The precise character and scope of contemporary naturalism remain disputed issues, yet projects under that label do show discernible commonalities. In particular, naturalists grant exceptional cognitive status to the empirical sciences, although they do this in ways that vary from one author to another. Many, following John Dewey, strive to ground their view of human life in evolutionary biology and, more broadly, to replace traditional metaphysical and epistemological approaches with theories and methods continuous with those of the sciences.