SWN (1996) — Chapter 7
Chapter 7
This chapter synthesizes the book's core argument that the failure of American education stems from an ideological adherence to Romantic-progressive ideas which contradict empirical reality. To restore effectiveness, the author argues for a pragmatic shift toward content-rich, evidence-based practices that prioritize factual knowledge, hard work, and external incentives over naturalistic, child-centered slogans.
Argument Chains (30)
How the chapter's premises build toward conclusions. Each chain shows a line of reasoning from top to bottom. Click any node for full evidence and counter-arguments.
The Domain-Specific Nature of Intellectual Skill strong
An ability to think critically about one domain, such as chess, does not translate into an ability to think critically about another, such as sailing.
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Critical thinking skills in one domain do not translate to other domains.
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The real-life competencies people need, including reading and math, have major components that are domain-specific.1 ca
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There is no substitute for requisite domain-specific content knowledge in the performance of reading or any other intellectual skill.
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Schools should not and cannot teach all-purpose reading, thinking, and learning skills.1 ca
The Paradox of Intellectual Capital strong
The American emphasis on formal skills has resulted in students who are deficient in formal skills.
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An appropriate emphasis on transmitting knowledge results in students who possess skills such as critical thinking and learning to learn.
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A general skill is based on wide-ranging general knowledge that allows a person to apply domain-relevant knowledge to new problems.
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Knowledge of factual relationships regarding a topic is a better foundation for critical reading than an armory of formal procedures.
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Adequate attention to the transmission of broad general knowledge paradoxically leads to the possession of general intellectual skills.
The Cognitive Load Argument for Intellectual Capital strong
Intellectual skills must rest on rules and schemas because of the physiological limitations of working memory.
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Automation and chunking are the mental techniques used to overcome working memory constraints.
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Chunking and schema development are more important than procedural automation for achieving high levels of intellectual skill.1 ca
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Higher levels of reading expertise reside almost entirely in expanding the reader's accessible intellectual capital rather than further rule automation.
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The common educational assumption that a skill is an all-purpose tool applicable to any content is false.1 ca
The Cognitive Inevitability of Inequality strong
A broad base of knowledge provides analogies and categories (cognitive hooks) that make assimilating new learning easier.
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The possession of well-established schemas helps prevent the overloading of a learner's short-term memory.
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Novices experience slow progress and constant re-tries because they must keep too many new elements in mind at once, overloading short-term memory.
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Small early deficits in intellectual capital build into insuperable achievement gaps within a few years of schooling.1 ca
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The achievement gap between American students and those in other nations, as well as the gap between social classes, widens at each successive grade level due to a failure to exploit the cumulative principle.
The Grade-Level Readiness Chain strong
Defining educational standards in multiyear units (e.g., K–4) is an insufficient preliminary step because readiness operates grade by grade.
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Without clear and specific definitions of grade-level readiness, it is impossible to monitor and rectify educational deficits in a timely way.
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Multiyear standards create a system where no specific participant is held responsible for a child's academic shortcomings.
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Grade-by-grade standards and tests are logically necessary for monitoring and attaining grade-by-grade readiness.
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Only a school system that specifically defines the knowledge and skills required for each grade can be excellent and fair for all students.1 ca
The Global Empirical Chain strong
No nation that lacks grade-by-grade standards has achieved universal readiness, excellence, and fairness simultaneously.
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Switzerland's high achievement is actually due to detailed grade-by-grade standards at the local (canton) level, not a lack of standards.
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Every nation that achieves universal grade-level readiness for all children does so by using grade-by-grade standards.
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A common core curriculum is the only practical way for large, diverse nations to achieve universal student readiness.1 ca
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Universal readiness is the only means for achieving universal competence and combining educational excellence with fairness.
The Physiological Necessity of Core Knowledge strong
Working memory is a physiological constraint that requires the mind to 'strike while the iron is hot' or lose information permanently.
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The automation of repeated cognitive operations is the functional prerequisite that enables the conscious mind to engage in critical thought.
