DOCSLIB.ORG

The Nature of Religious Experience in the Philosophy of William James

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
The Nature of Religious Experience in the Philosophy of William James The Nature of Religious Experience in the Philosophy of William James The Nature of Religious Experience in the Philosophy of William James By Dr. Cholbhavat Borirakkucharoen* Abstract James’s interest in religion was in personal terms. The meaning and William James (1842-1910) was importance of his religious writings both a psychologist and philosopher can properly be understood only in the who has attained international light of his belief that the most fruitful reputation as America’s most original approach to religion is an empirical thinker. He aroused a public interest one. His pragmatic justification for in philosophy in general, and religious belief has often been pragmatism in particular. James challenged, on both ontological and rejected intellectualizing and moral grounds. Critics argue that theorizing about religion in favor of an James’s accounts of religious truth empirical approach and his task and its justification are perniciously became that of articulating the way in subjective. Nevertheless, once James’s which experience may justify religious conceptions of religious truth and beliefs. He was a pluralist in love with justification are understood in their variety and with his own religious full measure of depth, this charge can experience. be * The author has a Ph.D. in Philosophy, Assumption University of Thailand and a Master in Architecture from Chulalongkorn University. He studied in Massy University, New Zealand in its Executive MBA Program. Currently he is the President of the Evana Hotel and Life Resort, also President of the Jeannette World (Thailand) Co. Ltd. He is a former member of the Chon buri Chamber of Commerce ABAC Journal Vol. 23, No.2 (May - August, 2003), pp. 35 - 45 35 Dr. Cholbhavat Borirakkucharoen seen as misplaced. In this article, I psychological manifestation, according explore James’s philosophy of religion to Sigmund Freud (1856-1939). Freud in a way that enables his views to be sees religion as a form of wish- understood and critiqued. fulfillment, and the dogmas of religion are illusions derived from deep and persistent wishes. Introduction James’s Concept of Religion In order to define the nature of religious experience, we should first James, in The Varieties of establish what religion is and what is Religious Experience, generally experience. The word religion does not considers religion only in its personal stand for any single principle or entity, aspect, believing that this is more and religion has many characters which fundamental than theological: may in turn be equally important. “Churches, when once established, live Philosophers have various views on at second hand upon tradition; but the ‘religion’, for example, Karl Marx founders of every church owed their (1818-1883), describes religion as an power originally to the fact of their ideological weapon of the ruling class direct personal communion with the which has a function that is harmful. divine. Not only the superhuman John Dewey (1859-1952) finds that founders, the Christ, the Buddha, religion has a valuable function in life. Mohammed, but all the originators of Therefore, any singular abstract religious sects have been in this case; so conception is misleading. personal religion should still seem the primordial thing, even to those who Instead of being seduced into the continue to esteem it incomplete” theorizing fallacy of seeking a (James,1958,p.30). definition as the key to the nature of religion, one should inquire into its The meaning of religion, as one various meanings in human experience. should generally understand it Hence, religion has its external aspects, throughout James’s writings, is worship, sacrifice, theology, described in the Varieties in the ceremonies, and ecclesiastical following practical terms: “Religion, organizations. It is also, in a more therefore, as I now ask you arbitrarily to personal way, the inner dispositions take it, shall mean for us the feelings, “which form the center of his interest, acts, and experiences of individual men his conscience, his helplessness, and his in their solitude, so far as they incompleteness” (James,1958,p.28). apprehend themselves to stand in Nevertheless, one might argue that relation to whatever they may consider religion is not religion but a the divine. Since the relation may be 36 The Nature of Religious Experience in the Philosophy of William James either moral, physical, or ritual, it is functioning of the sense-organs. That I evident that out of religion in the sense see and hear and taste is a in which we take it, theologies, commonplace of all experience, and I philosophies, and ecclesiastical may study what I see without effecting organizations may secondarily grow” any discontinuity in my practical or (James, 1958, p.31). scientific world of things. But to believe that what I see is constituted by my seeing of it, is to define a new General Concept of Experience realm, an anomalous science, and possibly a new philosophical method. Let us examine the term Such a belief must arise very early in “experience’. Everyone has had connection with illusory experiences. experiences of one sort or another. How then do we know what experience is and its derivation? Is there anything James’s Concept of Experience behind it and causing it to be as it is? Common sense tells us that we are in Experience, in James’s view, is all the universe and the experience of the that which exists is experience and universe is within. James in his experience is all that exists. There is no Psychology made it clear that our minds general stuff of which experience at are directly aware of reality. They do large is made. There are as many stuffs not handle offprint of something out as there are ‘natures’ in the things there. Objects are mainly perceived as experienced. Experience is only a independently of our thoughts. These collective name for all these sensible various notions do not hang together. natures. There appears no universal For instance, how the World Trade element of which all things are made. Center Twin Towers in New York City Before experience can be experienced, might look like after they were it must be attended to. James says : destroyed can be a mental construct of a previous recollection. “My experience is what I agree to attend to. Only those items which I Primitive experience is entirely notice shape my mind – without free from any general idea of the selective interest, experience is an utter dependence of objects upon the chaos. Interest alone gives accent knowing of them, there are certain and emphasis, light and shade, accepted cases in which an experience background and foreground – is definitely recognized as my intelligible perspective, in a world” experience, which is regarded as (James,1890, p.407). deriving existence from a for-me relation (Perry, 1904, p.43). This is a All our life is a mass of habits – very different idea from that of the practical, emotional, and intellectual – ABAC Journal Vol. 23, No.2 (May - August, 2003), pp. 35 - 45 37 Dr. Cholbhavat Borirakkucharoen systematically organized for our weal James’s Concept of Religious or woe, and bearing us irresistibly Experience toward our destiny, whatever it may be. A new habit is formed in three stages. Religious experience to which men First there must be need or desire. Then find themselves related in their one needs information: methods of religious acts and feelings may be any learning how to maintain the habit. One object that is godlike, whether it be a might read books, attend classes, and concrete deity or not. Religious consciously explore ways how others experience, according to James, refers have developed the desired habit. The to man’s total reaction upon life that last state is simple repetition; there must be something solemn, consciously doing exercise or actually serious, and tender about any attitude reading and speaking until the acts which we denominate as religious. If become usual and habitual glad, it must not grin or snicker; if sad, (Wulff,1997,p.484). For intellect there it must not scream. Where a religion are two levels of knowing: Knowing regards the world as tragic, the tragedy through direct experience and knowing must be understood as purging; through abstract reasoning. James calls religious sadness, wherever it exists, the first level “knowledge of that is, it must possess a purgatorial acquaintance.” It is sensory, intuitive, note (James, 1958, p.31). poetic, and emotional. “I know the color blue when I see it, and the flavor The nature of religious experience of time when I feel it pass…but about is mystical encounter. James suggests the inner nature of these facts or what that ‘mysticism’ can be construed in makes them what they are, I can say ways that accounted as much for nothing at all” The higher level of Buddhist and transcendentalist knowledge James calls “Knowledge- experience as for Christian phenomena, about.” It is intellectual, focused, and even though Buddhists and relational; it can develop abstractions; it transcendentalists do not positively is objective and unemotional. “When assume a God in the sense of a we know about it, we can do more than superhuman person (James,1958,p.31). merely have it; we think over its When persons encounter mysticism or relations, to subject it to a form of divinity, they transact with some treatment and operate upon it with our objects that order the world in a way thought. Through feelings we become that protects all ideal interests. A acquainted with things but only with or religious experience (sometimes it is thoughts do we know about them” difficult to distinguish neatly between (James,1890, p.221). “subject” and “object”) is an experience 38 The Nature of Religious Experience in the Philosophy of William James of first things in the way of being and power which overarches and envelops 3.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Theology, History, and Religious Identification: Hegelian Methods in the Study of Religion
    Theology, History, and Religious Identification: Hegelian Methods in the Study of Religion Kevin J. Harrelson Sophia International Journal for Philosophy of Religion, Metaphysical Theology and Ethics ISSN 0038-1527 SOPHIA DOI 10.1007/s11841-012-0334-0 1 23 Your article is protected by copyright and all rights are held exclusively by Springer Science+Business Media B.V.. This e-offprint is for personal use only and shall not be self- archived in electronic repositories. If you wish to self-archive your work, please use the accepted author’s version for posting to your own website or your institution’s repository. You may further deposit the accepted author’s version on a funder’s repository at a funder’s request, provided it is not made publicly available until 12 months after publication. 1 23 Author's personal copy SOPHIA DOI 10.1007/s11841-012-0334-0 Theology, History, and Religious Identification: Hegelian Methods in the Study of Religion Kevin J. Harrelson # Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2012 Abstract This essay deals with the impact of Hegel's philosophy of religion by examining his positions on religious identity and on the relationship between theol- ogy and history. I argue that his criterion for religious identity was socio-historical, and that his philosophical theology was historical rather than normative. These positions help explain some historical peculiarities regarding the effect of his philos- ophy of religion. Of particular concern is that although Hegel’s own aims were apologetic, his major influence on religious thought was in the development of various historical and critical approaches to religion.
