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.

Author Biography

Jil Evans (MA, University of Iowa; 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 Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Halle Ford Museum of Art, Stanford University, Valparaiso University Museum of Art, Steensland Art Museum, Harry and Margaret Anderson Collection of Art, Healthmarc, Inc., Minnetonka Corporation, Piper Jaffray and Hopwood, Central Lakes Colleges, Winthrop and Weinstein, and Coca Cola, Inc. She has received two grants from the Minnesota State Arts Board, in addition a Pew Grant to study and paint in Italy, and residencies at the American Academy in Rome and Atlantic Center for the Arts. Finally, the Jerome Foundation and Arts Midwest/ National Endowment for the Arts have extended support for her work. Since 1985 she has taught regularly in the Art Department at St. Olaf College. Charles Taliaferro is Professor of Philosophy at St. Olaf College, USA, and is the author of Consciousness and the Mind of God (Cambridge University Press), Evidence and Faith: Philosophy and religion since the seventeenth century (Cambridge University Press), Contemporary Philosophy of Religion (Blackwell), Dialogues About God (Rowman and Littlefield), Philosophy of Religion: A Beginners Guide (OneWorld Press) and the co-author of Naturalism (Eerdmans). He is the co-editor of A Companion to Philosophy of Religion (Blackwell), Cambridge Platonist Spirituality (Paulist Press), and the Cambridge Companion to Christian Philosophical Theology (Cambridge University Press). He was the philosophy of religion area editor of the Encyclopedia of Philosophy, second edition (MacMillan) and is on the editorial board of Religious Studies, Sophia, Blackwell's Philosophy Compass, American Philosophical Quarterly, and Ars Disputandi. Taliaferro has lectured at Oxford, Cambridge, NYU, Columbia, Princeton, and St. Andrews University.