(Originally written November 16, 2016 in Book 26)
Introducing Plato
D. Robinson
Particulars are contingent
Universals are the properties that particulars share with one another.
Plato was the first philosopher to see that universals were problematic.
Plato tried to explain it with a two-world system. A perfect world of universals and an imperfect world of copies (particulars).
The world of forms/ideas is never quite explained perfectly.
Forms exist in their own world and can only be "recollected only in the minds of a few talented and well-trained individuals" (Robinson, 65).
Plato's epistemology is difficult because it is mystical and therefore, not directly communicable.
Plato needed the forms to deal with the problem of Heraclitus' flux.
"Forms are more 'real' than particulars, because, unlike particulars, they are eternal and unchanging. Authentic philosophical knowledge can only ever be of these 'forms'" (Robinson, 74).
Everyone is born with the knowledge of the forms because everyone encounters them in earlier lives.
Some of the reason why Plato thought this way about particulars and universals was an account of the Greek language. It was a sort of linguistic determinism. It equates "meeting" and "knowing".
Heidegger was similar in his thinking as German is similar to Greek in how it deals with nouns. It precedes nouns with either masculine, feminine and neuter articles, allowing Heidegger to think about "the nothingness" rather than nothingness.
The forms suffer from an infinite regress, or third man argument.
Plato was also unsure if all man-made objects had forms or not.
The forms have weird ontological problems as well. How can the forms have more reality than particulars? Can reality have degrees?
Plato, because of the notion that meeting and knowing are the same thing, "Maintaining that real knowledge has to be a kind of personal and mystical encounter" (Robinson, 84).
What about universals?
Aristotle - universals are real, but don't exist separately
British Empiricists - universals are a mental image arrived at by abstraction.
"Wittgenstein suggested that our craving for definitive generalities can never be ultimately satisfied, and it is rather unhealthy" (Robinson, 87).
Plato introduced a problem that has not been satisfactorily solved.
Political Philosophy
Plato's view of society is communitarian, emphasizing the social nature of individuals. "Individuals can therefore be judged primarily in terms of their contribution to the State" (Robinson, 88).
The formation of the State came from humans developing a taste for luxury. Divisions of labor is then necessary to provide the luxuries.
Plato would turn the education over to the State (away from the hands of the dangerous Sophists). His educational system is roughly based on the Spartan system which produced a strong army and a stable society.
Plato wanted his society to have experts in every profession. The experts in ruling would get the guardian status and guardian education.
Plato would teach the myth that each man was born of a certain type of metal, thus predetermining every man's status in life.
The myth of the Cave allegory illustrates the ability and the duty of the guardian class.
Those who exit the cave know true knowledge comes from thinking, not seeing.
Plato's ideal republic is hierarchical but because of the myth of the four metals it will function well because everyone will know and accept their place in society (like a beehive).
"By the second generation, everyone will believe this myth of hierarchical castes to be natural and inevitable. Plato is quite content to admit that his hierarchical society must be based on a lie" (Robinson, 101).
Marx inverted the term "ideology" to explain how Plato's big lie works in reality.
The Guardian life is extremely rigorously controlled:
- lived coed in the barracks
- own no property
- breed only with one another by lot
- children are not left with their parents
"Plato's guardians are allowed no individuality or personal freedom" (Robinson, 103).
The social system Plato advocates is severe but it is meritocratic and is not sexist.
"Socrates maintained that morality is a special kind of knowledge which, once known, would always be chosen. Plato seems to have agreed, but argued that this knowledge must be restricted to Guardian experts who will always know the 'correct' answers to all moral problems" (Robinson, 106).
Plato had no time for art in the ideal republic. Only art as propaganda would be admitted. (This art foreshadowed the propagandist art of the Nazis and Soviets).
Plato's moral geometry is often rejected for being inflexible and for reason linking morality and knowledge.
Plato was anti-democratic because democrats have to resort to populism to stay in power. Populist policies are thus favored over wise ones.
"Democratic politicians are merely the slaves of those they pretend to rule, and ordinary people are volatile, violent and bestial" (Robinson, 114).
Popper argued against Plato for his utopianism.
Utopianists often advocate for wiping the slate clean which entails the destruction of society to build a new one.
"The Laws makes a disappointing ending to a philosophical body of work that began with a total commitment to Socrates' own freedom of speech and thought" (Robinson, 131).
"Because Plato cannot have perfect people, he insists on perfect laws which must be obeyed because they are perfect" (Robinson, 131).
The Symposium
Plato seems convinced that homosexual love could be transformed into something spiritually transcendental.
What is love?
Phaedrus: a good thing that instills honor and self-sacrifice
Pausanias: love is sensual gratification but is somehow purer when directed at young men rather than young women
Eryximachus: "love is the cosmic force that constitutes the universe itself" (Robinson, 134).
Aristophanes: Everyone was originally male, female and hermaphrodite. Love is the quest to find the lost part of one's soul. (Zeus punished humanity by splitting everyone into single genders).
Agathon - love is a yearning towards some object of beauty which is not yet possessed.
Diotima - love is the link between sensible and spiritual worlds. "If love is that which moves towards what is beautiful, and wisdom is beautiful, then love is the manifestation of the human soul seeking out the true wisdom of the forms" (Robinson, 136).
