The Logic of Materialism: A Test Case for the Principium Exclusae Antinomiae
Abstract
Contemporary materialism apparently takes no notice of the peculiar nonphysical status of logical laws and relationships. Yet, seventy years ago, J.B. Pratt and others proposed that materialism was incoherent due to its inability to do justice to the metaphysical status of logical laws and properties. Lately, this accusation has resurfaced as a criticism of materialism from the viewpoint of the school of Cosmonomic Philosophy founded by Herman Dooyeweerd and Dirk H. T. Vollenhoven. In particular this occurs in Roy Clouser’s, The Myth of Religious Neutrality. I endeavor to make the accusation of Pratt and Clouser, which is not well-developed in their respective books, clear and precise as a violation of Dooyeweerd’s well known Principium Exclusae Antinomiae. I offer three arguments to the effect that 1) materialism destroys the notion of logical entailment, 2) materialism destroys the notion of logical truth, and 3) as a supervenience thesis materialism is incoherent.
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