(Originally Written October 22, 2009 in The Journal)
OK Ashley, you've heard my sob stories about loneliness and depression and this new unrequited love. You've heard of the destruction of my body, the breaking of my heart and the crushing of my soul. But now let's witness my glory - my mind. How about some philosophy.
Dreadful Freedom
Marjorie Grene
Chapter 1 - Why existentialism
Existentialists insist on their essential optimism that man makes himself.
Existentialism in a sense is a reaction against the speculative idealism of Hegel.
Existentialism comes from Kierkegaard's phrase "existential dialectic".
In existentialism, existence is prior to essence. This means that the consciousness of one's own soul comes before anything else becomes clear.
Existentialism revolts against system building and focuses on more pressing human concerns.
The relation of cause to effect is measured by the efficacy of an act.
The relation of cause and effect is indistinguishable from means and end.
Sartre and Dewey (pragmatists) criticize philosophies of the past for stabilizing the norms that kept ruling parties in power.
Pragmatism and existentialism are similar in aim at first glance.
Sartre resets values from past to future. The past value is an emphasis on the bourgeois privilege whereas if values are set with the future in mind it leads to revolution.
Pragmatism fails though because fact cannot produce value. Science cannot distinguish between good and evil.
Value for Sartre lies between the way things are and the way things ought to be. The success of man (and failure) lies between the thing as it is and the thing as it should be.
The perception between the way things are and the way they should be is the fundamental insight of existential philosophy.
Values are created solely by the acts of man. What they take as good or bad, beautiful or ugly in their quest to give meaning to a meaningless world.
Positivistic ethics aims at being descriptive not normative.
As in Kantian ethics, existentialists claim there is no good or evil apart from will and there is no will without freedom.
Existentialism does not derive values from mere facts.
Some existentialists demand a return to faith in the Christian God as a necessary way out of our present moral chaos (Marcel & Kierkegaard).
Atheistic existentialists however claim that the return to the Christian God is removing the freedom of man and basing values once again on facts, though these facts are not sense-data but cosmic in origin.
Chapter 2: Soren Kierkegaard: The self against the system
The aim of Kierkegaard, his one problem was: to find out where the misunderstanding lies between speculation and Christianity.
Kierkegaard believed that the misunderstanding had its roots in the nature of personal existence.
Kierkegaard's work has a slight anti-scientific tone but it is really a revolt against Hegelian speculation.
Camus had a very strong anti-scientific tone.
Kierkegaard worries that by focusing on physiology and explaining the whole man in its scope will cause man to lose sight of the important field of ethics.
Kierkegaard argues that the system in never capable of explaining existence until it is complete and thus becoming timeless. Existence as it is happening is never complete and thus, the system is incapable of explaining existence.
Kierkegaard criticizes the systematizers by claiming that they build a palace to live next door in the barn.
The system builders acquire far flung knowledge and ignore the simple understanding of one's self, which is the only important understand.
The system, in its grandeur is deceiving. It uses wordy logical fallacies to appear logical.
Kierkegaard does not propound an orthodox form of Christianity. He denies any "objective truth of Christianity", instead stating the whole problem for every serious Christian is their own path to faith.
Kierkegaard focuses on the inwardness of the subjective journey of the one real entity (the individual) to the infinite being, known by faith.
Kierkegaard turns from the impersonal and trivial truths (though consistent) to the passionate truth realized only subjectively and meaningful. This truth is meaningful because it is contradictory.
By embracing total subjectivity, Kierkegaard renounced all abstraction and left only contradiction and paradox. Since abstraction is gone one cannot transfer through words one's experience to another. paradox is the only way and this is indirect communication.
Philosophy for Kierkegaard, like Kant is focused on the question, what is man? It deals with human problems, not the essence of cosmic reality.
Kierkegaard relies heavily on Plato, not Neo-Platonism, but the Dialogues themselves.
Kierkegaard states we live, or ought to live, in the awareness that here and now may be our last moment.
Existentialism focuses on the contingency of life.
Existentialism pays close attention to the meaninglessness that continually underlies the significance in human life.
