<br />

claim that the history of scientific discovery<br />

and theory formation is vital to understanding<br />

and explaining the workings of science (an<br />

historicist stance). I think the naturalist school<br />

is a very positive development in the history of<br />

philosophy of science, although I point out that<br />

they come to no agreements concerning the<br />

objectivity and credibility of science. Their<br />

work is still in progress .... The surest sign that<br />

postmodernism is wrong is that postmodern<br />

critiques of science have had absolutely no<br />

effect on the practice of science or the<br />

continuing achievements of science. If there<br />

had been any truth at all to postmodernism,<br />

scientists would have changed their scientific<br />

methods and procedures to try to escape the<br />

postmodern pitfalls of relativism,<br />

subjectivism, and externalism. The fact that<br />

few scientists know or care about<br />

postmodernism, and none have been<br />

influenced by it, speaks volumes<br />

(Schafersman, 1997).<br />

Does postmodernism make any positive contributions Prof. D.A. Carson believes<br />

there is “a large measure of truth in postmodernity” (Carson, 1996:91), because it does<br />

criticize the godless assumptions of modernity. Postmodernity does help to swing the<br />

pendulum the other direction from extreme rationalism and the “unnecessary dogmatisms<br />

and legalism of a previous generation” (ibid. 91). Carson argues we have been<br />

‘canonizing’ our own assumptions far too long. In this, postmodernism “is proving rather<br />

successful at undermining the extraordinary hubris of modernism” and concludes, “no<br />

thoughtful Christian can be sad about that” (ibid. 10). Carson adds, “not all of God’s<br />

truth is vouchsafed to one particular interpretive community” (ibid. 552).<br />

World-class philosopher, William Lane Craig, said the biggest problem with<br />

postmodernism is not that it is unliveable, “but rather that it is so obviously self-<br />

84<br />

University of Zululand, KwaZulu-Natal, <strong>South</strong> Africa

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