The Timaeus
Presents a cosmological account of creation.
"Time is simply a series of numbers that measure how the sub-standard cosmos is always changing" (Robinson, 142).
Plato follows Empedocles' view that all matter is various combinations of the four elements.
Humans are different because of their soul. The soul will return to its star after death if the owner of the soul lived a deserving life.
Plato also advocated metempsychosis (reincarnation) for those souls who aren't worthy of returning to its home star.
Plato's cosmology is similar to M-theory and other string theories that rely on mathematics.
Plato vacillates in the Thaetetus on his theories of perception. Sometimes he is a phenomenalist (we perceive mental images of the world, not the world itself). Sometimes he is a naive realist.
Despite his waffling on the notion of perception he remains staunchly a rationalist - all permanent knowledge comes through thought.
Being a rationalist, Plato had to come up with reasons for error. He claimed that errors arose from memory misapplication.
Knowledge - that which we believe, that which is true and that which we can clearly identify.
The Phaedrus condemns writing because writing is complete. Philosophy is always a process and therefore never complete. As such, dialoge is the best tool for philosophical discovery.
Plato had a long and varied influence:
- Origen developed a neo-platonic theology
- Galileo embraced Plato in his anti-Aristotelian view
- Hegel's dialectical philosophy
Showing posts with label Marx. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Marx. Show all posts
Wednesday, November 16, 2016
Sunday, November 13, 2016
Introducing Plato (B)
(Originally written November 13, 2016 in Book 26)
Introducing Plato
D. Robinson & J. Groves
The Sophists sold their wisdom for profit. They treated philosophy as a self-help method to earn political position.
Plato & Socrates were hostile to the Sophists for two reasons:
1. The Sophists debased philosophy
2. The Sophists sold their teaching to whoever could pay, not just the Aristocracy
Sophists were on a sliding scale, but preached cultural and ethical relativism and ethical skepticism. The worst held ethical nihilism as a viewpoint.
Protagoras (490-420 BC)
- Agnostic
- Ethical relativist
While Protagoras was a relativist and Sophist he did garner some respect from Plato and Socrates, which is more than the cynical Callicles in the Gorgias got.
The Meno:
Concludes that virtue cannot be taught, it must be recalled.
"For Plato, knowledge is something we are already born with, and so 'learning' is simply forcing this knowledge to resurface into our conscious minds" (Robinson, 44).
Learning is anamnesis - recalling something imparted from the divine to the pre-existant souls of men.
The Republic:
Thrasymachus argues that society and the state are artificial constructs to limit the natural state of men.
Thrasymachus' views on morality predicted the views of Nietzsche and Marx.
Glaucon has a very negative view of humanity and posits a psychological egoist viewpoint. Humans are vicious, predatory beasts. Thomas Hobbes adopted this view and advocated strong governments to enforce morality.
Plato chooses not to argue against this as "psychological egoist explanations of all human behavior usually tend to be self-confirming and difficult to refute (Robinson, 60).
Introducing Plato
D. Robinson & J. Groves
The Sophists sold their wisdom for profit. They treated philosophy as a self-help method to earn political position.
Plato & Socrates were hostile to the Sophists for two reasons:
1. The Sophists debased philosophy
2. The Sophists sold their teaching to whoever could pay, not just the Aristocracy
Sophists were on a sliding scale, but preached cultural and ethical relativism and ethical skepticism. The worst held ethical nihilism as a viewpoint.
Protagoras (490-420 BC)
- Agnostic
- Ethical relativist
While Protagoras was a relativist and Sophist he did garner some respect from Plato and Socrates, which is more than the cynical Callicles in the Gorgias got.
The Meno:
Concludes that virtue cannot be taught, it must be recalled.
"For Plato, knowledge is something we are already born with, and so 'learning' is simply forcing this knowledge to resurface into our conscious minds" (Robinson, 44).
Learning is anamnesis - recalling something imparted from the divine to the pre-existant souls of men.
The Republic:
Thrasymachus argues that society and the state are artificial constructs to limit the natural state of men.
Thrasymachus' views on morality predicted the views of Nietzsche and Marx.
Glaucon has a very negative view of humanity and posits a psychological egoist viewpoint. Humans are vicious, predatory beasts. Thomas Hobbes adopted this view and advocated strong governments to enforce morality.
Plato chooses not to argue against this as "psychological egoist explanations of all human behavior usually tend to be self-confirming and difficult to refute (Robinson, 60).
Thursday, March 1, 2007
Reality and the Existential Need for God
(Originally written March 1, 2007 in Book 13)
Philosophy of Religion
Norman Geisler & Winfried Corduan
The Meaning of Reality
"Reality is more than a subjective condition of human experience" (64).
In dealing with religious experience it seems there is no surefire way of separating the hallucinatory from the real.
There is always the possibility that one's supposed religious experience is actually explainable by purely psychological phenomena.
All experience is subjective, hence religious experience is subjective.
"Religious transcendence must be more than a subjective condition in religious experience before it should be called 'real'" (64).
Reality is more than merely a projection of human imagination.
Religious transcendence is not real if it is merely a projection of human nature.
