ABRIDGED TABLE OF CONTENTS

List of Figures

xiii

Preface

xv

Chapter 1- Aim and Scope

1

1. Description of the Project

1

2. Our Presuppositions

3

3. The Epistemological Basis

8

4. Overview of the Argument

15

5. Significance of the Undertaking

18

Chapter 2- The Hierarchy of the Sciences

19

1. Introduction: The Incomplete Hierarchy

19

2. Hierarchies of Complexity

22

3. Free Will and Determinism

32

4. Confirmation and Explanation in Hierarchical Systems

37

Chapter 3- Cosmology

39

1. Outline of Cosmology

39

2. The Existence of Life

49

3. Ultimate Causation

53

4. The Need for a Larger View

59

Chapter 4- Revision of the Hierarchy

64

1. The Branching Hierarchy of Sciences

64

2. The Variety of Sciences

65

3. Pure Science and Applied Sciences

70

4. Applied Science and Social Science

71

5. The Sciences of the Artificial

73

6. The Social Sciences

78

7. The Branching Hierarchy Revisited

86

Chapter 5- Ethics, Theology, and the Social Sciences

88

1. Overview of the Argument

88

2. Social Science and the Need for Ethics

89

3. The Nature of Ethics

103

4. Ethics and Theology

107

5. Theology in the Social-Scientific Heresies

111

6. Conclusion

114

Chapter 6- The Ethical Core

115

1. Overview

115

2. The Hard Core: Self-Renunciation

118

3. Renunciation as a Social Ethic

112

4. Ethics and Epistemology

139

5. Conclusion

140

Chapter 7-
Reconfiguration of Social Science in Light of Ethics

141

1. Empirical Consequences of a Kenotic Ethic

141

2. Confirmation in the Interpersonal Sphere

143

3. Confirmation in the Legal Sphere

144

4. Nonviolence and Social Science

145

5. Social Change

165

6. Conclusion: The Program and Objections

171

Chapter 8: Ethics and Theories of God

173

The Need for a Related Theology

173

2. Kenotic Concepts of God

174

3. John Howard Yoder's Research Program

178

4. Theology and Cosmology

201

Chapter 9- Ethics, Cosmology, and Theories of God

202

1. Overview of the Argument

202

2. Theology and Cosmology

205

3. Cosmology and the Kenotic Universe

208

4. Echoes of Kenosis in Biology

211

5. Noncoercive Divine Action and Physical Reality

213

6. Consistency with the Scientific Picture

218

7. The Natural-Scientific Context for Morality

219

8. Conclusions

219

Chapter 10- Epistemological Evaluation

221

1. Scope of Evaluation

221

2. Fine-Scale Evaluation: Overview of the Data

223

3. Medium-Scale Evaluation: Progressive Research Programs

227

4. Large-Scale Evaluation

241

5. Conclusion

250

Index

252