DESCRIPTION: The author of the text is Prof. Anna Lemańska, a long-time employee of the Faculty of Philosophy at the Catholic University of Lublin, specializing mainly in the philosophy of nature and the philosophy of mathematics. For many years, she was also a member of the editorial board of SPCh, serving as secretary and deputy editor-in-chief. In an interview conducted in 2021, she said: "I consider myself a critical realist. I therefore see natural reality as my senses and the natural sciences tell me. At the same time, I believe that natural reality is not everything, that there is a reality transcendent to the material world. (...) In my opinion, a full understanding of reality is not only its description, even the most accurate one provided by the natural sciences, but also, and even above all, reaching its essence, its meaning, why this reality exists at all and why it is the way it is. The natural sciences alone cannot answer these questions. Philosophy must therefore be involved. And since I believe that there is a reality beyond the natural world, an appropriate theology is also necessary to grasp reality in all its aspects. (...) I notice that the average contemporary person is becoming increasingly irrational: on the one hand distrustful, on the other ready to accept any explanation that refers to some mysterious factors, hence their image of reality is also irrational. This is dangerous because an irrational picture of reality has nothing to do with reality, which is rational. If the picture of reality is fundamentally false, there is no chance of making the right decisions, either personal or concerning society as a whole” (Dwie Anny i filozofia, Liber Libri 2021). The problem of the relationship between natural sciences and religious faith is an important issue in the philosophy of science, the philosophy of religion, and the philosophy of nature. Naturalism in the natural sciences is a term used in discussions of problems arising in this context. At least two types of naturalism are usually distinguished: ontological and methodological. In this article, the author attempts to answer the following questions: Are the natural sciences naturalistic? Is naturalism (methodological or ontological) an assumption of the sciences? Is this assumption necessary for the fruitful practice of natural sciences? Ontological naturalism is a metaphysical assumption that does not influence the method of natural sciences nor does it result from them. Methodological naturalism is not an assumption of natural sciences, but rather a consequence of naturalists' pursuit of maximum objectivity and inter-subjective verifiability of their discoveries.
EXCERPT: "(...) ontological naturalism and epistemological naturalism are metaphysical-epistemological theses external to the natural sciences. The natural sciences neither assume nor imply them. In this sense, it can be said that attributing this type of naturalism to the natural sciences is a myth. In turn, a weaker version of methodological naturalism seems to be related to the method of natural sciences. However, when treated as a necessary assumption for the practice of natural sciences, it is utopian, because natural sciences, if they are to develop fruitfully, cannot be confined to rigid rules of conduct" (p. 91).
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