Ludwig Feuerbach argued that God was really a projection of humanity's ideal man.
Karl Marx believed that religion was a projection of man's hope for the superman in heaven.
Reality is more than an object of wish-fulfillment.
Freud believed religion is an illusion, not in the sense that God is not real, but that it came about from man's wish that there be a God.
Reality is more than a subconscious force in human experience.
Carl Gustav Jung called the collective subconscious the real, but this is insufficient.
"Reality means to have an independent existence"
Transcendence, in order to be real, must exist outside of the mind of those who conceive it and must exist outside of the experiences of the people who experience it.
"Reality means to have an objective existence" (67).
Objective existence means to exist in and of itself, independently of other things.
The Need For Verification
Deception and illusion are possible so there must be some means of determinism whether there is a basis in reality for religious experience.
Kierkegaard held that the need to give evidence for God is evidence of one's choice to reject God.
Kierkegaard believed verifying God's existence was ridiculous,: "For if God does not exist it would of course be impossible to prove it, and if he does exist it would be folly to attempt it". (68).
Kierkegaard held that in order to offer a proof for God's existence one must presuppose that God exists.
He believed that faith, not reason, brings one to God.
Alvin Plantinga echoes Kierkegaard in stating that a belief in God is "properly basic".
Properly basic beliefs are beliefs that one needn't require verification; i.e. "I exist" or "there is a past".
There is a difference between the basis for believing that there is a God and the basis for believing in God.
"One needs evidence to know that there is a God, but one needs faith to commit oneself to the God that the evidence indicates is really there" (68).
Verifying the Reality of Religious Experience
People sense a basic need for God and this is the beginning of religious experience.
Theists and atheists alike have a feeling of dependence and a sense of contingency. But, is there really a God to fulfill the need people sense?
The Need for the Transcendent
Freud analyzed the human need for religion as a purely psychological need.
Religion was an infantile neurosis of mankind for Freud.
The Sense of Absolute Dependence
Freud did not deny the validity of people having religious experience.
"Science can never overcome a human's finitude or sense of cosmic contingency" (70).
Friedrich Schleiermacher takes the sense of cosmic need as the essence of religion.
A feeling of absolute dependence is a religious experience.
There is a need for the Transcendent because of the feeling of absolute contingency.
People sense a need for some Transcendence, whether or not it is really there.
Humanity's Being Unto Death
Martin Heidegger characterized human life as "being-unto-death".
Fear of death or nothingness is the anxiety of all man.
"I am, but I need not be and will not be" (70).
Asking about why one is are evidence of human ontological dependency.
Paul Tillich held that finite beings are ungrounded and must search for grounding, an ultimate grounding.
Does the need for God as ontological grounding of one's being imply that there is really such a grounding?
The Existential Need for God
Jean-Paul Sartre said he needed religion, he needed God and "Had it been denied me, I would have invented it myself" (71).
Sartre maintained that humans have more than a psychological need for God. Sartre held that humans have an existential need for God.
Essay Idea: Needs for God
-Psychological
-Existential
-Ontological
-Religiou
-etc.
Sartre held that "To be man means to reach toward being God" (71).
Man is seeking to be self-determined and self-caused.
The existence of a person cries out to God to give it definition and essence.
Sartre held that while this is man's need and goal, the whole concept is absurd. How can man transcend himself to discover himself?
The need for God is a fundamental, existential need, even if there is no God to fulfill this need.
Philosophy of Religion
Norman Geisler & Winfried Corduan
The Meaning of Reality
"Reality is more than a subjective condition of human experience" (64).
In dealing with religious experience it seems there is no surefire way of separating the hallucinatory from the real.
There is always the possibility that one's supposed religious experience is actually explainable by purely psychological phenomena.
All experience is subjective, hence religious experience is subjective.
"Religious transcendence must be more than a subjective condition in religious experience before it should be called 'real'" (64).
Reality is more than merely a projection of human imagination.
Religious transcendence is not real if it is merely a projection of human nature.
Ludwig Feuerbach argued that God was really a projection of humanity's ideal man.
Karl Marx believed that religion was a projection of man's hope for the superman in heaven.
Reality is more than an object of wish-fulfillment.
Freud believed religion is an illusion, not in the sense that God is not real, but that it came about from man's wish that there be a God.
Reality is more than a subconscious force in human experience.
Carl Gustav Jung called the collective subconscious the real, but this is insufficient.
"Reality means to have an independent existence"
Transcendence, in order to be real, must exist outside of the mind of those who conceive it and must exist outside of the experiences of the people who experience it.
"Reality means to have an objective existence" (67).
Objective existence means to exist in and of itself, independently of other things.
The Need For Verification
Deception and illusion are possible so there must be some means of determinism whether there is a basis in reality for religious experience.
Kierkegaard held that the need to give evidence for God is evidence of one's choice to reject God.
Kierkegaard believed verifying God's existence was ridiculous,: "For if God does not exist it would of course be impossible to prove it, and if he does exist it would be folly to attempt it". (68).
Kierkegaard held that in order to offer a proof for God's existence one must presuppose that God exists.
He believed that faith, not reason, brings one to God.
