Lawrence Cahoone

In addition to his work on theories of modernity (Cahoone 1987, 1995, 2003 below), philosophy of culture (Cahoone 2005), and political philosophy (Cahoone 2002), he developed a metaphysics of "ordinal naturalism" (Cahoone 2013, 2023), which argues that human mind, values, and culture can be understood as part of nature. To do this requires rethinking naturalism and its basis in natural science using two recent theories. One is "objective relativism," developed by the Columbia Naturalist philosophers Morris R. Cohen, John Herman Randall, Ernest Nagel, and Justus Buchler, as well as Charles W. Morris. Second is the notion of "emergence" originally developed by the British Emergentists, like Conwy Lloyd Morgan, and recently reprised by many scientists and philosophers, but particularly William C. Wimsatt.

Cahoone is married to the philosopher Elizabeth Baeten, formerly of Emerson College. They have two children, Harrison Baeten Cahoone and Isabel Rose Baeten Cahoone.

Works

Cahoone, Lawrence E. (2002). Civil Society: The Conservative Meaning of Liberal Politics. Blackwell Publishers. .