Abstract

This is a wonderful and important book that highlights a conception of naturalism that has its roots in the Columbia School. Readers of this journal are very much aware of and have often participated in the work of the Chicago School of religious naturalism, but the Columbia School, more secular and less religiously inclined, may not be as well known. John Ryder brings the Columbia School to life in his account of how this more secular naturalism aligns itself to the work of Dewey, Woodbridge, Randall, and above all Justus Buchler. Santayana was an important source of inspiration for the Columbia naturalists who preferred his cooler naturalism to more religiously hot varieties. The philosophers at Columbia ..