DOCSLIB.ORG

TOWARDS a CRITIQUE of the SUBJECT by EDWARD J

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
TOWARDS a CRITIQUE of the SUBJECT by EDWARD J TOWARDS A CRITIQUE OF THE SUBJECT by .. EDWARD J. ECHEVERRIA I. Introduction: Some central elements of the problem-situation 1. Nicholas Wolterstorff has written a small book entitled, Reason within the bounds of Religion. 1 The title is a reversal of Immanuel Kant's famous book, Religion innerhalb der Grenzen der blossen Ver­ nunft. Kant employed a transcendental-critical project in his attempt to specify the boundaries of practical and theoretical reason. He entrusted reason with the capacity to reflect on its own limitations and positive possibilities. A central interest in specifying these boundaries was Kant's search for certainty and universal validity; a status required for these boundaries to possess the title of scientific. Kant wanted a critical reason that would steer a course through the domgatism of the ratio­ nalist and the skepticism of the empiricist. Yet, strangely enough, the inability of reason to recognize its limitations was not something that reason could easily shed. Reason was naturally clothed in dialectical illusions. Hence, a critique of these illusions was demanded in the form of what Kant called transcendental dialectic. The latter formed the second part of a transcendental logic. The brief sketch I have just given forms only a small part of what is involved in Kant's project. Of particular importance for our study of Wolterstorff's book is Kant's demand that reason be self-critical. Wolterstorff also asks reason (more specifically, science) to be self­ critical. It is in his case with reference to the dogmatism of religion and science. 2 Yet Wolterstorff's demand, in distinction to Kant's, is limited in one very crucial respect: it is a critique of science and not of thought as such. (Though Wolterstorff's own solution to the problem he articulates is not a purely methodological one, his critique is even further narrow- I Nicholas Wolterstorff, Reason within the bounds of Religion (Grand Rapids: Wm.B. Eerdmans Co., 1976) For the most part reviewers of Wolterstorff's small book have not given it a fair hearing. cf. L. De Koster, The Banner, April 29,1977, p. 24 and N. van Til, Pro Rege, Vol. VI No.2, Dec. 1977, pp. 8-15. 2 I say religion and science because Wolterstorff's specific example of how the two have related to themselves in the last decennia was especially exemplified by the debates surrounding the problem of falsification and the immunity granted to faith as a so-called "blik" by R.M. Hare and the opposite position taken by Anthony Flew. 86 ed by its subsequent restriction to those "modes of access" empowered to reach foundational propositions; in effect limiting his criticism to questions of "method" which, I hope to show, hides his substantiven objections, to so-called foundationalism, behind the objections he actually lets out of the bag). Kant still upheld the distinction between epistemology and a theory of scientific method. Transcendental-critical reflection was interpreted by Kant as a form of epistemology. It is only with the Positivist critique of knowledge and the concomitant import­ ance singularly attributed to the natural scientific mode of knowing that the scope of critical reflection was consequently limited to a theory of scientific method. Reflection was bound to an exploration of the (scientific) nature of the objects of science. Wolterstorff's criticism reflects, in its own way, this shift to method. Within the history of Kant interpretation a retrieval of the critical exigency demanded by the transcendental project has been attempted more than once.3 This is not the place to trace the history of this exigency. I only wish to single out the historical fact that with the history of this retrieval the demand for CRITICISM specifically meant that the human subject, armed with his interpretations and understand­ ings of the world, reason, history and morality, was asked to submit his point of departure, i.e., his so-called "pre-suppositions," to questioning. With reference to this position the claim has been made that Immanuel Kant's transcendental critique had in actuality brought to fulfillment Rene Descartes method of radical doubt.4 In my opinion it could also be said that Kant was continuing, with his transcendental method, a Socratic line of questioning, i.e., a systematic self-examination. 