Augustinian Motifs in Mandeville's Theory of Society
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Edinburgh University Press in Journal of Scottish Philosophy
THIS IS AN ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT OF AN ARTICLE PUBLISHED IN 2014 BY EDINBURGH UNIVERSITY PRESS IN JOURNAL OF SCOTTISH PHILOSOPHY. THE VERSION OF RECORD IS AVAILABLE ONLINE AT: HTTP://WWW.EUPPUBLISHING.COM/DOI/FULL/10.3366/JSP.2014.0060. WHAT CAN AN EGOIST SAY AGAINST AN EGOIST? ON ARCHIBALD CAMPBELL’S CRITICISMS OF BERNARD MANDEVILLE CHRISTIAN MAURER (Université de Fribourg, Switzerland) ABSTRACT Like Bernard Mandeville, Archibald Campbell develops a profoundly egoistic conception of human psychology. However, Campbell attacks numerous points in Mandeville’s moral philosophy, in particular Mandeville’s treatment of self-love, the desire for esteem, and human nature in general as corrupt. He also criticises Mandeville’s corresponding insistence on self- denial and his rigorist conception of luxury. Campbell himself is subsequently attacked by Scottish orthodox Calvinists - not for his egoism, but for his optimism regarding postlapsarian human nature and self-love. This episode demonstrates that the debates on egoism in Mandeville should be seen in the context of the debates on postlapsarian human nature. WHAT CAN AN EGOIST SAY AGAINST AN EGOIST? ON ARCHIBALD CAMPBELL’S CRITICISMS OF BERNARD MANDEVILLE CHRISTIAN MAURER Université de Fribourg (Switzerland) PRELIMINARY REMARKS ON EGOISM There are good reasons to discuss the topic of egoism (in some sense), both in analyses of Bernard Mandeville’s writings and in analyses of the reactions they provoked. Neither Mandeville nor his critics use the term ‘egoism’, of course, but debates on egoism (in some sense) were undeniably crucial to early eighteenth-century moral philosophy.1 In this essay, I will focus on the psychological context and use the notion of egoism in the broad and uncontroversial sense that marks those desires as ‘egoistic’ or self-interested where the agent wants to procure some kind of good for herself, for example pleasure, self-preservation, power, reputation or glory. -
Creation As Theodicy: in Defense of a Kabbalistic Approach to Evil
Faith and Philosophy: Journal of the Society of Christian Philosophers Volume 14 Issue 4 Article 6 10-1-1997 Creation as Theodicy: In Defense of a Kabbalistic Approach to Evil Robert Oakes Follow this and additional works at: https://place.asburyseminary.edu/faithandphilosophy Recommended Citation Oakes, Robert (1997) "Creation as Theodicy: In Defense of a Kabbalistic Approach to Evil," Faith and Philosophy: Journal of the Society of Christian Philosophers: Vol. 14 : Iss. 4 , Article 6. DOI: 10.5840/faithphil199714441 Available at: https://place.asburyseminary.edu/faithandphilosophy/vol14/iss4/6 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Journals at ePLACE: preserving, learning, and creative exchange. It has been accepted for inclusion in Faith and Philosophy: Journal of the Society of Christian Philosophers by an authorized editor of ePLACE: preserving, learning, and creative exchange. CREATION AS THEODICY: IN DEFENSE OF A KABBALISTIC APPROACH TO EVIL Robert Oakes The doctrine of Tzimzum (or divine "withdrawal") occupies pride of place in the Jewish mystical tradition as a response to what is arguably the chief theo logical or metaphysical concern of that tradition: namely, how God's Infinity or Absolute Unlimitedness does not preclude the existence of a distinct domain of finite being. Alternatively, how can it be that God, by virtue of His Maximal Plenteousness, does not exhaust the whole of Reality? I attempt to show that, while a plausible argument - one that does not involve the idea of Tzimzum - can be mounted against this "pantheism" problem, the doctrine of Tzimzum has considerable force as the nucleus of a theodicy. -
“Politics and Beatitude”, Studies in Christian Ethics
