In this presentation, Dr. Lawrence Cahoone introduces Ordinal Naturalism — his non-reductive account of nature that integrates hierarchical systems theory, emergence, and Justus Buchler’s pluralistic metaphysics of “natural complexes.”

Beginning with an outline of the five “orders” of nature — physical, material, biological, mental, and cultural — Cahoone presents them both as distinct domains of phenomena and as stages in the historical evolution of nature, marked by increasing complexity over time.

From there, he retraces the philosophical path that leads to this view: from Columbia Naturalism and objective relativism, through the late-20th-century rejection of foundationalism, to contemporary theories of emergence and partial reduction (Wimsatt, Anderson, Simon, Kauffman, and others).

Key questions explored include:

• What does it mean for something to be real?
• Can reduction and emergence coexist?
• Do the natural sciences have priority over the social sciences?
• How can we avoid both reductionism and mystical holism?

Cahoone argues for a layered, interdependent, evolving reality: nothing floats free, nothing is causally isolated — and yet each domain (biology, mind, culture) retains its own integrity.

Timestamps

00:01:11 – The Five “Orders of Nature”

00:07:43 – From Modernity to Systematic Metaphysics

00:09:10 – The Rejection of Foundationalism

00:12:40 – Columbia Naturalism & Objective Relativism

00:15:28 – Justus Buckler’s Natural Complexes & Ontological Parity

00:18:22 – Q&A: The Whole, Ultimacy & Naturalism

00:28:01 – Emergence and Hierarchical Systems Theory

00:29:33 – Wimsatt on Reduction and Partial Explanation

00:36:39 – Defining Ordinal Naturalism

00:41:04 – Train Tracks: Contextualism vs Hierarchy (What’s “Prior”?)