5 Is it 3 In the context of Christian philosophical studies it is important, for an inter­ pretation of transcendental-critical philosophy, to consult (and study!) the works of Herman Dooyeweerd (from the side of Protestant Calvinism) and the works of Father Bernard J.F. Lonergan (from the side of Roman Catholicism). Confer for the former, Wijsbegeerte der Wetsidee (Amsterdam: H.J. Paris, 1935) Vol. 1 Part I, Prolegomena, p. 5-33; Vol. II Part II, Het Kennisprobleem in Het Licht Der Wets­ idee, Chapter 4, p. 475-534; and A New Critique of Theoretical Thought (New Jersey: Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Company, 1953), Vol. I, Part I, p. 3-165. For a programmatic statement confer, Philosophia Reformata, 1 Jrg., 1936, "Het Dilemma voor Het Christelijk Wijsgeerig Denken en Het Critisch Karakter van de Wijsbegeerte der Wetsidee," p. 3-16. Confer for the latter, Insight. A Study of Human Understanding (London: Darton Longman and Todd, 1978 3rd edition); A Second Collection (London: Darton Longman and Todd, 1974) especially the essay, "The Subject" p. 69-86; Method in Theology (New York: Herder and Herder, 1972) especially Part I Chapter 1, p. 3-26, Part II, Chapter 10, p. 235-266; Philosophy of God and Theology (London: Darton Longman and Todd, 1973) especially Chapter 1, p. 11-14 and all of Chapter 3. 4 In recent history Jiirg~n Habermas has made this claim, Knowledge and Human Interests (London: Heinemann, 1972) part one, chapter 1. This book is an English translation from the German 1968 edition of Erkenntnis und Interesse published by SUhrkamp Verlag. 5 Wolterstorff employs this term systematic self-examination in Reason, p. 104. For an interpretation of Kant along these Socratic lines cf. Leonard Nelson, Socra­ tic Method and Critical Philosophy (New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 1965) pp. 1-43 esp. 4-7 as well as Richard Kroner, Culture and Faith (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1951) p. 2. 87 .
Load more

Recommended publications
  • The Revelation of God, East and West: Contrasting Special Revelation in Western Modernity with the Ancient Christian East
    Open Theology 2017; 3: 565–589 Analytic Perspectives on Method and Authority in Theology Nathan A. Jacobs* The Revelation of God, East and West: Contrasting Special Revelation in Western Modernity with the Ancient Christian East https://doi.org/10.1515/opth-2017-0043 Received August 11, 2017; accepted September 11, 2017 Abstract: The questions of whether God reveals himself; if so, how we can know a purported revelation is authentic; and how such revelations relate to the insights of reason are discussed by John Locke, Thomas Hobbes, René Descartes, G. W. Leibniz, and Immanuel Kant, to name a few. Yet, what these philosophers say with such consistency about revelation stands in stark contrast with the claims of the Christian East, which are equally consistent from the second century through the fourteenth century. In this essay, I will compare the modern discussion of special revelation from Thomas Hobbes through Johann Fichte with the Eastern Christian discussion from Irenaeus through Gregory Palamas. As we will see, there are noteworthy differences between the two trajectories, differences I will suggest merit careful consideration from philosophers of religion. Keywords: Religious Epistemology; Revelation; Divine Vision; Theosis; Eastern Orthodox; Locke; Hobbes; Lessing; Kant; Fichte; Irenaeus; Cappadocians; Cyril of Alexandria; Gregory Palamas The idea that God speaks to humanity, revealing things hidden or making his will known, comes under careful scrutiny in modern philosophy. The questions of whether God does reveal himself; if so, how we can know a purported revelation is authentic; and how such revelations relate to the insights of reason are discussed by John Locke, Thomas Hobbes, René Descartes, G.
    [Show full text]
  • Article Review Justice, Rights and Wrongs
    ECCLESIOLOGY Ecclesiology 8 (2012) 235–240 brill.nl/ecso Article Review Justice, Rights and Wrongs Nicholas Sagovsky Liverpool Hope University, Hope Park, Liverpool, L16 9JD, UK [email protected] Nicholas Wolterstorff, Justice, Rights and Wrongs (Princeton, NJ and Woodstock, UK: Princeton University Press, 2008) xiv + 400 pp. £35.00. ISBN 978-0-691-12967-9 (hbk). Nicholas Wolterstorff’s Justice, Rights and Wrongs is a major contribution to the contemporary debate about justice. It is, however, more narrowly focused than the broad brush title would suggest. Wolterstorff’s aim is to show the secure grounds on which a belief in natural rights can be the foun- dation for an understanding of justice: ‘I think of a social order as just’, he writes, ‘insofar as its members enjoy the goods to which they have rights.’ What he does not discuss is how to specify those rights, and how ‘natural rights’ can be deployed in a strategy for justice. The argument is in three parts. First, Wolterstorff examines ‘the archeol- ogy of rights’ to defend the claim that a belief in natural rights is not the product of the possessive individualism associated with the Enlightenment, nor is it the lineal descendent of the nominalism of William of Ockham. He follows Brian Tierney in tracing the line of descent of the notion of ius back to canon lawyers who pre-date Ockham. From there, he traces the pre- history of the notion of ‘right’ back to the Hebrew Scriptures, the New Testament and the early Christian writers. In his second section, Wolterstorff argues that the eudaimonism (belief in the ‘good life’ or ‘human flourishing’), which was central to the thinking of classical philosophers like Aristotle, could never have provided the basis for contemporary belief in universal natural rights.