SCE0010.1177/0953946816684448Studies in Christian EthicsGregory 684448research-article2016 Article Studies in Christian Ethics 2017, Vol. 30(2) 199 –206 Politics and Beatitude © The Author(s) 2017 Reprints and permissions: sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/0953946816684448 journals.sagepub.com/home/sce Eric Gregory Princeton University, USA Abstract The limits and secularity of political life have been signature themes of modern Augustinianism, often couched in non-theological language of realism and the role of religion in public life. In dialogue with Gilbert Meilaender, this article inverts and theologizes that interest by asking how Augustinian pilgrims might characterize the positive relation of political history to saving history and the ways in which political action in time might teach us something about the nature of salvation that comes to us from beyond history. This relation of continuity and discontinuity eludes dogmatic formulation, but the goal of the present article is to see where a shared Augustinianism and a shared commitment to aspects of the liberal political tradition might find illuminating disagreement. Keywords Meilaender, Augustine, Augustinianism, politics, eschatology, salvation I remember the anxiety in seeing Gilbert Meilaender raise his hand to ask the final ques- tion. It was one of my first conference presentations many years ago at the Society of Christian Ethics. I was a graduate student ruminating on the nature of desire and the relation of the love commands. Like the Israelites exploring Canaan, I felt like a grass- hopper among giants in the land. Meilaender’s frank question about my reconstruction of Augustine characteristically revealed basic issues about Christian tradition and human experience. -
The Problem of Evil S2
Theodicy Episode 190 THE PROBLEM OF EVIL S2 I. KEY THOUGHTS S3 1. The existence of evil is the greatest challenge for theism. S4 1. “There is little doubt that the problem of evil is the most serious intellectual difficulty for theism.” Stephen Davis, Encountering Evil (Knox Press, 1981), 2 THE PROBLEM S5 IF God is all-knowing, THEN he must know about evil IF God is all-loving, THEN he must want to abolish evil IF God is all-powerful, THEN he must be able to abolish evil BUT evil exists THEREFORE God is not all-loving & not all-powerful OR God does not exist THE SOLUTION S6 Theodicy èåïò (theos) God äéêç (dikç) justice DEF: arguments justifying the existence of evil in a world created by an all-loving, all-powerful, and all-knowing God 2. ALL theodicies include the notion of “Greater Good” S7 God allows evil because it serves an ultimate purpose in bringing overall good into the world º EG selling of Joseph by his brothers he ends up in Egypt & his family is saved from famine S8 2. “You [his brothers] intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.” Gen 50:20 3. Christian Theodicies have been intimately connected to Gen 3 & the Fall S9 K especially the COSMIC FALL Protestant Reformer John Calvin S10 3. “The earth was cursed on account of Adam [Gen 3:18] ... the whole order of nature was subverted by the sin of man ... Moses does not enumerate all the disadvantages in which man, by sin, has involved himself; for it appears that all the evils of the present life, which experience proves to be innumerable, have proceeded from the same fountain. -
Malebranche's Augustinianism and the Mind's Perfection
University of Pennsylvania ScholarlyCommons Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations Spring 2010 Malebranche's Augustinianism and the Mind's Perfection Jason Skirry University of Pennsylvania, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations Part of the History of Philosophy Commons Recommended Citation Skirry, Jason, "Malebranche's Augustinianism and the Mind's Perfection" (2010). Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations. 179. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/179 This paper is posted at ScholarlyCommons. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/179 For more information, please contact [email protected]. Malebranche's Augustinianism and the Mind's Perfection Abstract This dissertation presents a unified interpretation of Malebranche’s philosophical system that is based on his Augustinian theory of the mind’s perfection, which consists in maximizing the mind’s ability to successfully access, comprehend, and follow God’s Order through practices that purify and cognitively enhance the mind’s attention. I argue that the mind’s perfection figures centrally in Malebranche’s philosophy and is the main hub that connects and reconciles the three fundamental principles of his system, namely, his occasionalism, divine illumination, and freedom. To demonstrate this, I first present, in chapter one, Malebranche’s philosophy within the historical and intellectual context of his membership in the French Oratory, arguing that the Oratory’s particular brand of Augustinianism, initiated by Cardinal Bérulle and propagated by Oratorians such as Andre Martin, is at the core of his philosophy and informs his theory of perfection. Next, in chapter two, I explicate Augustine’s own theory of perfection in order to provide an outline, and a basis of comparison, for Malebranche’s own theory of perfection. -
