philosophy of religion

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  • Created by: Nicole
  • Created on: 18-06-17 14:11
logical positivists
vienna circle. 1920s. wittgenstein, schick, waismann. propositions only have meaning if they can be verified empirically or is a tautology
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what did wittgenstein say
whereof we do not know, thereof we cannot speak
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what did waismann say
anyone uttering a sentence must know under what conditions he calls it true, and under what conditions he calls it false, if he doesn't then he doesn't know what he has said
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two types of meaningful statements
analytic and synthetic
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Ayer- verification
Ayer would argue that God cannot be verified analytically or synthetically - so surely religious language is meaningless?
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how does Keith Ward criticise Ayer's views
just because we can't verify God, it doesn't mean he isn't verifiable: "If I were God I could verify my own existence." However, this relies heavily on the assumption of God in the first place
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how does Hick criticise Ayer's views
eschatological verification
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Swinburne's view on verification
it is possible for statements to be meaningful without verification, e.g. toys in a cupboard
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origins of falsification
karl popper- "any theory that is impossible to disprove is no valid theory at all"
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Flew- falsification
when we say something is the case we are not only stating our point but we are also denying the opposite. John Wisdoms parable of the gardener. qualification of beliefs
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Hare's response- falsification
theory of bliks. parable of the lunatic. people can have meaningful views and say meaningful statements even if they are wrong but it is their belief. religious belief is just a particular blik
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how did Hick criticise Hare
argued that religious beliefs are based on reason- sacred text or religious experience
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Mitchell's response- falsification
disagreed with Hare, parable of the resistance movement, Hares lunatic has no reason for his belief whilst the soldier has a reason for belief
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via negativa
psudo-dionysius. god is 'beyond assertion' because he is the perfect and unique cause of all things'
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models and qualifiers
ian ramsey. we take a human attribute and ascribe it to god, qualifying it to make clear that it is infinitely enhanced when applied to god
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language games
wittgenstein. to speak in any language is to play a certain game, it only makes sense in the context of a background
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symbols
paul tillich. symbols are powerful and add meaning to what they symbolise. 'the language of faith is the language of symbols'
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Tillich's four main functions that symbols perform
1) point to something beyond themselves 2) participate in that to which they point 3) open up levels of reality 4) open up levels of the soul
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Macquarrie's criticisms of Tillich
he criticised his distinction between signs and symbols and suggested conventional symbols and intrinsic symbols
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analogy
aquinas, rejected univocal and equivocal language. analogy attempts to explain the meaning of something using a comparison with something familiar and easier to understand
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aquinas' two types of analogy
attribution- we can attribute qualities to the nature of god by looking at his creation. proportion- the proportion of gods qualities are proportionally greater as his nature of proportion is beyond our understanding
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myth
bultman. we must understand certain parts of the bible as mythological. we need to demythologise the new testament
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Otto's 3 requirements for religious experience
a sense of awe, sense of fascination and initial fear. feeling of mystery and wonder
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William James' definition of re's
the feelings, acts and experiences of individual men... so far as they apprehend themselves to stand in relation to whatever they may consider the divine
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Swinburne's five types of religious experience
ordinary, extraordinary, describable, non-describable, no specific experience
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3 types of visions
corporeal- object or figure present and knowledge is gained, imaginative- dreams giving a message, communicating knowledge, intellectual- experience rather than observation of a physical object
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3 features of voices
revelatory, authoritative and disembodied
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what did Otto say about numinous experiences
it is an experience of being acted upon by something outside ourselves, a 'wholly other'. makes us aware. mysteries tremendem
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martin buber two types of relation
i-it relations: we stand in relation to an object that is entirely separate fro us. i-thou relations: a shared intimate personal relationship, mutual
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Hans Kung's view of mysticism
a closing of the senses to the outside world in order to lose oneself in God
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Evelyn Underhill on mysticism
the art of union with reality
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William James' four main characteristics of mystical religious experiences
passivity, transcience, noetic quality, ineffability
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William James's view
how psychology affects what we perceive to be a re. many accounts of re's come from pessimistic and depressive people, re's enable them to become more balanced
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Sigmund Freud's view
religion=neurosis. religion is an illusion that expressed what people wanted to believe. father figure
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Abraham Maslow's view
peak experiences can be found in any culture and have common features such as a feeling of transcending the universe and a loss of sense of space and time
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Karl Marx's view
religion as an illusion, something that blurred our vision of reality. 'the opium of the people'
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Swinburne's view
'on our total evidence, theism is more probable than not' cumulative approach. principle of credulity and testimony
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Hume's criticism
re's can cancel each other out
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Nicholas Lash's criticism
doesn't accept James' claim that god can be experienced directly instead he says that god is experienced in everyday events of life
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5 main attributes of God
simplicity, omni-benevolence, omnipotence, omniscience, eternity
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gods simplicity- augustine
god is unchangeable as change involves movement, god cannot lose or gain characteristics
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gods simplicity- aquinas
god is immaterial- bodiless
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eternity= timeless
god existing out of time
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eternity= everlasting
god exists in the past, now and will exist in the future
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timeless- Boethius
god is changeless and doesn't exist in time,eternity as 'the whole simultaneous and perfect possession of unending life'
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what does Boethius liken God to?
