Reason and Belief in God in the Nietzschean Postmodern Philosophy: A Critical Study in the Light of Thomistic Philosophy A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Award of the Degree of Master of Philosophy in Philosophy by PRINCE D. (Reg. No. 1234802) Under the Guidance of Jose Nandhikkara Professor and Head of the Department of Philosophy Department of Philosophy ProperCHRISTty of Ch rUNIVERSITYist University. BANGALORE, INDIA Use it for fair purpose. Give credit to theMarch autho r2013 by c iting properly, if your are using it. Approval of Dissertation Dissertation entitled ‘Reason and Belief in God in the Nietzschean Postmodern Philosophy: A Critical Study in the Light of Thomistic Philosophy’ by Prince D. Reg. No. 1234802 is approved for the award of the degree of Master of Philosophy in Philosophy. Examiners: 1. ___________________ ___________________ 2. ___________________ ___________________ 3. ___________________ ___________________ Supervisor(s): ___________________ ___________________ Chairman: ___________________ ___________________ Date: ___________ (Seal) Place: Christ University Property of Christ University. Use it for fair purpose. Give credit to the autho r by citing properly, if your are using it. i Declaration I, Prince D., hereby declare that the dissertation, titled ‘Reason and Belief in God in the Nietzschean Postmodern Philosophy: A Critical Study in the Light of Thomistic Philosophy’ is a record of original research work undertaken by me for the award of the degree of Master of Philosophy in Philosophy. I have completed this study under the supervision of Dr. Jose Nandhikkara, Professor and Head of the Department of Philosophy. I also declare that this dissertation has not been submitted for the award of any degree, diploma, associateship fellowship or other title. It has not been sent for any publication or presentation purpose. I hereby confirm the originality of the work and that there is no plagiarism in any part of the dissertation. Place: Bangalore Date: ………………… Signature of the candidate ………………. Name of the candidate : PRINCE D. Reg. No. 1234802 Department of Philosophy, Christ University, Bangalore Property of Christ University. Use it for fair purpose. Give credit to the autho r by citing properly, if your are using it. ii Certificate This is to certify that the dissertation submitted by PRINCE D (Reg. No. 1234802) titled ‘Reason and Belief in God in the Nietzschean Postmodern Philosophy: A Critical Study in the Light of Thomistic Philosophy’ is a record of research work done by him/her during the academic year 2012-2013 under my supervision in partial fulfilment for the award of Master of Philosophy in Philosophy. This dissertation has not been submitted for the award of any degree, diploma, associate-ship, fellowship or other title. It has not been sent for any publication or presentation purpose. I hereby confirm the originality of the work and that there is no plagiarism in any part of the dissertation. Place: Bangalore Date: ………………… Signature of the Guide ………………….. Name of the Guide: Dr. Jose Nandhikkara Designation: Professor and Head of the Department of Philosophy, Christ University, Bangalore Signature of the Head of the Department Department of Philosophy Christ University, Bangalore Property of Christ University. Use it for fair purpose. Give credit to the autho r by citing properly, if your are using it. iii Acknowledgement I sincerely thank Dr. Jose Nandhikkara, my supervisor, for his guidance throughout the research and writing of this dissertation. He passionately shared his critical and creative insights that supported and expanded my work. I want to thank my wife Susan, who went to be with the LORD and to whom this dissertation is dedicated, for her encouragement, support and prayers during my studies here at the University. I am grateful to many persons especially Rev. Dr. Saju Chackalackal and Rev. Davies Panadan, for their concerns and all the support that they have extended to me. I also want to thank my mother who allowed me to take leave of my works at home and showed me much sacrificial love and care during my research work. I acknowledge with gratitude many of my friends, colleagues, and librarians who assisted my research and my friends who helped me financially, especially, Mr. Eldo Joy, Pastor Sabu George, and Mr. Vijay Pradeep. I do also acknowledge the help of Mrs. Anne Oommen Thomas and Mrs. Julie Sam George in editing the entire text. Above all I thank God Almighty who carried me through all the painful situations that I had gone through, and using many individuals to encourage and complete this research work. Property of Christ University. Use it for fair purpose. Give credit to the autho r by citing properly, if your are using it. iv Dedication This dissertation is dedicated to my wife Susan who went to be with the Lord Property of Christ University. Use it for fair purpose. Give credit to the autho r by citing properly, if your are using it. v Table of Contents Approval of