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Is Plantinga's Argument for God Incompatible with Human Free Will?
123 IS PLANTINGA'S ARGUMENT FOR GOD INCOMPATIBLE WITH HUMAN FREE WILL? MARINA GARNER1 Abstract / Resumo es Morriston has written a few articles claiming the incompatibility of Alvin WPlantinga’s Modal Ontological Argument and the Free Will Argument against the problem of evil. According to him, the Modal Ontological Argument defends an essentially good and free God in opposition to the Free Will Argument, which defends that the best kind of freedom is the significant freedom (SF), justifying God creating us with such freedom. In this paper, we attempt to summarize the arguments and Morriston’s position. In conclusion, we will see that there are reasons to agree with both of Plantinga’s arguments without falling in to a contradiction. Key words: Alvin Plantinga; Modal ontological argument; Free will argument; Wes Morriston. es Morriston escreveu alguns artigos afirmando a incompatibilidade do WArgumento Ontológico Modal de Alvin Plantinga e o Argumento do Livre Arbítrio contra o problema do mal. De acordo com ele, o Argumento Ontológico Modal defende um Deus essencialmente bom e livre em oposição ao Argumento do Livre Arbítrio, que defende que o melhor tipo de liberdade é a liberdade significativa, justificando a pessoa de Deus ao nos criar com tal liberdade. Nesse trabalho tentaremos resumir os argumentos e a posição de Morriston. Concluindo, veremos que há razões para concordar com ambos os argumentos de Plantinga sem entrar em contradição. Palavras-chaves: Alvin Plantinga; Argumento ontológico modal; Argumento do livre- arbítrio; Wes Morrison. In the realm of Christian apologetics and the doctrine of God, all arguments would ideally be in perfect accord. -
An Examination of Charles Hartshorne's Concept of God
THE DIVINE BECOMING: AN EXAMINATION OF CHARLES HARTSHORNE'S CONCEPT OF GOD By TERRY RICHARD HALL ~ Bachelor of Arts Oklahoma State University Stillwater, Oklahoma 1971 Submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate College of the Oklahoma State University in partial fulfillment of the requirem~nts for the Degree of MASTER OF ARTS July, 1975 \he~~_s l ~15 1-111'fcl verf· ;;L STATE UNl'.'ERSITY Liaf<ARY OCT 23 1975 THE DIVINE BECOMING: AN EXAMINATION OF CHARLES HARTSHORNE'S CONCEPT OF GOD Thesis Approved: Dean of the Gl'a!uate C9llege 923517 ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I wish to acknowledge my debt to t~e members of the Philosophy Department· at Oklahoma. State University. They have helped immeasurably in.my sometimes faltering efforts to achieve intellectual maturity. I, would like to espe cially mention Dr. Walter Scott, my thesis adviser, and Dr. Edward La~ry, who first.acquainted me with the thought of Charles Hartshorne. They have been a constant source of aid and encouragement in my· attempts to think through the topics covered in this thesis; without, their guidance and advice this-thesis could not, have been written. In addi tton, grateful appreciation is·· extended to Professor Charles. Hartshorne; with whom I was privileged to discuss some of these ideas during his visit to the Oklahoma State Univer sity campus in the spring of.1975. I am also grateful for the patien'l; assistance of my Wife, Valerie. It·is a singular good fortune.when one's wife is also a philosopher, and many of the.ideas treated herein became clearer as a result of her perceptive com ments. -
2010-PDF-Of-Philosophy-News
UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO DEPARTMENT OF PHILOSO PHY fall 2010 THE LIFE OF A PHILOSOPHER WHO WEIGHS LIVES AN INTERVIEW WITH JOHN BROOME By Ellen Roseman The inaugural Roseman Lecture in Practical Ethics was delivered last October by John Broome, White’s Professor of Moral Philosophy and Fellow of Corpus Christi College at Oxford. Before speaking on “The Ethics of Climate Change,” he was interviewed by Ellen Roseman, financial columnist at the Toronto Star, alumna (MA, 1969), and benefactor of this new lecture series. Philosophy professors often steer clear of hot topics appearing on the front page of newspapers, but not John Broome. Maybe it’s because he came to philosophy late in his academic career after spending almost 30 years teaching economics. John Broome Born in Kuala Lumpur, where his father and later at Oxford University. (Though was in the colonial civil service, he went he doesn’t have a doctorate in philoso - government in 2006. Stern’s report was to Cambridge University from 1965 to phy, he did acquire an MA in philosophy savagely criticized by some U.S. econo - 1968. He thought he’d study philosophy at the University of London in 1973.) mists, such as Martin Weitzman of until a tutor at Clare College talked him “I never enjoyed economics,” Broome Harvard and William Nordhaus of Yale. out of it. “He advised me to leave the admits. “It wasn’t what I wanted to do. Broome sprang to his defense. “I have to university and get a job building roads, It was just an accident.” confess they made me angry,” he says. -
William James As American Plato? Scott Sinclair