A Response to Adams in the Augustinian Tradition
View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Asbury Theological Seminary Faith and Philosophy: Journal of the Society of Christian Philosophers Volume 19 Issue 1 Article 6 1-1-2002 The Abolition of Sin: A Response to Adams in the Augustinian Tradition Katherin A. Rogers Follow this and additional works at: https://place.asburyseminary.edu/faithandphilosophy Recommended Citation Rogers, Katherin A. (2002) "The Abolition of Sin: A Response to Adams in the Augustinian Tradition," Faith and Philosophy: Journal of the Society of Christian Philosophers: Vol. 19 : Iss. 1 , Article 6. Available at: https://place.asburyseminary.edu/faithandphilosophy/vol19/iss1/6 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Journals at ePLACE: preserving, learning, and creative exchange. It has been accepted for inclusion in Faith and Philosophy: Journal of the Society of Christian Philosophers by an authorized editor of ePLACE: preserving, learning, and creative exchange. THE ABOLITION OF SIN: A RESPONSE TO ADAMS IN THE AUGUSTINIAN TRADITION Ka therin A. Rogers Augustine, Anselm, and Aquinas located the source of human misery in sin, freely choosing against God. Sin is permitted by God because the dig nity of the human creature requires that it be able to make free choices and live with their consequences. In Horrendous Evils and the Goodness of God, Marilyn Adams critiques this view and offers an alternative explanation. I argue that Adams's criticisms do not connect with the traditional view and her proposed alternative entails conclusions which Christians should find insupportable, including the abolition of sin and the view that God is not good in any meaningful sense. -
"Augustinianism": Studies in the Process of Spiritual Transvaluation (Review)
"Augustinianism": Studies in the Process of Spiritual Transvaluation (review) Andrew Louth The Catholic Historical Review, Volume 96, Number 1, January 2010, p. 85 (Review) Published by The Catholic University of America Press DOI: https://doi.org/10.1353/cat.0.0620 For additional information about this article https://muse.jhu.edu/article/369489 [ This content has been declared free to read by the pubisher during the COVID-19 pandemic. ] BOOK REVIEWS _______ General and Miscellaneous “Augustinianism”: Studies in the Process of Spiritual Transvaluation. By J. D. Green. [Studies in Spirituality, Supplement 14.] (Leuven: Peeters. 2007. Distrib. in the U.S. by David Brown Book Co., Oakville, CT. Pp. viii, 113. $70.00 paperback. ISBN 978-9-042-91976-1.) Augustinianism is a term that arouses a range of expectations, from a form of Christian Platonism to Jansenism. This book is not at all about Augustinianism in such a sense. Rather, J. D. Green sees the heart of St. Augustine’s thought as a capacity for transformation, or as he puts it,“trans- valuation.”In the case of Augustine himself, this is the transvaluation of late- antique philosophy by the Gospel that is found in Augustine’s own spiritual journey and in the way he introduces his congregation in Hippo to this jour- ney of transformation—essentially, the reformation of the image of God in their lives as a result of grace. He focuses on the Confessions and the De Trinitate for his exposition of the return of the triune image of God found in the soul and of the transformation achieved as the mind comes to remember, understand,and love God,and then briefly explores how this pattern is found in the Discourses on the Psalms.The following three chapters of the book take as examples of this “Augustinianism” Pope and Saint Gregory the Great, William of St.Thierry,and Walter Hilton—all thinkers and even mystics whose thought was deeply influenced by their reading of Augustine. -
Listen to the Song