Dissertation i Declaration ii Certificate iii Acknowledgement iv Dedication v Table of Contents vi INTRODUCTION 1 CHAPTER 1 CONCEPT OF GOD AND REASON IN NIETZSCHEAN PHILOSOPHY 8 1.1. FREDERICK NIETZSCHE: A BACKGROUND STUDY 8 1.1.1. Greek Influence of Nietzsche’s Philosophy 9 1.2.2. Christian Influence of Nietzsche’s Philosophy 9 1.2. NIETZSCHEAN CONCEPT OF ‘DEATH OF GOD’ AND ITS IMPLICATIONS 10 1.2.1. Death of God and Its Implication on Logical Reasoning 11 1.2.2. Death of God and Its Implication on Epistemology 13 1.2.3. Death of God and Its Implication on Metaphysics 15 1.2.4. Death of God and Its Implication on Morality 16 1.3. NIETZSCHEAN CONTRIBUTION TO POSTMODERN THINKERS 18 1.3.2. Lyotard’sPro Endper tofy oMetanarrativesf Christ Univ er sity. 20 Use it for fair pur1.3.3.pose .Delegitimation Give credit t ofo tKnowledgehe author by cit ing pr operly , if you r are 23us ing it. vi vii 1.3.4. Foucault’s Death of Man 25 1.4. NIETZSCHEAN CONTRIBUTION TO POSTMODERN LANGUAGE AND REASON 27 1.4.1. Postmodern Idea about Reason 27 1.4.2. Postmodernism and Language 29 CHAPTER 2 ROLE OF FAITH AND REASON IN THOMISTIC PHILOSOPHY 31 2.1. THOMISTIC CONCEPT OF FAITH AND REASON 31 2.1.1. Use of Reason in Thomistic Philosophy 32 2.1.2. Relations of Faith to Reason 33 2.1.3. Reason as Support to Faith 35 2.1.4. Faith Above Reason 36 2.2. THOMISTIC METHODOLOGY 38 2.2.1. Thomistic Concept of Reality 38 2.2.2. Thomistic Concept of Knowledge 39 2.2.3. Thomistic Concept of Truth 41 2.2.4. Thomistic Concept of Revelation 42 2.3. THOMISTIC ARGUMENTS FOR THE RATIONALITY OF FAITH IN GOD 44 2.3.1. Argument from Change 45 2.3.2. Argument from Causality 46 2.3.3. Argument from Necessary Being 48 2.3.4. Argument from Degree of Perfection to the Perfect Being 49 2.3.5. Argument from Design or Purpose 51 2.4. THOMISTIC PHILOSOPHY OF LANGUAGE IN GOD-TALK 53 2.4.1. Equivocal and Univocal Language in God-talk 53 2.4.2. God and Analogous Language 56 Property of Christ University. Use it for fa ir purpose. Give credit to the author by citing properly, if your are using it. viii CHAPTER 3 THOMISTIC METHOD AS A CORRECTIVE TO POSTMODERN PHILOSOPHY THOUGHT 58 3.1. THOMISTIC CRITIQUE ON POSTMODERN REASON, LOGIC, AND EPISTEMOLOGY 58 3.1.1. Universal Law of Logic/Reasoning 59 3.1.2. Basis for Universal Logic 62 3.1.3. Commonsense Philosophy 64 3.1.4. Corrective to Postmodern Epistemology 65 3.2. THOMISTIC CRITIQUE ON POSTMODERN CONCEPT OF GOD 67 3.2.1. Metaphysical Concept of God: Nietzsche Versus Aquinas 68 3.2.2. End of Metaphysics: Lyotard Versus Aquinas 71 3.2.3. Deconstruction: Derrida Versus Aquinas 73 3.2.4. A Corrective to Postmodern Philosophy of God 74 3.3. THOMISTIC CRITIQUE ON POSTMODERN MORALITY 76 3.3.1. Legitimation of Morality: A Thomistic View 76 3.3.2. Deconstructing Morality: A Thomistic View 78 3.3.3. A Corrective to Postmodern Moral Philosophy 79 CONCLUSION 83 BIBLIOGRAPHY 90 Property of Christ University. Use it for fair purpose. Give credit to the author by citing properly, if your are using it. INTRODUCTION Postmodernism is one of the most vigorous ideologies in almost all fields of knowledge like Philosophy, Religion, Sociology, Anthropology, Politics, Literature, Architecture, Arts and Media, etc. today. Since the term ‘post’ precedes ‘modernism,’ literally speaking, postmodernism is an ‘ism’ comes after modernism; one need to have a basic knowledge of pre-modernism (believe in theodicy) and modern (believe in reason) to understand postmodernism. Though Scholars have disagreement regarding the core doctrines of postmodernism, they all agree that postmodernism, as mentioned above, has spread her roots so wide and deep into the different discipline of knowledge.1 Therefore, when one tries to define postmodernism he/she must have, at least a basic knowledge of those disciplines. Without that one’s definition of postmodernism would be very relative and cannot represent the idea in its complete sense. Since each discipline has its own nature, goals and method which differ from other disciplines, scholars find it very hard to define postmodernism though it is not impossible to define postmodernism. Philosophically speaking, according to Jean Francois Lyotard, postmodernism is “incredulity toward metanarratives.”2 Evidently, Lyotard is skeptical toward all meta-narratives because it claims to explain various events in history, gives meaning by connecting diverse events and phenomena by appealing to some kind of universal knowledge and rules. It is generally against all “modern values and convictions” and also against “the confidence that human reason is capable of revealing the secrets of nature and of establishing universally binding moral principles.”3 The reason behind this postmodern attitude is that postmodern methodology known as deconstruction, is understood as a revolt against any discipline that holds on to modern ideology of absolute truth, reason, and any system that gives a fixed boundary of meaning or truth as its root can be found in the Nietzsche’s philosophy.