    [Show full text]
  • Schleiermacher and Otto
    Jacqueline Mariña 1 Friedrich Schleiermacher and Rudolf Otto Two names often grouped together in the study of religion are Friedrich Schleiermacher (1768-1884) and Rudolf Otto (1869-1937). Central to their understanding of religion is the idea that religious experience, characterized in terms of feeling, lies at the heart of all genuine religion. In his book On Religion Schleiermacher speaks of religion as a “sense and taste for the Infinite.”1 It is “the immediate consciousness of the universal existence of all finite things, in and through the infinite” and is “to know and to have life in immediate feeling” (OR, p. 36). In The Christian Faith Schleiermacher grounds religion in the immediate self-consciousness and the “feeling of absolute dependence.”2 Influenced by Schleiermacher, Otto too grounds religion in an original experience of what he calls “the numinous,” which “completely eludes apprehension in terms of concepts” and is as such “ineffable;” it can only be grasped through states of feeling. (The Idea of the Holy, p. 5). In this paper I will critically examine their views on religion as feeling. The first part of the paper will be devoted to understanding how both men conceived of feeling and the reasons why they believed that religion had to be understood in its terms. In the second and third parts of the paper I will develop the views of each thinker individually, contrast them with one another, and discuss the peculiar problems that arise in relation to the thought of each. Common Elements in Schleiermacher and Otto Both Schleiermacher and Otto insist that religion cannot be reduced to ethics, aesthetics or metaphysics.
    [Show full text]
  • Why Is the Philosophy of Religion Important?
    1 Why is the Philosophy of Religion Important? Religion — whether we are theists, deists, atheists, gnostics, agnostics, Jews, Christians, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Taoists, Confucians, Shintoists, Zoroastrians, animists, polytheists, pagans, Wiccans, secular humanists, Marxists, or cult devotees — is a matter of ultimate concern. Everything we are and do finally de- pends upon such questions as whether there is a God, whether we continue to exist after death, whether any God is active in human history, and whether human ethical relations have spiritual or supernatural dimensions. If God is real, then this is a different world than it would be if God were not real. The basic human need that probably exists for some sort of salvation, deliverance, release, liberation, pacification, or whatever it may be called, seems to be among the main foundations of all reli- gion. There may also be a basic human need for mystery, wonder, fear of the sacred, romantic worship of the inexplicable, awe in the presence of the completely different, or emotional response to the “numinous,” which is the topic of The Idea of the Holy by German theologian Rudolf Otto (1869-1937) and The Sacred and the Pro- fane by Romanian philosopher and anthropologist of religion Mir- cea Eliade (1907-1986). This need also may be a foundation of reli- gion. Yet doubt exists that humans feel any general need for mys- tery. On the contrary, the human need to solve mysteries seems to be more basic than any need to have mysteries. For example, mytho- logy in all known cultures has arisen from either the need or the de- sire to provide explanations for certain types of occurrences, either natural or interpersonal, and thus to attempt to do away with those mysteries.
    [Show full text]
  • Hinduism and Hindu Philosophy
    Essays on Indian Philosophy UNIVE'aSITY OF HAWAII Uf,FU:{ Essays on Indian Philosophy SHRI KRISHNA SAKSENA UNIVERSITY OF HAWAII PRESS HONOLULU 1970 Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 78·114209 Standard Book Number 87022-726-2 Copyright © 1970 by University of Hawaii Press All Rights Reserved Printed in the United States of America Contents The Story of Indian Philosophy 3 Basic Tenets of Indian Philosophy 18 Testimony in Indian Philosophy 24 Hinduism 37 Hinduism and Hindu Philosophy 51 The Jain Religion 54 Some Riddles in the Behavior of Gods and Sages in the Epics and the Puranas 64 Autobiography of a Yogi 71 Jainism 73 Svapramanatva and Svapraka!;>atva: An Inconsistency in Kumarila's Philosophy 77 The Nature of Buddhi according to Sankhya-Yoga 82 The Individual in Social Thought and Practice in India 88 Professor Zaehner and the Comparison of Religions 102 A Comparison between the Eastern and Western Portraits of Man in Our Time 117 Acknowledgments The author wishes to make the following acknowledgments for permission to reprint previously published essays: "The Story of Indian Philosophy," in A History of Philosophical Systems. edited by Vergilius Ferm. New York:The Philosophical Library, 1950. "Basic Tenets of Indian Philosophy," previously published as "Are There Any Basic Tenets of Indian Philosophy?" in The Philosophical Quarterly. "Testimony in Indian Philosophy," previously published as "Authority in Indian Philosophy," in Ph ilosophyEast and West. vo!.l,no. 3 (October 1951). "Hinduism," in Studium Generale. no. 10 (1962). "The Jain Religion," previously published as "Jainism," in Religion in the Twentieth Century. edited by Vergilius Ferm.
