Katherin Rogers
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- September 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780199231676
- eISBN:
- 9780191716089
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199231676.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Philosophy of Religion, General
Anselm is the first Christian philosopher to defend a libertarian analysis of created freedom. In doing so he proposes viable answers to perennial questions in the philosophy of religion: If God ...
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Anselm is the first Christian philosopher to defend a libertarian analysis of created freedom. In doing so he proposes viable answers to perennial questions in the philosophy of religion: If God causes everything, does He also cause human choices, including the choice to sin? Can grace and human free will be reconciled? Can free human choices be divinely foreknown? Does divine freedom entail the choice to do other than the best, and to make a different world, or no world at all?Less
Anselm is the first Christian philosopher to defend a libertarian analysis of created freedom. In doing so he proposes viable answers to perennial questions in the philosophy of religion: If God causes everything, does He also cause human choices, including the choice to sin? Can grace and human free will be reconciled? Can free human choices be divinely foreknown? Does divine freedom entail the choice to do other than the best, and to make a different world, or no world at all?
David E. Cooper
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199235988
- eISBN:
- 9780191696688
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199235988.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, General, Philosophy of Religion
Philosophers have long been divided between ‘humanists’, for whom ‘man is the measure of things’, and their opponents, who claim that there is a way, in principle knowable and describable, that the ...
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Philosophers have long been divided between ‘humanists’, for whom ‘man is the measure of things’, and their opponents, who claim that there is a way, in principle knowable and describable, that the world anyway is, independent of human perspectives and interests. The early chapters of The Measure of Things chart the development of humanism from medieval times, through the Renaissance, Enlightenment and Romantic periods, to its modern form, ‘existential humanism’. The author does not identify this final position with that of any particular philosopher, though it is closely related to those of Heidegger, Merleau–Ponty, and the later Wittgenstein. Among the earlier figures discussed are William of Ockham, Kant, Herder, Nietzsche, and William James. Rejecting attempts by contemporary advocates of modest or non-metaphysical realism to dissolve the opposition between humanism and its ‘absolutist’ rival, the author adjudicates that rivality. Prompted by the pervasive rhetoric of hubris that the rivals direct against one another, he argues that the rival positions are guilty of lack of humility. Absolutists — whether defenders of ‘The Given’ or scientific realists — exaggerate our capacity to ascend out of our ‘engaged’ perspectives to an objective worldview. Humanists, conversely, exaggerate our capacity to live without a sense of our subjection to a measure independent of our own perspectives. The only escape from the impasse reached when humanism and absolutism are both rejected lies in a doctrine of mystery. There is a reality independent of ‘the human contribution’, but it is necessarily ineffable. Drawing upon the Buddhist conception of ‘emptiness’ and Heidegger's later writings, the final chapters defend the notion of mystery, distinguish the doctrine advanced from that of transcendental idealism, and propose that it is only through appreciation of mystery that measure and warrant may be provided for our beliefs and conduct.Less
Philosophers have long been divided between ‘humanists’, for whom ‘man is the measure of things’, and their opponents, who claim that there is a way, in principle knowable and describable, that the world anyway is, independent of human perspectives and interests. The early chapters of The Measure of Things chart the development of humanism from medieval times, through the Renaissance, Enlightenment and Romantic periods, to its modern form, ‘existential humanism’. The author does not identify this final position with that of any particular philosopher, though it is closely related to those of Heidegger, Merleau–Ponty, and the later Wittgenstein. Among the earlier figures discussed are William of Ockham, Kant, Herder, Nietzsche, and William James. Rejecting attempts by contemporary advocates of modest or non-metaphysical realism to dissolve the opposition between humanism and its ‘absolutist’ rival, the author adjudicates that rivality. Prompted by the pervasive rhetoric of hubris that the rivals direct against one another, he argues that the rival positions are guilty of lack of humility. Absolutists — whether defenders of ‘The Given’ or scientific realists — exaggerate our capacity to ascend out of our ‘engaged’ perspectives to an objective worldview. Humanists, conversely, exaggerate our capacity to live without a sense of our subjection to a measure independent of our own perspectives. The only escape from the impasse reached when humanism and absolutism are both rejected lies in a doctrine of mystery. There is a reality independent of ‘the human contribution’, but it is necessarily ineffable. Drawing upon the Buddhist conception of ‘emptiness’ and Heidegger's later writings, the final chapters defend the notion of mystery, distinguish the doctrine advanced from that of transcendental idealism, and propose that it is only through appreciation of mystery that measure and warrant may be provided for our beliefs and conduct.
Howard Wettstein
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199841363
- eISBN:
- 9780199950003
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199841363.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, General, Philosophy of Religion
This book explores the foundations of religious commitment in the domains of metaphysics/epistemology and the ethical. Throughout, the book takes a literary (rather than philosophical) approach to ...
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This book explores the foundations of religious commitment in the domains of metaphysics/epistemology and the ethical. Throughout, the book takes a literary (rather than philosophical) approach to theology that nevertheless makes room for philosophical exploration of religion. The book rejects the usual picture of religious life sitting atop a metaphysical foundation, in need of epistemological justification.Less
This book explores the foundations of religious commitment in the domains of metaphysics/epistemology and the ethical. Throughout, the book takes a literary (rather than philosophical) approach to theology that nevertheless makes room for philosophical exploration of religion. The book rejects the usual picture of religious life sitting atop a metaphysical foundation, in need of epistemological justification.
Acting Liturgically
Adoration
Alternative Concepts of God
Apophatic Bodies
Apparitions—Of Derrida's Other
Augustine's Confessions
Being, Freedom, and Method
Believing by Faith
