Naturalism and the first person perspective lynne rudder baker university of massachusetts amherst the first person perspective is a challenge to naturalism naturalistic theories are relentlessly third personal the first person perspective is well first personal it is the. Lynne rudder baker aims to show that naturalism cannot make room for such facts as that there are first person experiences and perspectives first person facts are items such as my experience of pain which baker calls rudimentary and thoughts such as i am glad i am a philosopher which she calls robust because they contain a self concept. Naturalism and the first person perspective lynne rudder baker sets out the claims of main varieties of scientific naturalism explores the shortcomings of treatment of first person phenomena by important philosophers such as david lewis daniel dennett thomas metzinger and john perry. This book has three main goals 1 to show that no wholly impersonal account of reality can be adequate that apparently first person aspects of reality are genuine irreducible and ineliminable and belong in a complete ontology 2 to give a detailed non cartesian account of the first person perspective and its contribution to reality 3 to shape a near naturalism that is more accommodating to reality with us in it than is the reigning scientific naturalism