    [Show full text]
  • Mysticism and Mystical Experiences
    1 Mysticism and Mystical Experiences The first issue is simply to identify what mysti cism is. The term derives from the Latin word “mysticus” and ultimately from the Greek “mustikos.”1 The Greek root muo“ ” means “to close or conceal” and hence “hidden.”2 The word came to mean “silent” or “secret,” i.e., doctrines and rituals that should not be revealed to the uninitiated. The adjec tive “mystical” entered the Christian lexicon in the second century when it was adapted by theolo- gians to refer, not to inexpressible experiences of God, but to the mystery of “the divine” in liturgical matters, such as the invisible God being present in sacraments and to the hidden meaning of scriptural passages, i.e., how Christ was actually being referred to in Old Testament passages ostensibly about other things. Thus, theologians spoke of mystical theology and the mystical meaning of the Bible. But at least after the third-century Egyptian theolo- gian Origen, “mystical” could also refer to a contemplative, direct appre- hension of God. The nouns “mystic” and “mysticism” were only invented in the seven teenth century when spirituality was becoming separated from general theology.3 In the modern era, mystical inter pretations of the Bible dropped away in favor of literal readings. At that time, modernity’s focus on the individual also arose. Religion began to become privatized in terms of the primacy of individuals, their beliefs, and their experiences rather than being seen in terms of rituals and institutions. “Religious experiences” also became a distinct category as scholars beginning in Germany tried, in light of science, to find a distinct experi ential element to religion.
    [Show full text]
  • The Philosophy of Religion Contents
    The Philosophy of Religion Course notes by Richard Baron This document is available at www.rbphilo.com/coursenotes Contents Page Introduction to the philosophy of religion 2 Can we show that God exists? 3 Can we show that God does not exist? 6 If there is a God, why do bad things happen to good people? 8 Should we approach religious claims like other factual claims? 10 Is being religious a matter of believing certain factual claims? 13 Is religion a good basis for ethics? 14 1 Introduction to the philosophy of religion Why study the philosophy of religion? If you are religious: to deepen your understanding of your religion; to help you to apply your religion to real-life problems. Whether or not you are religious: to understand important strands in our cultural history; to understand one of the foundations of modern ethical debate; to see the origins of types of philosophical argument that get used elsewhere. The scope of the subject We shall focus on the philosophy of religions like Christianity, Islam and Judaism. Other religions can be quite different in nature, and can raise different questions. The questions in the contents list indicate the scope of the subject. Reading You do not need to do extra reading, but if you would like to do so, you could try either one of these two books: Brian Davies, An Introduction to the Philosophy of Religion. Oxford University Press, third edition, 2003. Chad Meister, Introducing Philosophy of Religion. Routledge, 2009. 2 Can we show that God exists? What sorts of demonstration are there? Proofs in the strict sense: logical and mathematical proof Demonstrations based on external evidence Demonstrations based on inner experience How strong are these different sorts of demonstration? Which ones could other people reject, and on what grounds? What sort of thing could have its existence shown in each of these ways? What might we want to show? That God exists That it is reasonable to believe that God exists The ontological argument Greek onta, things that exist.