Alvin Plantinga echoes Kierkegaard in stating that a belief in God is "properly basic".
Properly basic beliefs are beliefs that one needn't require verification; i.e. "I exist" or "there is a past".
There is a difference between the basis for believing that there is a God and the basis for believing in God.
"One needs evidence to know that there is a God, but one needs faith to commit oneself to the God that the evidence indicates is really there" (68).
Verifying the Reality of Religious Experience
People sense a basic need for God and this is the beginning of religious experience.
Theists and atheists alike have a feeling of dependence and a sense of contingency. But, is there really a God to fulfill the need people sense?
The Need for the Transcendent
Freud analyzed the human need for religion as a purely psychological need.
Religion was an infantile neurosis of mankind for Freud.
The Sense of Absolute Dependence
Freud did not deny the validity of people having religious experience.
"Science can never overcome a human's finitude or sense of cosmic contingency" (70).
Friedrich Schleiermacher takes the sense of cosmic need as the essence of religion.
A feeling of absolute dependence is a religious experience.
There is a need for the Transcendent because of the feeling of absolute contingency.
People sense a need for some Transcendence, whether or not it is really there.
Humanity's Being Unto Death
Martin Heidegger characterized human life as "being-unto-death".
Fear of death or nothingness is the anxiety of all man.
"I am, but I need not be and will not be" (70).
Asking about why one is are evidence of human ontological dependency.
Paul Tillich held that finite beings are ungrounded and must search for grounding, an ultimate grounding.
Does the need for God as ontological grounding of one's being imply that there is really such a grounding?
The Existential Need for God
Jean-Paul Sartre said he needed religion, he needed God and "Had it been denied me, I would have invented it myself" (71).
Sartre maintained that humans have more than a psychological need for God. Sartre held that humans have an existential need for God.
Essay Idea: Needs for God
-Psychological
-Existential
-Ontological
-Religiou
-etc.
Sartre held that "To be man means to reach toward being God" (71).
Man is seeking to be self-determined and self-caused.
The existence of a person cries out to God to give it definition and essence.
Sartre held that while this is man's need and goal, the whole concept is absurd. How can man transcend himself to discover himself?
The need for God is a fundamental, existential need, even if there is no God to fulfill this need.
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
Class notes on Hegelian Aesthetics
(Originally written February 27, 2007 in Book 16)
Hegel (1770-1832)
Last of the German Idealists
In order to do philosophy one must have a coherent framework.
Philosophy is an aspect of God's self-conscious.
Spirit is the ultimate reality.
"Rational is the real and the real is the rational".
Art is one of the three modes of expressing the Absolute Spirit:
1. Art
2. Religion
3. Philosophy
To understand Absolute Spirit one must first understand:
1) Subjective Spirit - known introspectively
2) Objective Spirit - the concrete world is spirit objectified
Dialectical Method
Thesis
Antithesis
Synthesis
The Dialectical method is how Hegel understood all phenomena.
Art precedes from Spirit. Art is part of the absolute's self-manifestation of thought.
Inspiration is a subjective thing in art, but the expression of that inspiration through the work of art is an objectification of a subjective inspiration.
Art is aiming at unifying the subjective and objective
Three types of Art:
Symbolic - sensors element dominates
Romantic - ideas dominate the sensuous part
Classical - a harmony of idea and sensuous part
Architecture is the paradigm of symbolic art.
Sculpture is the paradigm of classical art.
Romantic art is the quintessential art of Christendom, the true Religion.
Art is wasting its time if it is solely imitating nature.
The purpose of art is transcendent. Art is a way spirit is getting to know itself.
Hegelianism continues on through:
1. Marxism
2. Process Theory
3. John Dewey
Dewey held each art form has its own language.
Dewey states that since art always challenges conventions art is essentially liberal and is about producing something new and different.
Hegel (1770-1832)
Last of the German Idealists
In order to do philosophy one must have a coherent framework.
Philosophy is an aspect of God's self-conscious.
Spirit is the ultimate reality.
"Rational is the real and the real is the rational".
Art is one of the three modes of expressing the Absolute Spirit:
1. Art
2. Religion
3. Philosophy
To understand Absolute Spirit one must first understand:
1) Subjective Spirit - known introspectively
2) Objective Spirit - the concrete world is spirit objectified
Dialectical Method
Thesis
Antithesis
Synthesis
The Dialectical method is how Hegel understood all phenomena.
Art precedes from Spirit. Art is part of the absolute's self-manifestation of thought.
Inspiration is a subjective thing in art, but the expression of that inspiration through the work of art is an objectification of a subjective inspiration.
Art is aiming at unifying the subjective and objective
Three types of Art:
Symbolic - sensors element dominates
Romantic - ideas dominate the sensuous part
Classical - a harmony of idea and sensuous part
Architecture is the paradigm of symbolic art.
Sculpture is the paradigm of classical art.
Romantic art is the quintessential art of Christendom, the true Religion.
Art is wasting its time if it is solely imitating nature.
The purpose of art is transcendent. Art is a way spirit is getting to know itself.
Hegelianism continues on through:
1. Marxism
2. Process Theory
3. John Dewey
Dewey held each art form has its own language.
