Definition 1 of 103
- from humanism as daunting task to humanism as hopeful resolve
- knowledge/truth: from certainty to doubt to a different basis for certainty
- ethics: from natural essence to liberty, freedom, good will
- taking the reigns of 'critique'
Descartes' new take on old issues
basing ethics on the free decision for moral action: Kant
subjective doubt as new foundation for certainty: connecting the dots of hopeful humanism
"proofs" to demonstrate God's existence: cosmological argument
Term 2 of 103
who is a radical empiricist?
John Locke
Immanuel Kant
David Hume
Rene Descartes
,Term 3 of 103
logos
- the rational order of things
- the truth of reality
- distant vs. engaged
- complacent vs. passionate
- outward vs. inward
natural things act for an end goal (Aristotle - final cause)
Descartes
Term 4 of 103
incarnate
God in flesh
Threats of punishment... but mercy
The primacy of divine wisdom
The book of acts
Definition 5 of 103
- often called the argument from design; Kant
- inference to best explanation, not the sheer existence of world, but its details, especially the
miracle of life
- attributes purpose to the creation of the world
"proofs" to demonstrate God's existence: cosmological argument
specific impact of human-animal distinction on ethics
metaphysical issue resulting from Descartes' philosophy of 'substance'
"proofs" to demonstrate God's existence: teleological argument
,Term 6 of 103
God as ultimate concern
- ideas (thoughts)
- content of our beliefs
- what thinking is/thinks
- indirect & less vivid
- cause & effect relationships in natural world (what then for morality?)
- human being as vulnerable center for moral truth
- God as 'symbol' in this - the religious imagination in us
- God as ultimate & concrete
- spiritual intuition of God
- new scientific tools reveal world as change
- Kant's question: what can we really know on the basis of reason? loss of 'contemplation'
Term 7 of 103
Friedrich Nietzsche
- 19th century, German
- Christianity is nothing other than the rationalization for impotence
- we should make our meaning, not find it in God
- 19-20th century Austrian psychiatrist & philosopher
- reduces the aspirations of religion to illusions
- interested in: "the psychical origin of religious ideas"
- issue of 'wish fulfillment'
- the goodness of divine wisdom
- wisdom ('she') again cries out in the city
- honest, clear words
- source of good ruling, justice, love
- 16-17th century: Copernicus, Newton, Galileo, & the demise of old cosmologies
- emergence of new ideas yet uncertainty
- points of reference: theoria, ethics, salvation
, Definition 8 of 103
1. good ethical principles still don't save us from life's deeper anxieties (life still feels 'daunting')
2. new 'spiritualities' emerge in 19-20th centuries to fill this void - dangerously
- faith in the secular "religions of earthly salvation": scientism, patriotism (nationalism), communism
(& there could be others today)
"proofs" to demonstrate God's existence: ontological argument
overall difference between rationalism (Descartes) & empiricism (Hume)
the allure of idealism & ideology in politics & culture
Definition 9 of 103
- metaphysics of substance: mind & body are distinct things, but somehow connected; mind is
better & more definitive of our being
- theory of ideas: thought is separate from reality, but can 'know' reality w/ greater certainty than
the sense can
what does thinking start with?
Sigmund Freud: main points
Descartes: main takeaways
the natural power of the symbolic
Definition 10 of 103
- Kant proposes that we adopt a moral foundation of disinterestedness & universality
- from 'egoism' to good will & disinterestedness
- ethics based in reason & liberty
basing ethics on the free decision for moral action: Kant
"proofs" to demonstrate God's existence: teleological argument
subjective doubt as new foundation for certainty: cartesian doubt
"proofs" to demonstrate God's existence: ontological argument
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