Showing posts with label Sartre. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sartre. Show all posts
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
A Reading List
(Originally Written April 1, 2009 in the Journal)
Books to Explore
Viking History
Heimskringla (History of the Kings of Norway) - Snorri Sturluson
Voltaire
The Fables of Reason: A study of Voltaire's contes philosophiques - Roger Pearson
La Religion de Voltaire - Rene Pomeau
D'Arouet a Voltaire- Rene Pomeau
Voltaire & English Literature, Studies on Voltaire and the 18th Century
Voltaire en toutes lettres
Voltaire: A biography - Haydn Mason
Voltaire - Haydn Mason
Voltaire dans ses Contes - Jacques Van den Heuvel
Disabled Powers: A Reading of Voltaire's Contes - Robin Howells
Complete Works (Oxford: Voltaire Foundation) - Voltaire
Existentialism
Soren Kierkegaard
Jean-Paul Sartre
Martin Heidegger
Karl Jaspers
Paul Tillich
Other Books
Personal Knowledge - Michael Polanyi
Lectures on the Religious Thought of S. Kierkegaard - E.O. Geisman
Kierkegaard - Walter Lowrie
A Short Life of Kierkegaard - Walter Lowrie
Something about Kierkegaard - David Swanson
What is Existentialism - William Barrett
An Introduction to contemporary German Philosophy - Werner Brock
Existentialism - Guido Ruggiero
The Future of Mankind - Karl Jaspers
Books to Explore
Viking History
Heimskringla (History of the Kings of Norway) - Snorri Sturluson
Voltaire
The Fables of Reason: A study of Voltaire's contes philosophiques - Roger Pearson
La Religion de Voltaire - Rene Pomeau
D'Arouet a Voltaire- Rene Pomeau
Voltaire & English Literature, Studies on Voltaire and the 18th Century
Voltaire en toutes lettres
Voltaire: A biography - Haydn Mason
Voltaire - Haydn Mason
Voltaire dans ses Contes - Jacques Van den Heuvel
Disabled Powers: A Reading of Voltaire's Contes - Robin Howells
Complete Works (Oxford: Voltaire Foundation) - Voltaire
Existentialism
Soren Kierkegaard
Jean-Paul Sartre
Martin Heidegger
Karl Jaspers
Paul Tillich
Other Books
Personal Knowledge - Michael Polanyi
Lectures on the Religious Thought of S. Kierkegaard - E.O. Geisman
Kierkegaard - Walter Lowrie
A Short Life of Kierkegaard - Walter Lowrie
Something about Kierkegaard - David Swanson
What is Existentialism - William Barrett
An Introduction to contemporary German Philosophy - Werner Brock
Existentialism - Guido Ruggiero
The Future of Mankind - Karl Jaspers
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
The Characteristics of Religious Experience
(Originally written February 27, 2007 in Book 13)
Philosophy of Religion 2nd Edition
Norman Geisler & Winfried Corduan
Part 2 The Characteristics of Religious Experience
In order for an experience to be a religious experience it must:
1) Involve awareness of the Transcendent
2) Involve a person making an ultimate commitment to the Transcendent
Religious Experience Involves an Awareness of the Transcendent
Whatever the description or name for the Transcendent, there is something, real or unreal, which goes beyond the individual in which or by which he transcends his finite conditions.
Some Paradigms for the Meaning of Transcendence
Paul M. van Buren believed that all language used as God-language or its equivalent is a dead language.
Ian T. Ramsey holds that metaphors and odd words have a power of disclosure. These odd phrases, metaphors and tautologies have deeper meanings than can be linguistically expressed.
The need for self-transcendence
"Religious experience involves the need to transcend the unalterable displeasures of life" (30).
Peter Koëstenbaum's description of religion: "man's effort to do something about the desperate condition of his own finitude" (30-31).
Sigmund Freud depicted religion as the human search for a cosmic father.
Rudolf Bultmann defined religion as a human longing to escape this world by discovering a sphere above this world.
Walter Kaufmann - Religion is rooted in man's goal to transcend himself. Man is the ape that wants to be god and man is the God-intoxicated ape.
Jean-Paul Sartre believed man's project is to become God.
A human being is that which needs self-transcendence.
Koëstenbaum held that love is an "a priori category by which the religious person unifies his world and overcomes the opposing otherness and attains self-fulfillment" (31).
Religious experience characteristically involves some means by which a person can self-transcend or "go beyond his own frustrating limitations" (32)
Chris Linehan: Then would not a failure to transcend one's self be a failed religious experience, but a religious experience nonetheless?
The Necessity of the Transcendent Other in Religious Experience
In order to have a religious experience one must believe that a Transcendent thing exists outside of one's self.