Dewey states that since art always challenges conventions art is essentially liberal and is about producing something new and different.
Thursday, November 2, 2006
What is this thing called science? Ch. 5 (A)
(Originally written November 2, 2006 in Book 8)
What is this thing called science?
A. Chalmers
Ch. 5 - Introducing Falsificationism
Introduction
Popper was the most forceful advocate of falsificationism.
Educated in Vienna in the 1920's (the heyday of Logical Positivism)
Rudolph Carnap (a positivist) had a large following and his supporters clashed with Popper's until the 1960's.
Popper became disenchanted with inductivism because of the Freudian and Marxists and their using it in their theories to make all facts fit into their systems. These systems appeared to be powerful because they were affirmed by a wide variety of facts, but could neither prove anything nor disprove anything.
Popper claimed that true scientific theories are falsifiable.
Falsficationism freely admits that observation is guided by and presupposes theory.
Science is to progress by trial and error and by conjectures and refutations.
Theory in falsification cannot be true, but it can be hopefully said to be the best available.
A logical point in favor of falsificationism
Some theories can be shown to be false through the results of observation and experiment.
This has a logical flavor to it.
The falsity of universal statements can be deduced from suitable singular statements.
What is this thing called science?
A. Chalmers
Ch. 5 - Introducing Falsificationism
Introduction
Popper was the most forceful advocate of falsificationism.
Educated in Vienna in the 1920's (the heyday of Logical Positivism)
Rudolph Carnap (a positivist) had a large following and his supporters clashed with Popper's until the 1960's.
Popper became disenchanted with inductivism because of the Freudian and Marxists and their using it in their theories to make all facts fit into their systems. These systems appeared to be powerful because they were affirmed by a wide variety of facts, but could neither prove anything nor disprove anything.
Popper claimed that true scientific theories are falsifiable.
Falsficationism freely admits that observation is guided by and presupposes theory.
Science is to progress by trial and error and by conjectures and refutations.
Theory in falsification cannot be true, but it can be hopefully said to be the best available.
A logical point in favor of falsificationism
Some theories can be shown to be false through the results of observation and experiment.
This has a logical flavor to it.
The falsity of universal statements can be deduced from suitable singular statements.
Saturday, July 22, 2006
St. Augustine's Philosophy and Theology
(Originally written July 22, 2006 in Book 5)
The History of Western Philosophy
Bertrand Russell
Chapter IV - St. Augustine's Philosophy and Theology
To escape the madness of metaphysics and thoroughly infuriate myself by reading an attack on one of the greatest men in human history. Russell will only focus on what he considers important in Augustine:
1. Augustine's pure philosophy, especially his theory of time
2. Augustine's philosophy of history (developed in City of God)
3. Augustine's theory of salvation, against Pelagius
Pure Philosophy
Augustine is not preoccupied with pure philosophy, mostly he concerns himself with theology. But he shows immense talent in philosophy when he does.
Augustine was the first philosopher (of many) to speculate with a necessity of matching speculation and Scriptures.
Origen (an earlier Christian philosopher) differed from Augustine in that Origen kept Christianity and Platonism separate while Augustine grated Platonism into Christianity.
The most purely philosophical book is the 11th book of Confessions. Most contemporary Confessions end at Book 10 because that is where the biographical part ends.
Augustine remarks that the Genesis of account of creation (ex nihilo, out of nothing) was completely foreign to Greek thought. Greeks believed God formed preexisting matter. Christianity and Judaism holds God created matter, then simultaneously formed it. The Greek view of creation has reappeared since the dawn of Christianity and has led to pantheism.
Augustine asks if God created the world ex nihilo then why didn't he do it sooner? Augustine states that there was no sooner before creation because time was created at the same point as all creation.
God is eternal; He is timeless. In God there is no past or future, only eternal present.
"God's eternity is exempt from the relation of time; all time is present to Him at once" (Russell, 353).
When Augustine refers to time he has an intriguing relativistic theory. Time can only be measured as it is passing. The past and future is not really 'is', only the present really is. But there really is a past and future.
Augustine says that the past or future is considered at the present through memory or expectation.
He states that there are three times:
1. A present of things past (memory)
2. A present of things present (sight)
3. A present of things future (expectation)
He confesses to God that he is perplexed by time and asks for enlightenment. Without fully understanding time, see does believe that is subjective.
Time is in the human mind and time exists only because created beings exist.
Augustine's theory of time seems to anticipate at least three things;
1) Kant's theory of subjective time
2) Descartes' cogito
3) Descartes' reply to Gassendi's ambulo ergo sum.
"As a philosopher, therefore, Augustine deserves a high place" (Russell, 355).
The City of God
When Rome was sacked by the Goths in 410 the Roman pagans attributed the defeat to the abandonment of the ancient religions. The City of God was an answer to this accusation.
"Like some other very great books, it composes itself in the memory of those who have read it, into something better than at first appears in rereading" (Russell, 355).
Russell holds that the book contains "a great deal that hardly anyone at present day can accept" (Russell, 355).
Russell does hold that it remains inspirational today and can be restated in non-theological terms.
Linehan - Thus destroying the meaning and value of the book.