WILLIAM JAMES AS AMERICAN PLATO? ______________________________________________________________________________ SCOTT SINCLAIR ABSTRACT Alfred North Whitehead wrote a letter to Charles Hartshorne in 1936 in which he referred to William James as the American Plato. Especially given Whitehead’s admiration of Plato, this was a high compliment to James. What was the basis for this compliment and analogy? In responding to that question beyond the partial and scattered references provided by Whitehead, this article briefly explores the following aspects of the thought of James in relation to Whitehead: the one and the many, the denial of Cartesian dualism, James’s background in physiology, refutation of Zeno’s paradoxes, religious experience, and other kinships. In the end, the author agrees with Robert Neville that James had seminal ideas which could correctly result in a complimentary analogy with Plato. Therefore, a greater focus on the important thought of James is a needed challenge in contemporary philosophy. Michel Weber provided a very helpful article in two parts entitled, “Whitehead’s Reading of James and Its Context,” in the spring 2002 and fall 2003 editions of Streams of William James. Weber began his article with a reference to Bertrand Russell: “When Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) visited Harvard in 1936, ‘there were two heroes in his lectures – Plato and James.’”1 Although he goes on to affirm that Whitehead could have said the same, Weber either overlooks the fact, or is not aware, that Whitehead actually did compare James to Plato in his January 2, 1936 hand-written letter to Charles Hartshorne, as printed by Whitehead’s biographer, Victor Lowe: European philosophy has gone dry, and cannot make any worthwhile use of the results of nineteenth century scholarship. -
THE PHILOSOPHY BOOK George Santayana (1863-1952)
Georg Hegel (1770-1831) ................................ 30 Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860) ................. 32 Ludwig Andreas Feuerbach (1804-1872) ...... 32 John Stuart Mill (1806-1873) .......................... 33 Soren Kierkegaard (1813-1855) ..................... 33 Karl Marx (1818-1883).................................... 34 Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) ................ 35 Charles Sanders Peirce (1839-1914).............. 35 William James (1842-1910) ............................ 36 The Modern World 1900-1950 ............................. 36 Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) .................... 37 Ahad Ha'am (1856-1927) ............................... 38 Ferdinand de Saussure (1857-1913) ............. 38 Edmund Husserl (1859–1938) ....................... 39 Henri Bergson (1859-1941) ............................ 39 Contents John Dewey (1859–1952) ............................... 39 Introduction....................................................... 1 THE PHILOSOPHY BOOK George Santayana (1863-1952) ..................... 40 The Ancient World 700 BCE-250 CE..................... 3 Miguel de Unamuno (1864-1936) ................... 40 Introduction Thales of Miletus (c.624-546 BCE)................... 3 William Du Bois (1868-1963) .......................... 41 Laozi (c.6th century BCE) ................................. 4 Philosophy is not just the preserve of brilliant Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) ........................ 41 Pythagoras (c.570-495 BCE) ............................ 4 but eccentric thinkers that it is popularly Max Scheler -
Divine Utilitarianism
Liberty University DIVINE UTILITARIANISM A Thesis Presented in Partial Fulfillment Of the Requirements for the Masters of Arts in Philosophical Studies By Jimmy R. Lewis January 16, 2017 TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter One: Introduction ……………………………...……………..……....3 Statement of the Problem…………………………….………………………….3 Statement of the Purpose…………………………….………………………….5 Statement of the Importance of the Problem…………………….……………...6 Statement of Position on the Problem………………………...…………….......7 Limitations…………………………………………….………………………...8 Development of Thesis……………………………………………….…………9 Chapter Two: What is meant by “Divine Utilitarianism”..................................11 Introduction……………………………….…………………………………….11 A Definition of God.……………………………………………………………13 Anselm’s God …………………………………………………………..14 Thomas’ God …………………………………………………………...19 A Definition of Utility .…………………………………………………………22 Augustine and the Good .……………………………………………......23 Bentham and Mill on Utility ……………………………………………25 Divine Utilitarianism in the Past .……………………………………………….28 New Divine Utilitarianism .……………………………………………………..35 Chapter Three: The Ethics of God ……………………………………………45 Divine Command Theory: A Juxtaposition .……………………………………45 What Divine Command Theory Explains ………………….…………...47 What Divine Command Theory Fails to Explain ………………………47 What Divine Utilitarianism Explains …………………………………………...50 Assessing the Juxtaposition .…………………………………………………....58 Chapter Four: Summary and Conclusion……………………………………...60 Bibliography……………………………………………………………………..64 2 CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION Statement of the -
Century Atheism, in the History of Western Philosophy of Religion : V