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The 'democratic version' of the cumulative principle requires that every student be guaranteed the academic preparation necessary to succeed in their specific grade level.1 ca
The Empirical Invalidation of Progressivism strong
There is not a single example in research literature of the successful implementation of progressivist methods in a carefully controlled longitudinal study.4 ev
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Process-outcome research consistently shows that the Romantic-progressive approach is the least effective educational approach studied.5 ev
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Educational Romanticism is wrong in its empirical assumptions and hence ineffectual in practice.1 ev
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The primary issue facing American education is practical effectiveness rather than philosophical or ideological preference.2 ev · 1 ca
Biological Reality vs. Romantic Myth strong
'Knowing how to learn' is an abstract skill that does not even exist.3 ev
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Delaying learning until a child is 'ready' does not speed up learning in the long run.4 ev
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The naturalistic approach to education fails to motivate all students equally.1 ev
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The naturalistic approach to education does not inculcate knowledge and skill effectively, securely, or universally.1 ev · 1 ca
The Artificiality of Schooling strong
Alphabetic literacy is not a natural learning analogous to oral language acquisition.
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Many learnings to be gained in school are inherently unnatural attainments.
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Nonnatural educational goals are best attained, and perhaps only attained, through nonnatural means.1 ca
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A nonnaturalistic approach, including direct instruction in letter-sound correspondences, is the most effective approach to the teaching of reading.1 ca
The Biological Argument against Naturalism strong
Primary learnings, such as speaking and basic spatial orientation, follow a universal, transcultural sequence determined by human evolution.
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Secondary learnings, including reading, writing, and base-ten arithmetic, are not universal and do not develop automatically.
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There is no specific age when a child is 'developmentally ready' by nature to learn reading or arithmetic.
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A child's readiness for secondary processes depends on prior relevant learning rather than biological development.1 ca
The Anti-Naturalism Chain strong
There is no natural pace for gaining the nonnatural learnings of alphabetic literacy and base-ten mathematics.
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The notions that children can progress through school at their own innate pace are egregious fallacies unsupported by research.
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It is impossible to conduct an effective classroom when attempting to accommodate twenty-five different paces of learning simultaneously.
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Naturalistic principles like discovery learning and individual pacing do not work well according to existing research.1 ca
The Democratic Communication Argument strong
A citizenry cannot participate effectively in a modern economy without sharing the common intellectual capital that enables communication.
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In a large and diverse nation, the common school is the only institution capable of creating a school-based culture that enables universal public communication.
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The principle of shared background knowledge in the classroom is the same principle that allows an entire community or nation to function.
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It is the duty of a nation’s educational system to create a domain of public communicability.
The Mobility and Justice Chain strong
One sixth of all American third graders attend at least three different schools between first and third grade.
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High student mobility in the United States makes common grade-by-grade learning standards more necessary than in other nations.
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The lack of curricular uniformity in the United States is a gross injustice to millions of highly mobile school children.
The Educational Equality Engine strong
The laissez-faire curricular model has resulted in huge knowledge gaps, boring repetitions, and glaring inequalities in education.
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Enhancing the content and commonality of education would diminish economic inequities within the nation.1 ca
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Enhancing both the content and commonality of education improves its effectiveness and fairness.
The Cumulative Learning Mechanism moderate
Learning requires repeated practice and effort to forge new neural paths; it is not effortless or automatic.1 ca
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Possessing background knowledge reduces the number of new elements the mind must process, preventing working memory overload.
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The primary cause of the 'snowball effect' in achievement is the cumulative character of learning itself.
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Early educational advantages or deficits tend to snowball into large deficiencies or strengths in later life.
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Learning is cumulative, following the principle that 'it takes knowledge to make knowledge.'
The Accountability and Testing Necessity Chain moderate
Effective educational policy requires annual monitoring and compensatory learning for students who fall below the readiness plateau for their upcoming grade.
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Grade-by-grade monitoring requires grade-by-grade accountability and incentives for parents, children, teachers, schools, and districts.
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None of the characteristic objections to tests, specific year-by-year goals, or incentives have proved to be valid or supported by good research.
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External incentives combined with intrinsic ones work better than intrinsic incentives alone.
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Tests, incentives, and accountability are necessary components of a fair and effective educational system.1 ca
The Institutional Reform Chain moderate
Millions of American teachers are offered no intellectual alternatives to the repeating mistakes of progressive educational doctrine.