Religion is an "I-Thou" relationship, not an "I-I" relationship.
The Unity of Meaning of the Transcendent
Friedrich Schleiermacher argued that multiplicity of content of experience and expression is necessary for the complete manifestation of religion.
William James held that this plurality is necessary to fit the plurality of human needs.
William James argued that all religions have three common characteristics:
1) That the visible world is part of a more spiritual universe
2) that union with that higher universe is our end
3) prayer is a process wherein work is done and spiritual energy flows in and produces effects within the phenomenal world
James held that the basic cognitive content of all religions have:
1) an awareness that there is something wrong with us as we naturally are
2) an awareness that we are saved from this wrongness by making proper connection with higher powers
Religion and the transcendent
Religious experience implies a dimension that is called the Transcendent
The transcendent is with whom religious experience happens. The transcendent is many things and not limited to any conceptualizations of a personal or impersonal God.
Religious experience always involves a transcendent dimension.
Religious experience involves both self-transcendence and a transcendent realm.
"In order to go beyond, there must be a Beyond (real or imagined) toward which as in which the religious experience moves" (35).
The Transcendent discloses itself and evokes a response from the individual experiencing the Transcendent.
Religious Experience involves a total commitment
Religious experience involves an a awareness of the Transcendent and an awareness of it as ultimate and as demanding an ultimate commitment.
In religion, individuals give a total commitment to the whole universe.
Experience is religious in nature if it involves ultimate commitment to the Ultimate.
Religious experience involves at least two fundamental factors:
1) An awareness of the Transcendent
2) a total commitment to it as the ultimate
"Religious experience is universal. It involves two basic elements: an awareness of the Transcendent and a total commitment to the Transcendent" (39).
The Transcendent is necessary to the fulfillment of man's fundamental drive to transcend.
Philosophy of Religion 2nd Edition
Norman Geisler & Winfried Corduan
Part 2 The Characteristics of Religious Experience
In order for an experience to be a religious experience it must:
1) Involve awareness of the Transcendent
2) Involve a person making an ultimate commitment to the Transcendent
Religious Experience Involves an Awareness of the Transcendent
Whatever the description or name for the Transcendent, there is something, real or unreal, which goes beyond the individual in which or by which he transcends his finite conditions.
Some Paradigms for the Meaning of Transcendence
Paul M. van Buren believed that all language used as God-language or its equivalent is a dead language.
Ian T. Ramsey holds that metaphors and odd words have a power of disclosure. These odd phrases, metaphors and tautologies have deeper meanings than can be linguistically expressed.
The need for self-transcendence
"Religious experience involves the need to transcend the unalterable displeasures of life" (30).
Peter Koëstenbaum's description of religion: "man's effort to do something about the desperate condition of his own finitude" (30-31).
Sigmund Freud depicted religion as the human search for a cosmic father.
Rudolf Bultmann defined religion as a human longing to escape this world by discovering a sphere above this world.
Walter Kaufmann - Religion is rooted in man's goal to transcend himself. Man is the ape that wants to be god and man is the God-intoxicated ape.
Jean-Paul Sartre believed man's project is to become God.
A human being is that which needs self-transcendence.
Koëstenbaum held that love is an "a priori category by which the religious person unifies his world and overcomes the opposing otherness and attains self-fulfillment" (31).
Religious experience characteristically involves some means by which a person can self-transcend or "go beyond his own frustrating limitations" (32)
Chris Linehan: Then would not a failure to transcend one's self be a failed religious experience, but a religious experience nonetheless?
The Necessity of the Transcendent Other in Religious Experience
In order to have a religious experience one must believe that a Transcendent thing exists outside of one's self.
Religion is an "I-Thou" relationship, not an "I-I" relationship.
The Unity of Meaning of the Transcendent
Friedrich Schleiermacher argued that multiplicity of content of experience and expression is necessary for the complete manifestation of religion.
William James held that this plurality is necessary to fit the plurality of human needs.
William James argued that all religions have three common characteristics:
1) That the visible world is part of a more spiritual universe
2) that union with that higher universe is our end
3) prayer is a process wherein work is done and spiritual energy flows in and produces effects within the phenomenal world
James held that the basic cognitive content of all religions have:
1) an awareness that there is something wrong with us as we naturally are
2) an awareness that we are saved from this wrongness by making proper connection with higher powers
Religion and the transcendent
Religious experience implies a dimension that is called the Transcendent
The transcendent is with whom religious experience happens. The transcendent is many things and not limited to any conceptualizations of a personal or impersonal God.