    [Show full text]
  • Philosophical Perspectives, Vol. 1, Metaphysics, 1987
    Philosophical Perspectives, Vol. 1, Metaphysics, 1987 Front Matter (7 pp.) Preface (1 p.) James E. Tomberlin Entities Without Identity, pp. 1-19 Terence Parsons When Are Objects Parts?, pp. 21-47 Peter van Inwagen Existence, pp. 49-108 Nathan Salmon How To Build a Person: The Physical Basis for Mentality, pp. 109-154 John L. Pollock Subjects Among Other Things, pp. 155-187 Ernest Sosa Two Concepts of Modality: Modal Realism and Modal Reductionism, pp. 189-231 Alvin Plantinga Are Concept-Users World-Makers?, pp. 233-267 Nicholas Wolterstorff Conceptual Relativism, pp. 269-288 Bruce Aune The Philosophical Limits of Scientific Essentialism, pp. 289-365 George Bealer Event Causation: The Counterfactual Analysis, pp. 367-386 Jonathan Bennett Phenomenological Ontology Revisited: A Bergmannian Retrospective, pp. 387-404 Jay F. Rosenberg Self-Consciousness, Demonstrative Reference, and the Self-Ascription View of Believing, pp. 405-454 Hector-Neri Castaneda The `Fido'-Fido Theory of Belief, pp. 455-480 Stephen Schiffer Objects of Consciousness: The Non-Relational Theory of Sensing, pp. 481-500 Romane Clark An Argument for a Modified Russellian Principle of Acquaintance, pp. 501-512 Felicia Ackerman Phenomenal Objects: A Backhanded Defense, pp. 513-526 William G. Lycan Back Matter (1 p.) Philosophical Perspectives, Vol. 2, Epistemology, 1988 Front Matter (7 pp.) Preface (1 p.) James E. Tomberlin Positive Epistemic Status and Proper Function, pp. 1-50 Alvin Plantinga Strong and Weak Justification, pp. 51-69 Alvin I. Goldman The Evidence of the Senses, pp. 71-90 Roderick M. Chisholm How to be a Fallibilist, pp. 91-123 Stewart Cohen Coherence, Justification, and Chisholm, pp.
    [Show full text]
  • Saving God from "Saving God." | Books and Culture | a Christian Review
    8/13/12 Saving God from "Saving God." | Books and Culture | A Christian Review Print this page Close this page The following article is located at: http://www.booksandculture.com/articles/2012/mayjun/savinggod.html Saving God from "Saving God." Is traditional supernaturalism idolatrous? Andrew Chignell and Dean Zimmerman | posted 4/24/201 2 1. Princeton philosopher Mark Johnston was educated by Jesuits and briefly considered taking priestly orders before opting for a PhD in philosophy instead. He went on to make important contributions to several subfields of philosophy— metaphysics, ethics, philosophy of perception. But his work, like that of most analytic philosophers, has appeared mainly in professional journals, and is too technical for most of those outside the guild. Johnston's Saving God, together with its sequel Surviving Death, marks a bold and very public return to the theological questions that he seemed to have left behind upon entering philosophy. It's not clear what roused him from his technical slumbers, though one gets a hint when Saving God begins with a deliciously dismissive critique of the "undergraduate atheisms" of Dawkins, Harris, Hitchens, and company. It soon becomes clear, however, that Johnston is just as intent upon demolishing the traditional forms of religion targeted by these "New Atheists"; what they lack, he suggests, is sufficient philosophical firepower to carry out the job. They also lack the religious sensitivity to see that there might be a deeper truth in the traditional monotheisms that goes beyond
    [Show full text]
  • In Spirit and in Truth Philosophical Reflections on Liturgy and Worship