    [Show full text]
  • The Philosophy of Religion Past and Present: Philosophical Theology Or the Critical Cross
    “The Philosophy of Religion Past and Present: Philosophical Theology or the Critical Cross- Examination of Institutionalized Ritual and Belief?”1 Bryan Rennie Vira I. Heinz Professor of Religion Westminster College October, 2014 Abstract The disciplinary or “traditional” philosophy of religion has come under increasing attacks that claim that it is unacceptably focused on specifically monotheist, and even specifically Christian, issues to such an extent that it does not merit the appellation “philosophy of religion.” It should, it has been claimed, more honestly and accurately be termed “philosophical theology.” A discipline more reasonably entitled “philosophy of religion” or perhaps “philosophy of religions” should expand its focus to include the traditionally philosophical questions of ontology, epistemology, and ethics raised not only by the history of the Christian, or even the other Abrahamic, traditions but by all such institutionalized systems of ritual and belief. Contemporary movements in both Philosophy and the Study of Religion have begun to raise this point with increasing emphasis. What might such a reformed philosophy of religion(s) look like, and what role might it play in the future of the academy? What Do I Mean by “Philosophy”? At the outset it behooves me to make some attempt to clarify what I mean by (Western) philosophy. The word, of course, has a plurality of senses, and one is never justified in claiming that any given singular sense is the “right” one. Philosophy does mean a personal, possibly very 1 The following paper draws heavily on previously published work, especially Rennie 2006, 2010, and 2012. Rennie Philosophy of Religions: Past and Present 2 loose, system of beliefs relative to some identifiable class, as in “my philosophy of life.” It can also mean speculative metaphysics, as in “The subject of the attributes of deity was until recent times reserved for the speculations of theology and philosophy” (Pettazzoni 1956: 1).
    [Show full text]
  • Mystical Experience, Religious Doctrine and Philosophical Analysis
    2 [3 181- MYSTICAL EXPERIENCE, RELIGIOUS DOCTRINE ,AND PHILOSOPHICAL ANALYSIS P. C. Almond, M. A. (Lancast.er), B.D. (Hons) (London), Th. L. A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Phi tosophy The Department of Philosophy The University of Adelaide De cember, 1978. ''i,\"6-¡'(,,r-í.¡r',,' ii t ti/'i I;t . i rt ¡t(¡ ' { TABLE OF CONTENTS P age III ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS.. ..... Vi INTRODUCTION: THE PROBLEM OF UNITY AND DIVER- SITY IN RELIGIONS I CHAPTER ONE : R. C. ZAEHNER: THE VARIITIES OF MYSTICAL EXPERIENCE 30 CHAPTER TWO : N. SMART: THE MYSTICAL, THE NUMINOUS AND RELIGIOUS TRADI- TIONS... 64 CHAPTER THREE: W. T. STACE: EXTROVERTIVE AND INTROVERTIVE MYSTICISM tlt CHAPTER FOUR: R. OTTO: THE MYSTICAL, THE NUMINOUS AND METAPHYS I CS 156 CHAPTER FIVE: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS 204 CHAPTER SIX : MYSTICAL EXPERIENCE AND ITS IN- TERPRETATION: AN ANALYSIS OF POSSIBLE MODELS. 213 CHAPTER SEVEN: THE VARIETIES OF MYSTICAL EX- PERIENCE: A PHILOSOPHICAL PROLEGOMENON 254 STLECT BIBLI OGRAPHY 295 SUMMA R Y The spiritual vacuum generated by the decline of t.he Christian world-view in the West has creaLed for Western man the opportunity of taking up any one of a variety of modes of spirituality. Religious diversity has become a fact in Western religious Iife. This increasj-ng pluralism has led to a real-isation of the philosophical problem in- herent in it, a probl-em crystallised in the so-called 'con- flicting truth cl-aimsr problem:- The different religions appear to make different and incompatible cl-aims about the nature of ultimate re afity, of divinity, ofl human nature , and cosmi c destiny .
    [Show full text]
  • Religious, but Not Spiritual: a Constructive Proposal
    religions Article Religious, but Not Spiritual: A Constructive Proposal J. Aaron Simmons Department of Philosophy, Furman University, Greenville, SC 29613, USA; [email protected] Abstract: Often the debates in philosophy of religion are quite disconnected from the empirical data gathered in the sociology of religion. This is especially the case regarding the recent increase in prominence of those identifying as “spiritual but not religious” (SBNR) within an American context. In the attempt to bring these two fields into productive conversation, this essay offers a constructive account of the SBNR in terms of what they reject (i.e., their status as “not religious”) and also what they affirm (i.e., their identity as “spiritual”). In brief, the suggestion is that the SBNR do not reject theism or even common “religious” practices, but instead reject a particular mode of “religion” that is grounded in an authoritative and insular social presence. Alternatively, the SBNR at least seem to affirm a notion of “spirituality” that is broadly consistent with the idea found in historical Christian traditions. After surveying the empirical data and offering a new phenomenological analysis of it, the essay concludes with a suggestion that we need a new category—“religious, but not spiritual” (RBNS)—in order best to make sense of how the SBNR signify in relation to specific hermeneutic contexts and sociopolitical frameworks. Keywords: phenomenology; philosophy of religion; spiritual but not religious; critical theory of religion; sociology; spirituality Citation: Simmons, J. Aaron. 2021. 1. Introduction Religious, but Not Spiritual: A The rise of the “nones”, people who identify as “spiritual, but not religious” (SBNR), Constructive Proposal.
