Philosophical Naturalism Essay

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1. Which view of the concept of intelligence accords better with philosophical naturalism, as it was described in class: (a) intelligence as an absolute term (like money) or (b) intelligence as a comparative term (like wealth)? Justify your answer. In short, philosophical naturalism argues that there is one and only physical natural world that exists in which all humans are included. Immaterial and supernatural souls and spirits do not exist. Humans are nothing more than a collection of highly organized atoms, molecules, cells, neurons, muscles, bone and etc., produced by evolution, as Jack London once said, “I believe that when I am dead, I am dead. I believe that with my death I am just as much obliterated as the last mosquito you and I squashed.” Since naturalists believe the sole existence of the material world, then everything should be quantifiable and measurable. Intelligence is something that naturally exists within the world, then it should operate under the natural laws (of physics, biology and chemistry) and consequently be quantified, such as measuring reaction times or memorizing a certain number of words within a given time. Therefore, intelligence should be an absolute term because it is…show more content…
The type of data collected in a qualitative research is non-generalizable and is primarily expressed through descriptive words, images and graphs. A quantitative research focuses more on formulating conclusive information on a topic. It quantifies and categorizes features of a topic and constructs statistical models to explain what is observed. Qualitative research is often coupled with quantitative research. Qualitative research is mostly conducted in the early phases of a research to construct an in-depth and coherent big picture of the research topic. The follow-up quantitative research is then implemented to explain the research topic with unbiased numerical
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