The Image in Mind Theism, Naturalism, and the Imagination [Hardcover]

A philosophical inquiry into the strengths and weaknesses of theism and naturalism in accounting for the emergence of consciousness, the visual imagination and aesthetic values. The authors begin by offering an account of modern scientific practice which gives a central place to the visual imagination and aesthetic values. They then move to test the explanatory power of naturalism and theism in accounting for consciousness and the very visual imagination and aesthetic values that lie behind and define modern science. Taliaferro and Evans argue that evolutionary biology alone is insufficient to account for consciousness, the visual imagination and aesthetic values. Insofar as naturalism is compelled to go beyond evolutionary biology, it does not fare as well as theism in terms of explanatory power.

Charles Taliaferrois Professor of Philosophy at St. Olaf College, USA, and is the author ofConsciousness and the Mind of God,Evidence and Faith: Philosophy and religion since the seventeenth century,Contemporary Philosophy of Religion,Dialogues About God,Philosophy of Religion: A Beginners Guideand the co-author ofNaturalism. He is the co-editor ofA Companion to Philosophy of Religion,Cambridge Platonist Spirituality, and theCambridge Companion to Christian Philosophical Theology. He was the philosophy of religion area editor of theEncyclopedia of Philosophy, second edition and is on the editorial board ofReligious Studies, Sophia, Blackwell's Philosophy Compass, American Philosophical Quarterly, andArs Disputandi. Taliaferro has lectured at Oxford, Cambridge, NYU, Columbia, Princeton, and St. Andrews University.

Jil Evans(MFA Stanford University) has exhibited her paintings and prints in Minnesota, Chicago, New York City, Michigan, Memphis, Washington D.C., California, Paris, and Rome. Her work is in many private and public collections including the MinneapolislCƒ