In the book Augustine states that worse things then the sacking of Rome occurred prior to the Christian age. He also said that Christianity kept the sacking from being as brutal as it could have been (the Goths were Christians).
He says that not all sins are punished on earth, thus the Last Judgment.
All that Christians endured virtuously would lead to their edification eventually.
Temporal losses for Christians does not cause loss of anything of value for them.
Nothing can interfere with the resurrection of the body.
Virginity lost through rape doesn't diminish chastity. Chastity is a virtue of the mind. Virginity and chastity can be lost even without the physical act. It can be lost in the mind.
Suicide is condemned by Augustine. Even if one commits suicide to avoid the loss of virginity it is still a sin. Apparently Lucretia (a woman in Rome) committed suicide for this reason.
He says that rape, if enjoyed, becomes sinful for the woman.
He condemns the pagan gods. He claims that it would be better to worship a virtuous man than a heathen god.
Christians have a constant sanctuary in the pilgrim City of God.
In this world, the city of earth and the city of heaven are intermingled.
Augustine holds Greek philosophers as partially right.
He holds that the philosophers could not overthrow the pagan gods because their moral instructions were weak due to the wickedness of their gods.
Augustine believed the heathen gods existed, but were devils.
He held astrology as to be both wicked and false. He proves this through the fortunes of twins who have the identical zodiac sign.
God has foreknowledge of man's sins, but God's foreknowledge does not cause man's sins.
Virtuosity does not bring unhappiness; even if Christians are unfortunate, they still can be happy.
Augustine holds Plato in higher regards than any other philosopher. Augustine credits Plato with a number of things:
1) Plato's belief that God was Spirit, not material.
2) Plato's belief that perception is not the source of truth.
3) Platonic logic and ethics are closest to Christianity
Augustine aslo credits Plotinus as being the best comprehender of Plato. Plotinus lived slightly before Augustine.
Augustine considered Aristotle lower than Plato, but better than all the others.
He condemned both Plato and Aristotle for believing that all the gods were good. He condemned the Stoics for condemning all passions because Christian passions can lead to virtue.
He held that Plutonists were right about God, wrong about gods and wrong in denying the Incarnation.
Augustine holds the Platonic view that the sensible world is inferior to the super-sensible world.
He believed that Knowledge of God comes only through Christ. Certain things can be learned through reason, but religious knowledge must come through Scriptures.
Time and space prior to creation should not be considered because it is pointless.
Everything blessed is eternal, but everything eternal is not blessed (hell and satan).
He denounces Origen's view of souls being put into bodies as punishment.
He believed the world was created in 6 days because 6 is a perfect number (i.e. equal to the sum of its factors).
He believed that there are good and bad angels, but bad angels do not have an essence contrary to God.
"God's enemies are not so by nature, but by will. The vicious will has no efficient cause, but only a deficient one; it is not an effect, but a defect" (Russell, 359).
He held the the world was less than 6,000 years old and history is not cyclical.
Sin caused death. If there were no sin there would be no death. Sin caused both physical and eternal death. Eternal death is damnation.
Bodies in heaven will be spiritual, but not spirits. They will be weightless. Men will have male bodies; women will have female ones. People who die in infancy will have adult bodies.
Adam's sin brought eternal death to all mankind; God's grace freed them from it.
Augustine contributes sin to the mind, contrary to flesh as Platonism and Manichaeism holds.
Sex in marriage is not sinful, provided procreation is the reason for it. Married men are virtuous if they love without lust. Sex, even in marriage is associated with shame because of Adam's sin. Lust is shameful because it is independent from the will. Sexual intercourse can occur without lust. "The need of lust in sexual intercourse is a punishment for Adam's sin, but for which sex might have been divorced from pleasure" (Russell, 360).
Asceticism dislikes sex because of its independence of the will. Virtue demands a complete control of the will over the body. This control does not suffice to make sex possible.
He denounced skepticism.
He held that virtue is inextricably connected with Christianity. Pagan virtue is too marred by the heathen gods to be true virtue.
He believes in predestination. All men deserve damnation, so any receiving salvation is merciful. The rest perish justly.
The influential part of the book is that the State can only be part of the City of God if it submits to the Church in all religious matters. The theocratic implications of Augustine's theory lasted until the Reformation.
Russell states that Marx used Augustine in socialism:
YHWH = Dialectical Materialism
The Messiah = Marx
The Elect = The Proletariat
The Church = The Communist Party
The Second Coming = The Revolution
Hell = Punishment of the Capitalists
The Millennium = The Communist Commonwealth
The Pelagian Controversy
Pelagius was a Welshman and less fanatical than most of his contemporaries. He believed in free-will and questioned the doctrine of Original Sin. He believed that virtue occurs through man's own moral effort.
Augustine convinced Catholic Christianity to hold Pelagius as a heretic.
Augustine argued men were incapable of free-will after the Fall and that virtue was only acquired through God's grace. Augustine held that damnation proved God's justice and salvation proved His mercy. Both proved God's goodness.
Augustine's views were adopted by Calvin and had their root in Paul (especially in Romans).
"A great deal of what is most ferocious in the medieval Church is traceable to his sense of universal guilt" (Russell, 365).
