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Faith, Philosophy and the Elemental Janis Talivaldis Ozolins ' Editor Religion and Culture in Dialogue East and West Perspectives ~ Springer Edi!or Janis Talivaldis OzoliQs School of Philosophy Australian Catholic University Fitzroy, VIC, Australia Institute of Philosophy and Sociology University of Latvia Riga, Latvia ISSN 2211-1107 ISSN 2211-1115 (electronic) Sophia Studies in Cross-cultural Philosophy of Traditions and Cultures ISBN 978-3-319-25722-8 ISBN 978-3-319-25724-2 (eBook) 001 10.1007/978-3-319-25724-2 Library of Congress Control Number: 2016933245 © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016 This work is subject to copyright. All rights arc reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or pa11 of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and trans1t1ission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication docs not i1t1ply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such na1t1es arc exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors arc safe to assume that the advice and information in this book arc believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. Printed on acid-free paper This Springer imprint is published by Springer Nature The registered company is Springer International Publishing AG Switzerland Contents Proglomena: Globalisation, Cultural Identity and Diversity ...... Janis Talivaklis Ozolii;is Part I The Nature of Belief 2 'I hope I believe in God': Some Implications for Contemporary Ethics . 17 Bernadette Tobin 3 Ethical Beliefs . 29 Peter Drum 4 Faith, Philosophy and the Elemental. 41 Richard J. Colledge Part II Dialogues Between Culture and Tradition 5 The Nature of Religious Dialogue, the Diversity Argument and Religious Pluralism. 59 John G. Quilter 6 Aquinas' Natural Law Versus Ethical and Cultural Pluralism . 77 John F.X. Knasas Part III Eastern Perspectives on God and Ethics 7 God and Conceptions of Immanence and Transcendence in Aquinas and Mengzi. 95 Janis Talivaldis Ozoli1Js 8 The Confucian Filial Duty to Care (xian ;ij~) for Elderly Parents . 111 T. Brian Mooney and John N. Williams xi xii Contents 9 A Daughter's Filiality, A Courtesan's Moral Propriety and a Wife's Conjugal Love: Rethinking Confucian Ethics for Women in the Tale OJ,r nlCll~,-~ (1'rllJffl A K'~ICU ) •.......•.•.........................••. 129 Jonathan Y. Tan Part IV Human Dignity and Rights 10 The Patristic Notion of Person and Its Importance for Modem Culture. 155 Dan Chitoiu 11 Questioning Human Dignity: The Dimensions of Dignity Model as a Bridge Between Cosmopolitanism and the Particular . 167 David G. Kirchhoffer 12 Human Rights, Religious Culture, and Dialogue. 181 William Sweet 13 Life Experience, Values and Education. 205 Maija KOie Index. 219 Chapter 4 Faith, Philosophy and the Elemental Richard J. Colledge Abstract In recent debate concerning the relationship between faith and reason, a pervasive assumption is evident according to which one or other is considered to be original and basic. This paper develops an alternative view of the status of both rational and religious modes of thought drawing on the work of Adriaan Pcperzak, and bringing his suggestion in this area into dialogue with a series of interlocators including Pascal, Levinas, Hcidcgger, Desmond and Van dcr Vckcn. Accordingly, neither rational and/or scientific methods, nor by religious orthodoxies, can claim primordiality. Rather, both of these phenomena arc determinate concretions of a more elemental pre-conceptual source that can be spoken about in terms of a background experiential faith, or a metaphysical trust. It is on this basis that an alternative account of the relation between religious faith and reason is offered, according to which they arc understood to be distinct yet intimately related at source. Keywords Rationality • Faith • Adriaan Pcperzak • Ulaisc Pascal • Martin Hcideggcr • Emmanuel Levinas • William Desmond 4.1 Introduction In recent popular debate concerning the relationship between religion and con­ temporary philosophy and the natural sciences, two pervasive tendencies can be identified, these being what might be called 'incompatibilist' and 'assimilationist' approachcs. 