Value as Optics: Self, Nature, and God in Science-Religion Debate

This book offers an in-depth analysis of the genesis of value in relation to self, nature, and God, promising a meeting point for naturalistic and theistic accounts that facilitates harbouring scientific and religious temperaments. It is the first of its kind as it delves into the question of the genesis of value, setting it as the anchoring point of dialogue between science and religion. This is also the first work to bring together three methodological approaches to the value question—that of cultural anthropology, phenomenology, and metaphysics—without sacrificing cross-fertilisation at the altar of overspecialisation. It also brings three intellectual giants into dialogue: Alfred North Whitehead, Merleau-Ponty, and Charles Taylor.The book finally establishes that our original disposition to the world is not rationalistic but relational, one of mutual inherence, touching and being-touched, prehending and being prehended, secreting sense and being immersed in sense. This book will be a good read for those seeking fundamental answers to questions of value and meaning. It will also attract those interested in modernity questions, phenomenology, philosophy of nature and science, process philosophy, and metaphysical thinking.