The History of Western Philosophy
Bertrand Russell
Chapter IV - St. Augustine's Philosophy and Theology
To escape the madness of metaphysics and thoroughly infuriate myself by reading an attack on one of the greatest men in human history. Russell will only focus on what he considers important in Augustine:
1. Augustine's pure philosophy, especially his theory of time
2. Augustine's philosophy of history (developed in City of God)
3. Augustine's theory of salvation, against Pelagius
Pure Philosophy
Augustine is not preoccupied with pure philosophy, mostly he concerns himself with theology. But he shows immense talent in philosophy when he does.
Augustine was the first philosopher (of many) to speculate with a necessity of matching speculation and Scriptures.
Origen (an earlier Christian philosopher) differed from Augustine in that Origen kept Christianity and Platonism separate while Augustine grated Platonism into Christianity.
The most purely philosophical book is the 11th book of Confessions. Most contemporary Confessions end at Book 10 because that is where the biographical part ends.
Augustine remarks that the Genesis of account of creation (ex nihilo, out of nothing) was completely foreign to Greek thought. Greeks believed God formed preexisting matter. Christianity and Judaism holds God created matter, then simultaneously formed it. The Greek view of creation has reappeared since the dawn of Christianity and has led to pantheism.
Augustine asks if God created the world ex nihilo then why didn't he do it sooner? Augustine states that there was no sooner before creation because time was created at the same point as all creation.
God is eternal; He is timeless. In God there is no past or future, only eternal present.
"God's eternity is exempt from the relation of time; all time is present to Him at once" (Russell, 353).
When Augustine refers to time he has an intriguing relativistic theory. Time can only be measured as it is passing. The past and future is not really 'is', only the present really is. But there really is a past and future.
Augustine says that the past or future is considered at the present through memory or expectation.
He states that there are three times:
1. A present of things past (memory)
2. A present of things present (sight)
3. A present of things future (expectation)
He confesses to God that he is perplexed by time and asks for enlightenment. Without fully understanding time, see does believe that is subjective.
Time is in the human mind and time exists only because created beings exist.
Augustine's theory of time seems to anticipate at least three things;
1) Kant's theory of subjective time
2) Descartes' cogito
3) Descartes' reply to Gassendi's ambulo ergo sum.
"As a philosopher, therefore, Augustine deserves a high place" (Russell, 355).
The City of God
When Rome was sacked by the Goths in 410 the Roman pagans attributed the defeat to the abandonment of the ancient religions. The City of God was an answer to this accusation.
"Like some other very great books, it composes itself in the memory of those who have read it, into something better than at first appears in rereading" (Russell, 355).
Russell holds that the book contains "a great deal that hardly anyone at present day can accept" (Russell, 355).
Russell does hold that it remains inspirational today and can be restated in non-theological terms.
Linehan - Thus destroying the meaning and value of the book.
In the book Augustine states that worse things then the sacking of Rome occurred prior to the Christian age. He also said that Christianity kept the sacking from being as brutal as it could have been (the Goths were Christians).
He says that not all sins are punished on earth, thus the Last Judgment.
All that Christians endured virtuously would lead to their edification eventually.
Temporal losses for Christians does not cause loss of anything of value for them.
Nothing can interfere with the resurrection of the body.
Virginity lost through rape doesn't diminish chastity. Chastity is a virtue of the mind. Virginity and chastity can be lost even without the physical act. It can be lost in the mind.
Suicide is condemned by Augustine. Even if one commits suicide to avoid the loss of virginity it is still a sin. Apparently Lucretia (a woman in Rome) committed suicide for this reason.
He says that rape, if enjoyed, becomes sinful for the woman.
He condemns the pagan gods. He claims that it would be better to worship a virtuous man than a heathen god.
Christians have a constant sanctuary in the pilgrim City of God.
In this world, the city of earth and the city of heaven are intermingled.
Augustine holds Greek philosophers as partially right.
He holds that the philosophers could not overthrow the pagan gods because their moral instructions were weak due to the wickedness of their gods.
Augustine believed the heathen gods existed, but were devils.
He held astrology as to be both wicked and false. He proves this through the fortunes of twins who have the identical zodiac sign.
God has foreknowledge of man's sins, but God's foreknowledge does not cause man's sins.
Virtuosity does not bring unhappiness; even if Christians are unfortunate, they still can be happy.
Augustine holds Plato in higher regards than any other philosopher. Augustine credits Plato with a number of things:
1) Plato's belief that God was Spirit, not material.
2) Plato's belief that perception is not the source of truth.
3) Platonic logic and ethics are closest to Christianity
Augustine aslo credits Plotinus as being the best comprehender of Plato. Plotinus lived slightly before Augustine.
Augustine considered Aristotle lower than Plato, but better than all the others.
He condemned both Plato and Aristotle for believing that all the gods were good. He condemned the Stoics for condemning all passions because Christian passions can lead to virtue.
He held that Plutonists were right about God, wrong about gods and wrong in denying the Incarnation.
Augustine holds the Platonic view that the sensible world is inferior to the super-sensible world.
He believed that Knowledge of God comes only through Christ. Certain things can be learned through reason, but religious knowledge must come through Scriptures.
Time and space prior to creation should not be considered because it is pointless.