    In Spirit and in Truth Philosophical Reflections on Liturgy and Worship Wm. Curtis Holtzen & Matthew Nelson Hill, editors CLAREMONT STUDIES IN METHODISM & WESLEYANISM Samuel M. Powell, Series Editor In Spirit and in Truth Philosophical Reflections on Liturgy and Worship ©2016 Claremont School of Theology Press 1325 N. College Ave Claremont, CA 91711 ISBN 978-0692774830 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Holtzen, Wm. Curtis and Matthew Nelson Hill In Spirit and In Truth: Philosophical Reflections on Liturgy and Worship / Wm. Curtis Holtzen and Matthew Nelson Hill, Samuel M. Powell, Series Editor p. cm. –(Claremont Studies in Methodism & Wesleyanism) Includes bibliographical references and indexes. ISBN 978-0692774830 1. Subjects: 1. Liturgics 2. Religion—Philosophy— Christianity 3. Methodist Church—Influence BX107 .W47 2016 Cover Photo Credit: Tim Green https://www.flickr.com/photos/atoach/ No modifications made. To Roman Holtzen and Connor, Anna, Lucas, and Eva Hill Table of Contents Abbreviations xi Acknowledgments xiii Preface xv Introduction 1 Wm. Curtis Holtzen & Matthew Nelson Hill Liturgical Repetition and Reenactment 7 Nicholas Wolterstorff The Role of Phenomenological Description in 37 Investigating Language Joshua Kira The Eucharist as Linguistic Iconic Bodily Encounter 53 Brent Peterson After Fire, Words: Lévinas and the First Order of Language 71 Eric Severson Gadamer’s Hermeneutic of Trust—Ontological and Reflective 87 Wm. Curtis Holtzen & Matthew Nelson Hill Legitimating Our Lives before God 109
    [Show full text]
  • Human Dignity After Augustine's Imago Dei: on the Sources and Uses of Two Ethical Terms Matthew Puffer Valparaiso University, [email protected]
    Valparaiso University ValpoScholar Christ College Faculty Publications Christ College (Honors College) Spring 2017 Human Dignity After Augustine's Imago Dei: On the Sources and Uses of Two Ethical Terms Matthew Puffer Valparaiso University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholar.valpo.edu/cc_fac_pub Recommended Citation Matthew Puffer, "Human Dignity After Augustine's Imago Dei: On the Sources and Uses of Two Ethical Terms" Journal of the Society of Christian Ethics, 37, 1 (2017): 65–82. This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Christ College (Honors College) at ValpoScholar. It has been accepted for inclusion in Christ College Faculty Publications by an authorized administrator of ValpoScholar. For more information, please contact a ValpoScholar staff member at [email protected]. Human Dignity after Augustine's Imago Dei : On the Sources and Uses of Two Ethical Terms Matthew Puffer Journal of the Society of Christian Ethics, Volume 37, Number 1, Spring/Summer 2017, pp. 65-82 (Article) Published by The Society of Christian Ethics DOI: https://doi.org/10.1353/sce.2017.0010 For additional information about this article https://muse.jhu.edu/article/665905 Access provided by Valparaiso University (16 Mar 2018 16:03 GMT) Human Dignity after Augustine’s Imago Dei: On the Sources and Uses of Two Ethical Terms Matthew Puffer This essay considers how Augustine’s writings on the imago Dei might shed light on contemporary human dignity discourse and on debates about the sources, uses, and translations of these two terms. Attending to developments in Augustine’s expositions of scriptural texts and metaphors related to the ima- go Dei, I argue that his writings exhibit three distinct conceptions of the imago Dei that correspond to three accounts of the imago Dei and human dignity offered by Pico, Luther, and Aquinas, respectively.