Religious experience always involves a transcendent dimension.
Religious experience involves both self-transcendence and a transcendent realm.
"In order to go beyond, there must be a Beyond (real or imagined) toward which as in which the religious experience moves" (35).
The Transcendent discloses itself and evokes a response from the individual experiencing the Transcendent.
Religious Experience involves a total commitment
Religious experience involves an a awareness of the Transcendent and an awareness of it as ultimate and as demanding an ultimate commitment.
In religion, individuals give a total commitment to the whole universe.
Experience is religious in nature if it involves ultimate commitment to the Ultimate.
Religious experience involves at least two fundamental factors:
1) An awareness of the Transcendent
2) a total commitment to it as the ultimate
"Religious experience is universal. It involves two basic elements: an awareness of the Transcendent and a total commitment to the Transcendent" (39).
The Transcendent is necessary to the fulfillment of man's fundamental drive to transcend.
Tuesday, December 20, 2005
Dreadful Freedom - Marjorie Grene
(Originally written December 20, 2005 in Book 1)
Dreadful Freedom
Marjorie Grene
1948
Chapter 1 - Why Existentialism?
Existentialism is (in some sense) a reaction against Hegel.
Existentialism's first principle is that existence is prior to essence.
Existentialism can come off as a more complex version of pragmatism. Both attempt to shift value from the past to the future. Dewey and Sartre have similar shifts of the definition of value. However, Sartre proposes a philosophy that supports a constant state of revolution, whereas Dewey would replace the old dogma with an emphasis on maintaining a progressive society (this is still dogmatic, just less precise).
Both systems state existence before essence, but pragmatism moves philosophy from speculation to practical outputs; whereas existentialism focuses in on a stream of consciousness. Pragmatism uses science; existentialism uses sense-data to promote scientific research.
"It is a different kind of existence whose priority to essence is proclaimed by the two philosophies" (Green, 9).
Pragmatism fails to recognize that pure facts and pure science cannot produce values. It can only add or detract from them.
Some existentialists believe that a return to faith in the Christian God is "a possible and even necessary way out of our present moral chaos" (Green, 13). The atheistic existentialist however contends that values must be founded on objective facts.
Both a return to God and a value system based on facts "seek to escape our ultimate, inexplicable and terrible responsibility for the values that we live by, by giving them a cosmic rather than a human... source" (Green, 13).
Chapter 2 - Soren Kierkegaard: the self against the system
Kierkegaard's problem was to find out what the misunderstanding was between speculation and Christianity. He contends that the problem is rooted in individual existence. (He uses the term 'speculation' as understood in Hegelian speculation).
He condemns empirical science: natural science is dangerous, especially physiology's attempt to take over ethics. He states that it is bad to treat ethics like a natural science, to make it an illusion of statistical averages.
He asks, "Do I need to know how the movement in the nervous system works in order to believe in God and love men?" (Green, 16).
Kierkegaard is afraid that by embracing natural science we will lose ourselves to it and forget that which is important, God.
Kierkegaard contends that the only important thing worth understanding is one's self.
Kierkegaard is limited by the Christian paradox: man's experience is nothingness before God, but it still fulfills his existence.
He contends there is no objective truth of Christianity.
He states that the problem for the sincere Christian is subjective. It is not to build a theological system, but to find the way to heaven for themselves. The Christian is only aware of his own personal existence and the existence of God.
Kierkegaard focuses philosophy into the question: "what is man?"
What is man?
-What can I know?
-What ought I do?
-What may I hope?
Kierkegaard attempted to fuse Plato & Christianity.
Kierkegaard and modern existentialism both held to the awareness that here and now may be the last moment as a central idea.
"Pragmatism is afraid to face evil" (Green, 27). It is also afraid of facing the ultimate puzzle of individual humanity.
Kierkegaard drowns himself in paradoxes and word plays. Some of his most profound passages are difficult to decide whether their profoundness lies in an amazingly brilliant insight or such incredibly word trickery.
Dreadful Freedom
Marjorie Grene
1948
Chapter 1 - Why Existentialism?
Existentialism is (in some sense) a reaction against Hegel.
Existentialism's first principle is that existence is prior to essence.