a spectator at a chariot race "He watches the action, but does not cause it."
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aquinas' developments on the ideas of Boethius
anything that exists in time has a past and future, god is a changeless being and does not have a past or future he is always the same, therefore god must be timeless
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Anthony Kenny and Swinburne's criticisms of timeless eternity
it doesn't make sense to say that all time is present to God simultaneously as it seems to mean that everything happens at once
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everlasting- Swinburne
he says that it fits better with the biblical understanding of God . god exists at all points inside time but he doesn't exist outside of time
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everlasting- Wolterstorff
the biblical view of god requires him to act freely i response to the actions of humans so he must act within time
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process theology
god moves through time within creation but is affected by interaction thus limiting his omnipotence, allows omniscience and free will
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D.Z. Philips- eternity
eternity is not related to the notion of temporal time but expresses the qualitative nature
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omnipotence- Aquinas
if God is eternal he has no body and so the whole concept of lifting a stone is illogical
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J.L. Mackie - omnipotence
the idea of Gods omnipotence is incoherent. for god to be omnipotent then he needs to be able to do anything and, as we have seen, there are definite limitations upon the kinds of things that god could do
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omniscience- Augustine
god was outside of time, he can see all of time at one time
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omniscience- Boethius
past, present and future in one glance including our free choices, god knows but he doesn't cause
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euthyphro dilemma
is something good because god wills it or does god will something because it is good?
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Kant and rewards/punishment
summum bonus would seem to suggest that a good god should reward
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moral argument and rewards/punishment
there must be an afterlife in which we are rewarded for moral actions
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Hick and rewards/punishment
universalist view. ultimately all humans will be saved
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Swinburne and rewards/punishment
human freedom must include the freedom to damn ourselves, god could know the future but he limits himself out of love for us
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Pascal's Wager
the idea that, if you don't know whether there is an afterlife, it makes logical sense for you to believe in God than not to believe.
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Dawkins and life after death
"the delusional 'next world'". illogical and implausible. comfort and because people fear death
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Epicurus quote
"Death ... is of no concern to us, for while we exist death is not present, and when death is present we no longer exist."
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Mark Twain and life after death
argues that a fear of death is ridiculous - we were 'dead' for millions of years before we were born, so why should we fear it?
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Flew and life after death
surviving death is a contradiction "Can a man witness his own funeral?"
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Kant and life after death
there has to be an afterlife for his moral argument to work, people ar rewarded with the summer bonus
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analogy for a soul
analogy of an SD card in a camera - it is the core of your person, but can be removed and taken elsewhere while still holding all the information you want it to.
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plato and life after death
dualist. differentiation between the world of Forms and the world of appearances. The soul has access to the world of Forms and has objective knowledge, thanks to our ability to reason. the body pains knowledge through senses
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plato quote about the body and soul
"the prison of the soul"
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plato's view of the should distinct parts
reason (to see the world of forms), emotion (ability to love, be courageous) and desire/appetite (makes us look after the needs of our body)
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platos arguments that the soul pre-exists
argument from the cycle of opposites and the argument of knowledge
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argument from the cycle of opposites
opposite of living is death, people who are dead used to believe alive so people who are alive ae people who were among the dead but experienced the change that we call being born
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argument of knowledge
learning is remembering what the soul knew already in the world of forms
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Aristotle and life after death
the soul is not something separate from us. hierarchy of living things based on souls. he doesnt know how you would know if the soul survives death
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how does Aristotle refer to the soul
as a stamp in wax. The shape is imprinted on the wax just as our souls are imprinted in us - the two cannot be separated.
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what analogy does Aristotle use
the analogy of the axe
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Aristotle's 5 characteristics of the soul
intellect, locomotion, desire, perception, nutrition
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what did Aristotle later argue
rational thought may be separated from the body after death. While emotions and sensations cannot survive beyond death, perhaps mental activity can
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hick and life after death
replica theory
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Ezekiel 37
valley of dry bones and God states that he is able to 'make these live again'
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1 corinthians 15
st paul says the body will be 'raised imperishable. Christians can all go to heaven, where there souls are given a "heavenly body"
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Swinburne and life after death
surviving outside the body is a logical concept - because we can imagine it, it is possibleHe also says that our use of language points to body and soul being separate; we say 'I have a body', not 'I am a body'.
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who criticised Swinburne's view
Brian Davis said that just because we can imagine something doesn't mean that it is true
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who agrees with Swinburne
H.H. Price. the afterlife is like having a dream, it feels real to us and we have experiences but we are not bound by time or space
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quote about reincarnation
as a person cast off worn out garments and puts on others that are new, even so the embodied soul cast off warn out bodies and puts on other that are new
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brahman
the concept of the transcendent and immanent ultimate reality
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karma
the law of cause and effect
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atman
refers to the real self beyond ego or false self. It is often referred to as 'spirit' or 'soul'
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what did wittgenstein say

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whereof we do not know, thereof we cannot speak

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what did waismann say

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two types of meaningful statements

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Ayer- verification

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