This is the published version Oppy, Graham and Trakakis, Nick 2009, Late-twentieth-century atheism, in The history of western philosophy of religion : v. 5. Twentieth-century philosophy of religion, Acumen Publishing Ltd, Durham, England, pp.301-312. Available from Deakin Research Online http://hdl.handle.net/10536/DRO/DU:30022451 Every reasonable effort has been made to ensure that permission has been obtained for items included in Deakin Research Online. If you believe that your rights have been infringed by this repository, please contact [email protected] Copyright: 2009, Acumen Publishing 24 LATE-TWENTIETH -CENTURY ATHEISM Graham Oppy and Nick Trakakis In 1948, the BBC broadcast a debate between Bertrand Russell and Father Frederick Copleston on the existence of God (Russell & Copleston 1957). In that debate, Copleston claims: (i) that the existence of God can be proved by a meta physical argument from contingency; and (ii) that only the postulation of the existence of God can make sense of our religious and moral experience. Russell replies by giving diverse reasons for thinking that these two claims are incorrect: there are various ways in which Copleston's argument from contingency fails to be persuasive, and there are more plausible alternative explanations of our religious and moral experience. While there are many significant changes of detail, it is fair to say that the debate between Russell and Copleston typifies exchanges between theists and atheists in the second half of the twentieth century, and it is also fair to say that Russell's contribution to this debate typifies the approaches of late twen tieth-centuryatheists. -
Modern Moral Theory: a Process Response
MODERN MORAL THEORY: A PROCESS RESPONSE by BRADFORD O. DOWNS (Under the Direction of William Power) ABSTRACT The dominant consensus in modern moral theory suggests that comparative judgments concerning moral values can be adequately made apart from theism. Building on the thought of Charles Hartshorne and other process thinkers, I hold that values such as good, desirability, or importance are meaningless unless we posit God, properly understood in a metaphysical theory, as real and the basis or telos according to which moral values are established and measured. INDEX WORDS: Process, Process Theology, Neoclassical, Moral Theory, Theistic Arguments, Global Argument, Charles Hartshorne, Immanuel Kant MODERN MORAL THEORY: A PROCESS RESPONSE by BRADFORD O. DOWNS A.B., The University of Georgia, 2001 A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of The University of Georgia in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree MASTER OF ARTS ATHENS, GEORGIA 2003 © 2003 Bradford O. Downs All Rights Reserved MODERN MORAL THEORY: A PROCESS REPSONSE by BRADFORD O. DOWNS Major Professor: William Power Committee: Carolyn Medine Bradley Bassler Electronic Version Approved: Maureen Grasso Dean of the Graduate School The University of Georgia May, 2003 TABLE OF CONTENTS Page PART I INTRODUCTION Moral Theory and the Ground of Moral Assertions………………1 II MODERN MORAL THEORY Ethical Nihilism: A Response to Secularism……………………………4 The Modern Consensus in Moral Philosophy…………………………………5 Autonomy………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………6 III THE MORAL RELIGION -
Remembering Charles Hartshorne
Pittsburg State University Pittsburg State University Digital Commons Faculty Submissions Philosophy 9-29-2016 A Slice of Immortality: Remembering Charles Hartshorne Donald W. Viney Pittsburg State University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.pittstate.edu/phil_faculty Part of the Philosophy Commons Recommended Citation Viney, Donald W., "A Slice of Immortality: Remembering Charles Hartshorne" (2016). Faculty Submissions. 43. https://digitalcommons.pittstate.edu/phil_faculty/43 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Philosophy at Pittsburg State University Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Faculty Submissions by an authorized administrator of Pittsburg State University Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. A Slice of Immortality: Remembering Charles Hartshorne (Including a Note on Unpublished Manuscripts of Charles Hartshorne) Donald Wayne Viney Charles Hartshorne February 21, 1981, Moore, Oklahoma (Photo by Don Viney) 2 A Slice of Immortality: Remembering Charles Hartshorne Donald Wayne Viney Events far reaching enough to people all space, whose end is nonetheless tolled when one man dies, may cause us wonder. But something, or an infinite number of things, dies in every death, unless the universe is possessed of a memory, as the theosophists have supposed (Borges, 39). I knew Charles Hartshorne for the last two decades of his life. One does not easily forget a meeting with him: the smiling eyes behind wire-rimmed glasses; the disheveled eyebrows; the beak-like nose; the voice, pitched high with age, cracking with excitement at some philosophical insight; the contagious sense of self-importance tempered with humility before the genius of Plato, Peirce, or Whitehead (or a musician); the witty anecdotes; the fondness for birds; the blink and nod that bade a charming farewell. -
Department of Philosophy