Existentialism can come off as a more complex version of pragmatism. Both attempt to shift value from the past to the future. Dewey and Sartre have similar shifts of the definition of value. However, Sartre proposes a philosophy that supports a constant state of revolution, whereas Dewey would replace the old dogma with an emphasis on maintaining a progressive society (this is still dogmatic, just less precise).
Both systems state existence before essence, but pragmatism moves philosophy from speculation to practical outputs; whereas existentialism focuses in on a stream of consciousness. Pragmatism uses science; existentialism uses sense-data to promote scientific research.
"It is a different kind of existence whose priority to essence is proclaimed by the two philosophies" (Green, 9).
Pragmatism fails to recognize that pure facts and pure science cannot produce values. It can only add or detract from them.
Some existentialists believe that a return to faith in the Christian God is "a possible and even necessary way out of our present moral chaos" (Green, 13). The atheistic existentialist however contends that values must be founded on objective facts.
Both a return to God and a value system based on facts "seek to escape our ultimate, inexplicable and terrible responsibility for the values that we live by, by giving them a cosmic rather than a human... source" (Green, 13).
Chapter 2 - Soren Kierkegaard: the self against the system
Kierkegaard's problem was to find out what the misunderstanding was between speculation and Christianity. He contends that the problem is rooted in individual existence. (He uses the term 'speculation' as understood in Hegelian speculation).
He condemns empirical science: natural science is dangerous, especially physiology's attempt to take over ethics. He states that it is bad to treat ethics like a natural science, to make it an illusion of statistical averages.
He asks, "Do I need to know how the movement in the nervous system works in order to believe in God and love men?" (Green, 16).
Kierkegaard is afraid that by embracing natural science we will lose ourselves to it and forget that which is important, God.
Kierkegaard contends that the only important thing worth understanding is one's self.
Kierkegaard is limited by the Christian paradox: man's experience is nothingness before God, but it still fulfills his existence.
He contends there is no objective truth of Christianity.
He states that the problem for the sincere Christian is subjective. It is not to build a theological system, but to find the way to heaven for themselves. The Christian is only aware of his own personal existence and the existence of God.
Kierkegaard focuses philosophy into the question: "what is man?"
What is man?
-What can I know?
-What ought I do?
-What may I hope?
Kierkegaard attempted to fuse Plato & Christianity.
Kierkegaard and modern existentialism both held to the awareness that here and now may be the last moment as a central idea.
"Pragmatism is afraid to face evil" (Green, 27). It is also afraid of facing the ultimate puzzle of individual humanity.
Kierkegaard drowns himself in paradoxes and word plays. Some of his most profound passages are difficult to decide whether their profoundness lies in an amazingly brilliant insight or such incredibly word trickery.
Thursday, September 22, 2005
Can Man Live Without God? Appendix
(Originally Written September 22, 2005 in Book 1)
Can Man Live Without God?
Ravi Zacharias
1994
Appendix A
The theory that there is insufficient evidence for theism contains three logical blunders:
1. The move to atheism by default is not an academically credible switch to make when there are many other choices
2. To state that 'I am an atheist because there isn't enough evidence for theism' implies a logically satisfactory defense of atheism they do not possess. They hold it even though it is logically indefensible while at the same time rejecting theism on the basis that it is logically indefensible.
3. Atheism cannot be defended and that is why it has become a softer version of agnosticism.
Nietzsche may have created an environment for Hitler, but what about the crusades under Christianity?
The difference is that under the philosophy of Nietzsche, Hitler's ideology was permissible. The crusades were a political endeavor that was disguised as an outlet of Christianity. It takes a path starkly different than that of Christ's philosophies.
Appendix B
Rene Descartes (1596-1650)
Believed that "I think, therefore, I am"
Defends the existence of God by stating that the human mind cannot come up with the concept of a perfect mind because a man's mind is imperfect. It therefore must have been placed into the imperfect mind by the perfect mind, which is God.
Defends the existence of God by stating just as a triangle by definition must have three sides, so a necessary being must exist. God is necessary and therefore, He exists.
Descartes reduced God to an innate idea.
David Hume (1711-1776)
Believed knowledge could only be derived by experience.
Anything that transcends a man's finite existence on earth is meaningless. God and creation are therefore not worthy to question about.