Listen to the song. Use the song to help you re-cap the unit so far: • What is evil and suffering? Then think about… • How can evil and suffering be a problem to Christians? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpYeekQkAdc Oracy focus RE Skills focus Peer teaching Evaluation How do Christians respond to the PoE? EVALUATE the Augustinian and Irenaean responses to evil and suffering. EXPLAIN Christian responses to the problem of evil and suffering. Show UNDERSTANDING of how evil and suffering can be a problem to Christians. Title: How do Christians explain evil and suffering? The Problem of Evil: A God who is benevolent will have a motive to get rid of evil. A God who is omnipotent will have the ability to get rid of evil. Evil exists in the world. Therefore, either God does not exist or he is not omnipotent and omnibenevolent. The The Augustinian Irenaean Theodicy Theodicy What does the word ‘theodicy’ mean? A theodicy is an attempt to answer how a good, all- loving God allows evil and suffering in the world. Similarities Differences Use the information on the next few slides to answer the questions on the work sheet on the next slide. Make a Be careful spider how you diagram on spell these your words! theory Augustine information: The Augustinian Theodicy • Many people believe that evil and suffering in the world is proof that God does not exist. If God exists, and was all powerful (omnipotent), all loving (benevolent) and all knowing (omniscient), surely he wouldn’t let evil and suffering take place? • In response to this problem of evil, Saint Augustine of Hippo (a 4th century Christian) used the first story in the Bible, the story of Genesis, to explain that it is not God’s fault there is evil in the world. -
Economics: a Moral Inquiry with Religious Origins
American Economic Review: Papers & Proceedings 2011, 101:3, 166–170 http://www.aeaweb.org/articles.php?doi 10.1257/aer.101.3.166 = Economics: A Moral Inquiry with Religious Origins By Benjamin M. Friedman* Its secure foundation as an empirically based The commonplace view today is that the discipline notwithstanding, economics from its emergence of “economics” out of the European inception has also been a moral science. Adam Enlightenment of the eighteenth century was an Smith’s academic appointment was as profes- aspect of the more general movement toward sor of moral philosophy, and not only his earlier secular modernism in the sense of a historic turn Theory of Moral Sentiments but the Wealth of in thinking away from a God-centered universe, Nations, too, reflects it. Both books are replete toward what we broadly call humanism. To the with analyses of individuals’ motivations and contrary, I suggest that the all-important tran- psychological states, and the ways in which sition in thinking that we rightly identify with what we now call “economic” activity, carried Adam Smith and his contemporaries and follow- out in inherently social settings, enables them ers—the key transition that gave us economics as to lead satisfying lives or not. Even the divi- we now know it—was powerfully influenced by sion of labor, which Smith hailed from the then-controversial changes in religious belief in very first sentence of the Wealth of Nations( as the English-speaking Protestant world in which the key to enhanced productivity, is subject) to they lived. Further, those at-the-outset influences explicitly moral reservations—because it erodes of religious thinking not only fostered the subse- individuals’ capacities for “conceiving any gen- quent spread of Smithian thinking, especially in erous, noble or tender sentiment” and for judg- America, but shaped the course of its reception. -
Dr. Mandeville's Materialism
Erasmus Journal for Philosophy and Economics, Volume 9, Issue 1, Spring 2016, pp. 1-31. http://ejpe.org/pdf/9-1-art-1.pdf Treating of bodies medical and political: Dr. Mandeville’s materialism HAROLD J. COOK Brown University Abstract: Medicine was one of the chief empirical and philosophical sources for early modern political economy, helping to move analysis from moral to natural philosophy, and Mandeville was educated as a physician. He adopted a materialistic view of the body and passions that could be found at Leiden and a few other places at the time. When he emigrated to London, he also became embroiled in some of the heated political debates about the best kind of medical practice, joining the party that sought new medical methods from the empirical observation of experts like himself, who used their knowledge to intervene in the physical bodies of their patients rather than to persuade them to alter their ways of life. Skilful politicians were like