    [Show full text]
  • What Does the Happy Life Require? Augustine on What the Summum Bonum Includes 1. Introduction
    What Does the Happy Life Require? Augustine on What the Summum Bonum Includes Caleb Cohoe, forthcoming in Oxford Studies in Medieval Philosophy 1. Introduction Many critics of religion insist that believing in a future life makes us less able to value our present activities and distracts us from accomplishing good in this world.1 Augustine is a frequent target, given his insistence that this life is a vale of tears, where we must wait in hope for a better life, while only loving things insofar as they relate to God. Martha Nussbaum insists that “Augustinian love is committed to denying the importance of worldly losses and injustices.”2 She claims that an orientation towards God and towards a future life leads one to neglect the importance of justice and charity in this life. “Death is irrelevant, real suffering in this world is irrelevant, all that is relevant is coming into God’s presence.”3 Instead of looking to the next life, we should be “directing compassion altogether toward the theater of history and not at all toward the shadowy and uncertain realm that may or may not lie outside it.”4 Augustine’s focus on connection to God leaves him without a strong foundation for caring “when people are hungry, when they mourn, when they are persecuted.”5 In this paper, I show that Nussbaum has things backwards. It is while Augustine is trying to achieve happiness in this life that he denies “the importance of worldly losses and injustices,” treats suffering as “irrelevant,” and focuses on cultivating his own divine contemplation, neglecting the material world.
    [Show full text]
  • Front Matter
    Cambridge University Press 978-0-521-51462-0 - Practices of Belief: Selected Essays, Volume 2 Nicholas Wolterstorff Frontmatter More information PRACTICES OF BELIEF Practices of Belief, the second volume of Nicholas Wolterstorff’s collected papers, brings together his essays in epistemology from 1983 to 2008. It includes not only the essays which first presented “Reformed epistemology” to the philosophical world, but also Wolterstorff’s latest work on the topic of entitled (or responsible) belief and its intersection with religious belief. The volume presents five new essays and a retrospective essay that chronicles the changes in the course of philosophy over the last fifty years. Of interest to epistemologists, philosophers of religion, and theologians, Practices of Belief should engage a wide audience of those interested in the topic of whether religious belief can be responsibly formed and maintained in the contemporary world. n ichol a s wolt er s tor ff is Noah Porter Professor Emeritus of Philosophical Theology, Yale University, and Senior Fellow, Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture, University of Virginia. His many publications include Divine Discourse: Philosophical Reflections on the Claim that God Speaks (1995), John Locke and the Ethics of Belief (1996), and Thomas Reid and the Story of Epistemology (2001, 2004). ter ence cu neo is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the University of Vermont. He is author of The Normative Web: An Argument for Moral Realism (2007) and editor of six books includ- ing The Cambridge Companion
    [Show full text]
  • The Non-Foundational Epistemology of Nicholas Wolterstorff
    THE NON-FOUNDATIONAL EPISTEMOLOGY OF NICHOLAS WOLTE ASTOR FF A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF MCMASTER DIVINITY COLLEGE IN PARTIAL FULFlLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE MASTER OF ARTS (CHRISTIAN STUDIES) MCMASTER UNIVERSITY, HAMILTON, ONTARIO BY STUART J. HARSEVOORT, B.A. MAY 2004 MA (Christian Studies) McMASTER UNIVERSITY Hamilton, Ontario TITLE: The Non-Foundational Epistemology of Nicholas Wolterstorff AUTHOR: Stuart Harsevoort SUPERVISOR: Dr. Kurt Richardson NUMBER OF PAGES: 121 McMASTER DIVINITY COLLEGE Upon the recommendation of an oral examination committee and vote of the faculty, this thesis-project by Stuart Harsevoort ' ' is hereby accepted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of MA (Christian Studies) Date: April 21, 2004 Abstract: Nicholas Wolterstorff, working within the context of Reformed Epistemology, has come to an understanding of knowledge which more accurately reflects the process of knowledge and belief that people experience than the foundational system to which he responds. He reacts to Immanuel Kant and John Locke, using arguments put forward by Thomas Reid, and building on these arguments with his own understanding. Kant, Wolterstorff argues, had put distance between a person and what she could perceive about and attribute to God. Since she cannot have an experience of God, she experience5 what Wolterstorff calls the 'Kantian agony1-she cannot discuss God without first discussing God's existence. Locke, Wolterstorff argues, had put distance between a person and what she could believe. Locke, to whom Wolterstorff responds quite extensively, had argued that a person must use reason to govern her beliefs, and base her system of knowledge on propositions which can be known with certainty.