Believed that man has no soul
Immanuel Kant (1724-1804)
Attempted a synthesis between empiricism (British philosophy) and rationalism (Continental European philosophy)
Kant's theory of knowledge (summary): Raw material consists of the outside world which is perceived by the senses, but that is inevitably processed by the human brain. It is the mind's perception of the object that we see, not the object in reality.
Soren Kierkegaard (1813-1855)
The individual's ability to choose is of the supreme importance. Choosing God is a 'leap of faith' that affirms God's existence, but recognizes it as an intellectual absurdity.
Three stages of life:
-Aesthetic
-Ethical
-Religious
From Kierkegaard's journal: "The thing is to find a truth which is true for me, to find the idea for which I can live and die". Thus, truth is relative to the individual.
Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900)
Believed everything in life could be reduced to sheer will.
Belief in the superman. Superman was one who realizes the human predicament but who nevertheless creates his own values in the face of anguish or deprivation and can build his life in triumph over it.
Elizabeth (Friedrich's sister) called Hitler the superman
Bertrand Russell (1872-1970)
Concerned himself with dilemmas and argued against God by making the debater against him choose one of his either/or postulates.
His presuppositions were however, wrong.
Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-1980)
A leading exponent of atheistic existentialism
Shifted from existentialism to a version of Marxist sociology later in life.
Sartre's philosophy led to the bloodshed in Cambodia
Man must choose for himself and author his own values.
Argued against the existence of God by stating that man cannot find God by himself.
Possibly disavowed his life's philosophy on his death bed.
Can Man Live Without God?
Ravi Zacharias
1994
Appendix A
The theory that there is insufficient evidence for theism contains three logical blunders:
1. The move to atheism by default is not an academically credible switch to make when there are many other choices
2. To state that 'I am an atheist because there isn't enough evidence for theism' implies a logically satisfactory defense of atheism they do not possess. They hold it even though it is logically indefensible while at the same time rejecting theism on the basis that it is logically indefensible.
3. Atheism cannot be defended and that is why it has become a softer version of agnosticism.
Nietzsche may have created an environment for Hitler, but what about the crusades under Christianity?
The difference is that under the philosophy of Nietzsche, Hitler's ideology was permissible. The crusades were a political endeavor that was disguised as an outlet of Christianity. It takes a path starkly different than that of Christ's philosophies.
Appendix B
Rene Descartes (1596-1650)
Believed that "I think, therefore, I am"
Defends the existence of God by stating that the human mind cannot come up with the concept of a perfect mind because a man's mind is imperfect. It therefore must have been placed into the imperfect mind by the perfect mind, which is God.
Defends the existence of God by stating just as a triangle by definition must have three sides, so a necessary being must exist. God is necessary and therefore, He exists.
Descartes reduced God to an innate idea.
David Hume (1711-1776)
Believed knowledge could only be derived by experience.
Anything that transcends a man's finite existence on earth is meaningless. God and creation are therefore not worthy to question about.
Believed that man has no soul
Immanuel Kant (1724-1804)
Attempted a synthesis between empiricism (British philosophy) and rationalism (Continental European philosophy)
Kant's theory of knowledge (summary): Raw material consists of the outside world which is perceived by the senses, but that is inevitably processed by the human brain. It is the mind's perception of the object that we see, not the object in reality.
Soren Kierkegaard (1813-1855)
The individual's ability to choose is of the supreme importance. Choosing God is a 'leap of faith' that affirms God's existence, but recognizes it as an intellectual absurdity.
Three stages of life:
-Aesthetic
-Ethical
-Religious
From Kierkegaard's journal: "The thing is to find a truth which is true for me, to find the idea for which I can live and die". Thus, truth is relative to the individual.
Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900)
Believed everything in life could be reduced to sheer will.
Belief in the superman. Superman was one who realizes the human predicament but who nevertheless creates his own values in the face of anguish or deprivation and can build his life in triumph over it.
Elizabeth (Friedrich's sister) called Hitler the superman
Bertrand Russell (1872-1970)
Concerned himself with dilemmas and argued against God by making the debater against him choose one of his either/or postulates.
His presuppositions were however, wrong.
Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-1980)
A leading exponent of atheistic existentialism
Shifted from existentialism to a version of Marxist sociology later in life.
Sartre's philosophy led to the bloodshed in Cambodia
Man must choose for himself and author his own values.
Argued against the existence of God by stating that man cannot find God by himself.
Possibly disavowed his life's philosophy on his death bed.
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