Everything blessed is eternal, but everything eternal is not blessed (hell and satan).
He denounces Origen's view of souls being put into bodies as punishment.
He believed the world was created in 6 days because 6 is a perfect number (i.e. equal to the sum of its factors).
He believed that there are good and bad angels, but bad angels do not have an essence contrary to God.
"God's enemies are not so by nature, but by will. The vicious will has no efficient cause, but only a deficient one; it is not an effect, but a defect" (Russell, 359).
He held the the world was less than 6,000 years old and history is not cyclical.
Sin caused death. If there were no sin there would be no death. Sin caused both physical and eternal death. Eternal death is damnation.
Bodies in heaven will be spiritual, but not spirits. They will be weightless. Men will have male bodies; women will have female ones. People who die in infancy will have adult bodies.
Adam's sin brought eternal death to all mankind; God's grace freed them from it.
Augustine contributes sin to the mind, contrary to flesh as Platonism and Manichaeism holds.
Sex in marriage is not sinful, provided procreation is the reason for it. Married men are virtuous if they love without lust. Sex, even in marriage is associated with shame because of Adam's sin. Lust is shameful because it is independent from the will. Sexual intercourse can occur without lust. "The need of lust in sexual intercourse is a punishment for Adam's sin, but for which sex might have been divorced from pleasure" (Russell, 360).
Asceticism dislikes sex because of its independence of the will. Virtue demands a complete control of the will over the body. This control does not suffice to make sex possible.
He denounced skepticism.
He held that virtue is inextricably connected with Christianity. Pagan virtue is too marred by the heathen gods to be true virtue.
He believes in predestination. All men deserve damnation, so any receiving salvation is merciful. The rest perish justly.
The influential part of the book is that the State can only be part of the City of God if it submits to the Church in all religious matters. The theocratic implications of Augustine's theory lasted until the Reformation.
Russell states that Marx used Augustine in socialism:
YHWH = Dialectical Materialism
The Messiah = Marx
The Elect = The Proletariat
The Church = The Communist Party
The Second Coming = The Revolution
Hell = Punishment of the Capitalists
The Millennium = The Communist Commonwealth
The Pelagian Controversy
Pelagius was a Welshman and less fanatical than most of his contemporaries. He believed in free-will and questioned the doctrine of Original Sin. He believed that virtue occurs through man's own moral effort.
Augustine convinced Catholic Christianity to hold Pelagius as a heretic.
Augustine argued men were incapable of free-will after the Fall and that virtue was only acquired through God's grace. Augustine held that damnation proved God's justice and salvation proved His mercy. Both proved God's goodness.
Augustine's views were adopted by Calvin and had their root in Paul (especially in Romans).
"A great deal of what is most ferocious in the medieval Church is traceable to his sense of universal guilt" (Russell, 365).
Wednesday, February 15, 2006
Notes on Creation
(Originally written February 15, 2006)
1) What famous 4th century theologian likened the Trinity to "the lover, the loved and love"?
- Augustine
2) The notion that creation consisted of God's giving form to pre-existent matter was taught by the great third century theologian?
- Origen
3) Which Catholic saint of the Middle Ages wrote the hymn that included "Brother sun" and "Sister moon"?
- Francis of Assisi
4) True or False: The Bible teaches that "virtue is its own reward"
The Doctrine of Creation
Biblical view of creation
creation "ex nihilo" (out of nothing)
First article of Apostles and Nicene creeds
(counters Marcion's notion of two gods: Jewish (Old Testament) and Christian (New Testament)
God of Creation is the God of redemption
Ancient views of creation
Greek Philosophy - ex nihilo, nihil fit (out of nothing cometh nothing)
Creation: god gave form to eternal matter
Dualism - Spirit & Matter
Bible - only God is eternal
Pantheism (Hinduism, etc.)
All is God - monism
Monism - only spirit truly exists
god is to the world as the soul is to the body
Bible: God transcends the world
Dialectical materialism (Marx) vs. Bible
Universe: no beginning; material ends
Bible: Matter created for spiritual ends
1) What famous 4th century theologian likened the Trinity to "the lover, the loved and love"?
- Augustine
2) The notion that creation consisted of God's giving form to pre-existent matter was taught by the great third century theologian?
- Origen
3) Which Catholic saint of the Middle Ages wrote the hymn that included "Brother sun" and "Sister moon"?
- Francis of Assisi
4) True or False: The Bible teaches that "virtue is its own reward"
The Doctrine of Creation
Biblical view of creation
creation "ex nihilo" (out of nothing)
First article of Apostles and Nicene creeds
(counters Marcion's notion of two gods: Jewish (Old Testament) and Christian (New Testament)
God of Creation is the God of redemption
Ancient views of creation
Greek Philosophy - ex nihilo, nihil fit (out of nothing cometh nothing)
Creation: god gave form to eternal matter
Dualism - Spirit & Matter
Bible - only God is eternal
Pantheism (Hinduism, etc.)
All is God - monism
Monism - only spirit truly exists
god is to the world as the soul is to the body
Bible: God transcends the world
Dialectical materialism (Marx) vs. Bible
Universe: no beginning; material ends
Bible: Matter created for spiritual ends
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