ABSTRACT
Naturalism is a philosophical approach that reflects on the relation of empiricism and philosophy of science. The varieties of naturalism range from addressing philosophical questions with empiricism to the replacement of philosophical inquiry with scientific knowledge. Naturalism strengthens empiricism and its contribution to philosophy of science through emphasis on the importance of accuracy and reliability in the processes of science. Cultural theories represent an important phenomenon for naturalistic philosophy of mind, demonstrating a robust parallelism between knowledge of the physical and social worlds. Cultural variation in the physical environment may subsequently tune mental representations of holistic and analytic perception. Naturalistic philosophy of mind centers considerations of scientific observation around the reliability between cultural and scientific theories of the mind and the world. Empirical work in cultural neuroscience demonstrates cultural influences across levels of brain organization. Naturalistic philosophy provides novel ways to understand the social structure of the scientific field of cultural neuroscience.