skilful physicians, requiring them to understand the bodily passions. His politics therefore remained concerned with the nature of persons rather than societies. Keywords: London medical institutions, empiricism, passions, remedies Experience, though noon auctoritee Were in this world, is right ynogh for me. Geoffrey Chaucer, The wife of Bath of Bath’s prologue and tale Bernard Mandeville is correctly known for helping to ground modern ideas of political economy in a naturalistic social psychology, affecting the views of David Hume, Adam Smith, perhaps Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and others. While speaking in his own identifiable voice, as a Dutch immigrant and physician in Britain he articulated philosophical and political positions well known on the continent. -
The Problematic of the Augustinian Doctrine of Grace for Contemporary Theology D
Journal for Christian Theological Research Volume 5 Article 2 2000 Nature Dis-Graced and Grace De-Natured: The Problematic of the Augustinian Doctrine of Grace for Contemporary Theology D. Lyle Dabney Marquette University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.luthersem.edu/jctr Part of the Religious Thought, Theology and Philosophy of Religion Commons Recommended Citation Dabney, D. Lyle (2000) "Nature Dis-Graced and Grace De-Natured: The rP oblematic of the Augustinian Doctrine of Grace for Contemporary Theology," Journal for Christian Theological Research: Vol. 5 , Article 2. Available at: http://digitalcommons.luthersem.edu/jctr/vol5/iss2000/2 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Digital Commons @ Luther Seminary. It has been accepted for inclusion in Journal for Christian Theological Research by an authorized editor of Digital Commons @ Luther Seminary. For more information, please contact [email protected]. 12/18/2017 Nature Dis-Graced and Grace De-Natured: The Problematic of the Augustinian Doctrie of Grace for Contemporary Theology D. Lyle Dabney, "Nature DisGraced and Grace DeNatured: The Problematic of the Augustinian Doctrine of Grace for Contemporary Theology," Journal for Christian Theological Research [http://apu.edu/~CTRF/articles/2000_articles/dabney.html] 5:3 (2000). Nature DisGraced and Grace DeNatured: The Problematic of the Augustinian Doctrine of Grace for Contemporary Theology D. Lyle Dabney Marquette University , Milwaukee, Wisconsin 1. "Contemporary theology" Kilian McDonnell writes, "has turned from a theology of the Word to a theology of the world".(1) That statement, it seems to me, neatly sums up the current situation in theology. -
This Thesis Is Submitted in Fulfilment of The. Requirements of the Degree Of
The Problem of Evil and Theodicy in Jewish, Christian, and Islamic Thought Muhsin Akbaý This thesisis submittedin fulfilment of the. requirementsof the degreeof Doctor of Philosophy of the University of Wales University of Wales,Lampeter 1999 1 Acknowledgements I would like to expressmy sinceregratitude to ProfessorPaul Badham,who has supervisedmy research,for his valuableattention, guidance, suggestions, and comments. I would also like to thank to ProfessorRabbi Dan Cohn-Sherbokfor his helpful supervision in the Jewish side of this study, and to Dr. Dawüd al-`Alanü for his valuable suggestionsin the Islamic side of this work. It is necessarythat I extend my deepestgratitude to the Higher Educational Counsel of Turkey and canakkale Onsekiz Mart University for their financial support without which this studywould not haveemerged. I would also like to thank to Professor Mehmet Aydm and ProfessorHanifi Özcanat the Faculty of Divinity at Dokuz Eylül University, Izmir for they encouragedme to pursue an academic career in Philosophy of Religion. I am very happy to thank to the members of the library and the ACS at Lampeter for their assistance during my research. Finally, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my wife, Emine, for her patience, support, and encouragement throughout my research. Il Abstract This thesisis the study of the problemof evil and theodicyin Jewish,Christian, and Islamic traditions.The principal aim of the study is to explore,discuss, and compare and contrastthe major responsesto the problem of evil offered in the sacredwritings, theology and philosophy of the three Abrahamic faiths. I have demonstratedhow Judaism,Christianity, and Islam understoodthe problem of evil, and respondedto the atheisticargument from evil.