    [Show full text]
  • Living in the Existential Margins: Reflections on the Relationship Between Philosophy and Theology
    Furman University Furman University Scholar Exchange Open Access Fund Publications 6-11-2019 Living in the Existential Margins: Reflections on the Relationship Between Philosophy and Theology J. Aaron Simmons Furman University Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarexchange.furman.edu/oa-fund Recommended Citation Simmons, J. Aaron. "Living in the Existential Margins: Reflections on the Relationship Between Philosophy and Theology" Open Theology, vol. 5, no. 1, 2019, pp. 147-157. https://doi.org/10.1515/opth-2019-0014 This Article (Journal or Newsletter) is made available online by part of the Furman University Scholar Exchange (FUSE). It has been accepted for inclusion in Open Access Fund Publications by an authorized FUSE administrator. For terms of use, please refer to the FUSE Institutional Repository Guidelines. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Open Theology 2019; 5: 147–157 Existential and Phenomenological Conceptions of the Relationship Between Philosophy and Theology J. Aaron Simmons* Living in the Existential Margins: Reflections on the Relationship Between Philosophy and Theology https://doi.org/10.1515/opth-2019-0014 Received May 12, 2019; accepted June 11, 2019 Abstract: In this essay, I outline my view of an epistemic distinction between philosophy and theology along the lines of different evidential authorities operating in the two disciplines. I then go on to suggest that this epistemic view allows for a recognition of different discursive loyalties. In distinction from what I term “Plantinga-type” views, I contend that my broadly postmodern Thomistic account is preferable because of the way in which it better reflects the existential reality of a plurality of loyalties in our lived existence.
    [Show full text]
  • Justice: Rights and Wrongs, Nicholas Wolterstorff
    Solidarity: The Journal of Catholic Social Thought and Secular Ethics Volume 2 Issue 1 Volume 2, Issue 1 Article 7 2012 Review: Justice: Rights and Wrongs, Nicholas Wolterstorff Jeffery Nicholas Mount Angel Seminary, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://researchonline.nd.edu.au/solidarity ISSN: 1839-0366 COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA Copyright Regulations 1969 WARNING This material has been copied and communicated to you by or on behalf of the University of Notre Dame Australia pursuant to part VB of the Copyright Act 1969 (the Act). The material in this communication may be subject to copyright under the Act. Any further copying or communication of this material by you may be the subject of copyright protection under the Act. Do not remove this notice. Recommended Citation Nicholas, Jeffery (2012) "Review: Justice: Rights and Wrongs, Nicholas Wolterstorff," Solidarity: The Journal of Catholic Social Thought and Secular Ethics: Vol. 2 : Iss. 1 , Article 7. Available at: https://researchonline.nd.edu.au/solidarity/vol2/iss1/7 This Article is brought to you by ResearchOnline@ND. It has been accepted for inclusion in Solidarity: The Journal of Catholic Social Thought and Secular Ethics by an authorized administrator of ResearchOnline@ND. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Review: Justice: Rights and Wrongs, Nicholas Wolterstorff This article is available in Solidarity: The Journal of Catholic Social Thought and Secular Ethics: https://researchonline.nd.edu.au/solidarity/vol2/iss1/7 Nicholas: Justice: Rights and Wrongs - Review Review: Justice: Rights and Wrongs Jeffery Nicholas Nicholas Wolterstorff, Justice: Rights and Wrongs Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2008, xiv+400 pages.
    [Show full text]
  • A Grammar of Religious “Truth”: Pragmatic Considerations on the Nature of Religious Truth
    METHOD Method and Theory in the Study & THEORY in the STUDY OF of Religion 30 (�0�8) 338-356 RELIGION brill.com/mtsr A Grammar of Religious “Truth”: Pragmatic Considerations on the Nature of Religious Truth Lars Albinus School of Culture and Society, University of Aarhus Jens Chr. Skous Vej 3, 8000 Aarhus C, Denmark [email protected] Abstract This article explores various ways in which the concept of truth is actually used across discursive boundaries separating common sense, science, mathematics, and religion. Although my overall approach is pragmatic, I argue that we also need to take some semantic restrictions into consideration. The main objective of the article is the issue of translating concepts of truth in various linguistic and cultural contexts without los- ing sight of the particular network of connotations. I come to the conclusion that with regard to a religious discourse, a translatable concept of truth typically enters the grammatical place of the subject rather than the predicate. From this position the dis- cursive constraints of authority, authenticity and expressivity are held in check by an internal predetermination of the implied possibility of falsehood. Most of all, however, the article focuses on non-propositional aspects of a religious expression of truth, in which case the very distinction between true and false becomes patently irrelevant. Keywords truth – pragmatics – Wittgenstein – religious expression – grammar 1 The Opening Question For the sake of brevity, I shall open this article by simply claiming, somewhat
    [Show full text]