    [Show full text]
  • God, the Meaning of Life, and a New Argument for Atheism
    Penultimate Draft. Please cite the version forthcoming in the International Journal for Philosophy of Religion. GOD, THE MEANING OF LIFE, AND A NEW ARGUMENT FOR ATHEISM Jason Megill and Daniel Linford ABSTRACT We raise various puzzles about the relationship between God (if God exists) and the meaning of life (if life has meaning). These difficulties suggest that, even if we assume that God exists, and even if (as we argue) God’s existence would entail that our lives have meaning, God is not and could not be the source of the meaning of life. We conclude by discussing implications of our ​ arguments: (i) these claims can be used in a novel argument for atheism; (ii) these claims undermine an extant argument for God’s existence; and (iii) they suggest that atheism is consistent with our lives having meaning. INTRODUCTION In the literature on the meaning of life over the last few decades, the “meaning of life” is generally taken to be some positive feature of an individual’s life that is distinct from (though perhaps related to) other positive features (wellbeing, happiness, etc.) that a life might or might not have. It is also typically thought that lives can have meaning to varying degrees, so e.g., one life might be more meaningful than another, or the same life might be more or less meaningful at different times. We follow these conventions.1 Some philosophers have endorsed the view that God is somehow the source of the meaning of life and moreover, God’s existence is necessary for life to have meaning.
    [Show full text]
  • A Historical Overview of the Study of the Theology of Religions Jaco Beyers Department of Science of Religion and Missiology University of Pretoria South Africa
    Chapter 1 A historical overview of the study of the theology of religions Jaco Beyers Department of Science of Religion and Missiology University of Pretoria South Africa Introduction1 It is commonplace that our world has become plural in more than one way (Kärkkäinen 2003:18). Isolation is something of the past. A growing number of communities are linked to a widening network and exposed to influences far outside their traditional range. Homogeneous communities are becoming the exception and plural communities the rule. Our world is changing into one huge plural society. This plurality applies to all levels of existence, such as religious affiliation, race and culture, social and economic status and even world view. Plurality also implies connectedness. Globalisation has made the inhabitants of this planet aware of their differences. Open access to society and world communities at large 1.This section does not have the intention of presenting a complete historical description of the development of the thoughts leading to a theology of religions; it merely presents a broad overview in order to reach an understanding of the complexity of the matter. How to cite: Beyers, J., 2017, ‘A historical overview of the study of theology of religions’, in HTS Theological Studies/Teologiese Studies, suppl. 12, 73(6), a4837. https://doi.org/10.4102/hts.v73i6.4837 1 A historical overview of the study of the theology of religions not only brought people into contact, but multiplied divergences. Any claim or statement purporting to have fundamental and/or universal implications must be prepared to be tested in this worldwide forum.
    [Show full text]
  • Philosophy of Religion
    Philosophy 2800 Professor Haskins Winter/Spring 2002 Office: Humanities 2029 Humanities 2072 Phone: (251) X 6588; email: [email protected] Tues-Thurs. 12-1:20 Office Hours: Mon. 3:30-4:30 and by appt. Philosophy of Religion This course introduces a few of the most important philosophical debates about religion from medieval times to the beginning of the twenty-first century. Among the main topics discussed will be: the problem of defining "religion" as a philosophical and a cultural phenomenon ; arguments for and against the existence of God; the problem of reconciling scientific and religious worldviews; the rationality of religious belief; and the question of what forms religion might, and should, and should not, take in our postmodern and global age. This is a philosophy course, which means that emphasis will be placed not on individual religions and their histories so much as on critical reflection about general questions that a wide spectrum of religious experience and practice raises. Our philosophical readings are taken from an array of pre- modern and modern philosphers of religion. Huston Smith’s The World’s Religions, one of the required texts, contains chapters on the major religious traditions which will provide helpful background for our more general discussions. In referring to “critical reflection” above I mean that the goal of the course is not to defend any specific religious (or for that matter non-religious) point of view, including my own, even though my opinions on various issues will be evident from time to time. It is to offer intellectual tools for sorting through the cacophony of opinions and arguments about religion, spirituality, god, and related matters that is a vital (if also sometimes politically and existentially troublesome) part of our culture and that, as much as anything else in our culture today, needs the emphasis on the clear and rational evaluation of arguments that philosophy at its best tries to encourage.
    [Show full text]