St. Jerome’s University in the University of Waterloo Department of Philosophy Syllabus Fall Term 2019 Course: PHIL 230J – GOD AND PHILOSOPHY: Section 001 Instructor: Professor Nikolaj Zunic Class Times: 10:00 am – 11:20 am on Mondays and Wednesdays Class Location: SJ1 3016 Office: SH 2003 [Sweeney Hall on the St. Jerome’s Campus] Phone: (519) 884-8111 ext. 28229 E-mail: [email protected] Office Hours: Mondays and Wednesdays: 9:30 am – 10:00 am and 2:30 pm – 3:30 pm; and by appointment: please e-mail the professor. Required Text Brian Davies, Philosophy of Religion: A Guide and Anthology, Oxford University Press, 2000. [ISBN 978-0-19-875194-6] Course Description Does God exist? Can God’s existence be proven? What is God’s essence? What is the human being’s relationship to God? What is faith? Is it possible to know God? Is God-talk meaningful and coherent? Does God have a rightful place in philosophical discourse? These are some of the many questions and problems that will be investigated in PHIL 230J: GOD AND PHILOSOPHY this term. As the title of the course suggests, we will be exploring the relationship between God “and” philosophy, generally speaking, not simply a philosophical concept of God. The emphasis should be placed on the conjunction which signifies a relation. To be sure, the reality of God is much greater than what is conceived within the parameters of philosophy alone. Blaise Pascal famously distinguished between the “God of the prophets” and the “God of the philosophers”. Bearing this in mind, we will endeavour to investigate the full reality of God, rather than merely what philosophers consider God to be. -
Process Theodicy and the Life After Death: a Possibility Or a Necessity?
PROCESS THEODICY AND THE LIFE AFTER DEATH: A POSSIBILITY OR A NECESSITY? Sofia Vescovelli Abstract: In this paper I argue for the necessity of eschatology for process thought, and against the idea that the belief in a life after death is not an essential element for this theodicy. Without reference to an eschatological dimension, a process theodicy is led to admit a consequentialist conception of divine love and goodness that is inconsistent with its notion of a responsive and participative God who loves each creature. In the world many creatures suffer atrocious evils, which destroy the value of their lives, but the process God does not redeem these sufferings in a personal post-mortem life in which the sufferers participate and can find meaning for their individual evils. In order to support my thesis, I intend to examine some difficulties in process theodicy, especially in Charles Hartshorne’s position, showing how his doctrine of objective immortality is unsatisfactory. My starting point will be some criticisms advanced by John Hick against Hartshorne and the replies made by the process philosopher David R. Griffin. I conclude by contending that process theodicy, at least in its Hartshornean version, in denying the necessity of a personal afterlife, does not provide a satisfying answer to the soteriological-individual aspect of the problem of evil, namely the problem of the individual salvation in which the individual person can find redemption and meaning for the sufferings undergone or inflicted. In the process perspective the divine love is conceived in consequentialist terms and evils suffered by the individual are merely considered a by-product or the negative side of the divine creation out of chaos. -
Copyrighted Material
1 Getting Started Preliminaries COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL The Christian Theology Reader, Fifth Edition. Edited by Alister E. McGrath. Editorial material and organization © 2017 John Wiley & Sons Ltd. Published 2017 by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. INTRODUCTION What is theology? The word has been used by Christians since the third century to mean “talk about God.” “Christian theology” thus means something like “talking about God in a Christian way,” recognizing that the word “god” means quite different things to different religious traditions. Christians think about their faith; “theology” is the term used for both this process of reflection and its outcome. To study theology is thus to think systematically about the fundamental ideas of Christianity. It is intellectual reflection on the act, content, and implications of the Christian faith. Starting to study Christian theology involves exploring a whole range of issues. Some of these focus on the identity and characteristics of theology itself. For example, what is theology? And how did it develop? How does it relate to other areas of life, such as philosophy or culture? How does our way of talking about God relate to our everyday language? To what extent – and in what ways – can the existence of God be proved? The present chapter provides readings which explore these and related issues, some in depth. One of the most important debates in Christian theology concerns the relationship between faith and reason. Tradi- tionally, Christian theology has seen reason as operating in a subservient role to revelation. Thomas Aquinas argued that supernatural truths need to be revealed to us. Human reason, on its own, cannot hope to gain access to divine mysteries.