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Progressive educational doctrine cannot withstand empirical and intellectual challenge in a free and open encounter.
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The pandemic of mistaken ideas in education schools is the gravest barrier to America's educational improvement.1 ca
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If progressive indoctrination in teacher training continues, the system for certifying and training teachers must be revolutionized.
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Reform must begin by insisting on intellectual diversity within schools of education.
The Sectarian Threat Analogy moderate
The American founders intended for divisiveness, specifically sectarian religion, to be excluded from the cultural commons of the public sphere.
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The separation of church and state was an Enlightenment innovation designed to foster a public domain of toleration and civility while preserving private freedom.
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Ethnic sectarianism is the primary contemporary threat to ecumenical, cosmopolitan public culture, mirroring the historical threat of religious sectarianism.1 ca
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Ethnic sectarianism is the chief danger to the shared public culture, functioning similarly to religious sectarianism in its divisiveness.
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The Romantic version of ethnicity is as harmful to public education as the Romantic conception of pedagogy.
The Curriculum of Consensus moderate
Educational formalism has turned the principle of local curriculum control into a myth.
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As far as specific content is concerned, the local curriculum does not exist in most cases.
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Focusing on K-8 education will inherently improve American high schools by providing students with foundational knowledge.
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High schools would become more effective if students were not required to take so many remedial/elementary courses.
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Schools require a coherent, cumulative core curriculum that instills consensus values such as civic duty, honesty, diligence, and independent-mindedness.1 ca
The Social Justice Mandate moderate
Basic principles of learning, including the need for effort, practice, automation, and the cumulative nature of learning, apply universally to all individuals regardless of social status.
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Children cannot keep up in first grade unless they arrive with the specific knowledge, vocabulary, and skills that enable them to participate actively in class.
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Logical consistency and democratic principles require extending the 'ready to learn' principle to all subsequent grades, not just first grade.
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It is the duty of schools in a democracy to provide each child with the knowledge and skills required for academic progress to compensate for unequal home environments.
Accountability and Curricular Design moderate
Multi-year standards (e.g., K-4) are effectively unmonitored systems because they fail to assign responsibility for a child's academic deficit to a specific point in time or participant.
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The 'democratic version' of the cumulative principle requires that every student be guaranteed the academic preparation necessary to succeed in their specific grade level.1 ca
Social Responsibility to Overturn Orthodoxy moderate
The dogmatism and lack of intellectual diversity in education schools may be a defensive reaction to the inability of progressive doctrine to survive empirical challenge.1 ca
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Half-truths are the most dangerous forms of error because their plausibility makes them difficult to recognize as incorrect.
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The press and the public have a moral and civic obligation to reject the argument that progressive methods have 'never been properly tried'.1 ca
The Status Quo Fallacy moderate
The direct origin of the dominant and ineffectual American educational orientation was the progressive movement of the 1920s that emanated from Teachers College, Columbia University.4 ev
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The educational reforms proposed in the 1990s are a continuation of Romantic ideas from the 1920s, 30s, and 40s.
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The dominant ideas of the Progressive Thoughtworld are not reforms but are the controlling ideas of failed schools.1 ca
The Practical Failure of Naturalism moderate
Process-outcome research indicates that naturalistic, integrated learning produces highly variable and uncertain results.
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The absence of explicit focus and definite goals in schooling results in an absence of secure and universal learning.1 ca
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Educational formalism and naturalism are half-truths—the most pernicious kinds of errors because they appear so plausible.
The Knowledge-Skill Dependency moderate
Researches into neurophysiology and cognitive skills converge on fundamental psychological principles that cannot be circumvented.
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The foundational principles of effective education cannot be circumvented.
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The best foundation for general skill is the inculcation of broad knowledge rather than abstract strategies.1 ca
The Failure of Progressive Pedagogy moderate
Possessing relevant background knowledge reduces the number of new things that must be learned during a task.
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An outmoded tool-conception of education has caused low average achievement and a high correlation between social class and educational success in the U.S.1 ca
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Effective educational policy must be developed coherently across the entire range of schooling, starting from preschool.1 ca
The Political Necessity of Curricular Change moderate
Romantic progressivism has maintained virtually totalitarian intellectual dominion over education schools and policymakers for nearly seventy years.