1 In what follows, I will maintain that neither of these is adequate to the 1 Note that the classificatory terms introduced in this first section are used descriptively with reference to the content matter or this essay. As such, they arc not to be understood with reference to their usage in other familiar philosophical debates (e.g., incompatibilism with reference to the metaphysics or human freedom, or eliminativism with reference to physicalist accounts or mind). IU. Colledge (C>:<J) School of Philosophy, Australian Catholic University (Brisbane campus), Fitzroy, VIC, Australia e-mail: [email protected] (D Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016 41 J. Talivaldis OzoliI~s (ed.), Neligion and C11/111re in Dialogue, Sophia Studies in Cross-cultural Philosophy or Traditions and Cultures 15, DOI JO. I 007/978-3-319-25724-2_4 42 R .J. Colledge task of seriously thinking through the relationship between rational-empirical and religious interpretations of the world. 2 l3ut further, drawing heavily on the work of Adriaan Pcpcrzak, I will maintain that the crucial shortcoming of both approaches is that they fail to recognise the essentially derivatil•e nature of both kinds of discourse, and their rootedness in something much more primal and basic; if also, by definition, something vastly more difficult to elaborate. 4.2 Beyond Polarisation and Synthesis: Rethinking the Contemporary Debate Defore proceeding, it will be helpful to map the terrain of much of the contemporary debate. The first ('incompatibilist') approach assumes a bipolar view of the relationship according to which a choice essentially needs to be made to affirm either reason or faith as fundamental. Accordingly, one must affirm either the primordiality of contemporary rationality and scientific empiricism over and above religious truth claims; or alternatively, to adopt a position of fundamental faithfulness to a religious orthodoxy whilst regarding philosophical and scientific methodologies and conclusions with caution or even suspicion. There arc, of course, various shades of insistence with each position. In the case of rationalist incompatibilism, one might distinguish between more and less cxclu­ sivist tendencies. On one hand, there arc those (e.g., de Botton 2012; Solomon 2006) who allow religious modes of discourse some level of legitimacy as aesthetic or ethical ways of speaking that can inspire us to act in positive ways or give us a sense of life meaning, but whose truth claims (in any realist sense) arc to be largely (if usually politely) rejected. On the other hand, there arc the advocates of a strongly 'eliminativist' bent (e.g., Grayling 2013; Onfray 2005) and an array of other anti-religion campaigners with scientific or social-scientific credentials. For such thinkers, religious, superstitious and supcrnaturalist approaches arc inimical to rational and even civilized thought, so much so that even apparently 'reasonable' versions of religious thought need to unmasked and similarly discarded as the artefacts of pre-scientific barbarism that they nonetheless remain. Meanwhile, religiously-orientated incompatibilism remains alive and well. Admittedly, strong eliminativism is comparatively rare within contemporary intellectual debate, if by that is meant the rejection of rationality out of hand when it comes to matters of faith, including all exercises in theology and apologetics that look to make a systematic case for religious belief. Absolutist disjunctions between 2 Space constraints preclude a more expansive typology of world views that have been lumped together here under the headings of "rational-empirical" approaches (by which I include both scientific and rational philosophical outlooks in their myriad varieties) and "religious" interpretations (in their equally diverse manifestations). However, given the contentions of the essay that seeks to challenge at least one important aspect by which these two approaches arc so commonly opposed. little is lost in initially granting such a broad-brush (if, in itself inadequate) characterisation. 4 Faith, Philosophy and the Elemental 43 Athens and Jerusalem that would regard reasoned accounts of faith as impious, illcgilimatc and (since they commit the category error of attempting to understand eternal things with finite concepts) impossible, arc now quite rare. On the other hand, there arc a large range of approaches that fit into what C. Stephen Evans (2008) has called "responsible fidcism", as opposed to "irrational fidcism" of which Evans gives the example of Shcstov ( 1966). In insisting on the primacy of faith over reason, such approaches paradoxically provide serious reasoned justifications for this very primacy by which faith transcends reason. In doing so, they look not to rationally justify faith-based
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