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No effective large-scale policy change is possible until there is a fundamental change of mind regarding education among the general public and teachers.1 ca
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Effective schools must provide step-by-step mastery of procedural knowledge in language arts and mathematics alongside content knowledge in civics, science, the arts, and the humanities.
Social Cohesion through Intellectual Capital moderate
There has been a decline in civility and sense of community in American public life, characterized by interethnic hostilities and an us-versus-them mentality.
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A truly common school strengthens universal communicability within the public sphere.1 ca
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The most significant contribution of common schooling is the preservation of democracy through shared communication.
Counter-Arguments (31)
empirical challenge (4)
Research on 'near transfer' suggests that while skills don't jump from chess to sailing, they do transfer between related domains (e.g., from Latin to English grammar, or from physics to engineering).
Waiting for a child's natural brain maturation may still be necessary even if prior learning is present; biological 'pruning' and myelination are not solely driven by learning tasks.
The 'insuperable' nature of achievement gaps may be a self-fulfilling prophecy caused by low teacher expectations and 'tracking' students into remedial paths rather than an inherent cognitive snowball effect.
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alternative explanation (10)
The 'Never Properly Tried' defense: Progressive reforms failed because they were diluted by bureaucratic systems or implemented by teachers who didn't fully understand the underlying philosophy.
In an 'Information Age' where factual knowledge is instantly accessible, the opportunity cost of spending school time on facts is too high; schools must focus on the skills of vetting and synthesizing information, even if those skills are difficult to master.
Highly structured 'nonnatural' means (direct instruction) may suppress a child's natural curiosity and long-term love of learning, leading to competence without engagement.
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value disagreement (8)
The definition of 'effectiveness' is itself an ideological choice; Romanticists might define effectiveness as fostering creativity or psychological well-being, while the author defines it by academic standards.
The 'absence of secure and universal learning' is a value judgment. A 'lifelike' naturalistic education prioritizes personal growth, creativity, and the ability to navigate uncertainty over the rote acquisition of a predetermined set of facts.
In the 'Information Age,' the ability to filter, evaluate, and search for information (strategies) is more valuable than storing soon-to-be-obsolete facts in memory.
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methodological concern (3)
The decline in California's scores might be attributed to poor implementation and lack of teacher training in 'whole language' rather than the failure of the theory itself.
The failure of discovery learning and individual pacing in existing research may reflect poor implementation or lack of resources rather than a fundamental flaw in the theory itself.
Waiting for a 'fundamental change of mind' is a recipe for paralysis; incremental policy shifts and structural incentives often precede and cause shifts in public opinion rather than following them.
scope limitation (4)
While naturalistic approaches may be less efficient for skill acquisition, they may be superior for long-term retention and the development of intrinsic motivation.
While pure content-independence is rare, meta-cognitive 'habits of mind' (like checking for contradictions) show significant transfer across domains once they become habituated.
Highly specific grade-level definitions can lead to a rigid 'one-size-fits-all' curriculum that ignores the psychological needs of children who develop at different rates, even if those rates aren't 'natural.'
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internal inconsistency (2)
In some fields, procedural automation is so foundational that failing to achieve it (e.g., in basic arithmetic) creates a 'barrier' that no amount of schema knowledge can overcome.
Standardizing 'consensus values' like 'independent-mindedness' is paradoxically difficult within a rigid, grade-by-grade mandated core curriculum.
Logical Gaps (24)
Unstated assumptions required for the arguments to work.
To move from 'empirical failure' to 'the issue is not ideological,' one must assume that all stakeholders agree on what constitutes a 'successful' outcome.
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The author assumes that because these ideas were dominant at the university level (Teachers College), they were also the actual day-to-day practice in all failed K-12 classrooms.
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Establishing that 'knowing how to learn' is not a general skill does not necessarily mean that discovery-based learning cannot lead to the acquisition of specific content knowledge.
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Establishing that there are no 'meta-cognitive' or 'executive function' skills that, while not content-specific, facilitate the acquisition of new domain knowledge.
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The author labels naturalism a 'half-truth' but does not explicitly define which 'half' of the theory is actually true before dismissing it as an error.
minor
Other Claims Not in Chains (74)
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