Download or read book An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding written by David Hume and published by e-artnow. This book was released on 2019-04-04 with total page 119 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding" is a book by David Hume created as a revision of an earlier work, Hume's "A Treatise of Human Nature". The argument of the Enquiry proceeds by a series of incremental steps, separated into chapters which logically succeed one another. After expounding his epistemology, Hume explains how to apply his principles to specific topics. This book has proven highly influential, both in the years that would immediately follow and today. Immanuel Kant points to it as the book which woke him from his self-described "dogmatic slumber."

Download or read book Hume s Naturalism written by Howard Mounce and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2002-09-11 with total page 156 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Hume's Naturalism provides a clear and concise guide to the debates over whether Hume's empiricism or his 'naturalism' in the tradition of the Scottish 'Common Sense' school of philosophy gained his upper hand. This debate is central to any understanding of Hume's thought. H.O. Mounce presents a beautifully clear guide to Hume's most important works, The Treatise on Human Nature and Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion. Accessible to anyone coming to Hume for the first time, Hume's Naturalism affords a much needed overview of the key concepts of empiricism, causation, scepticism, reason and morality that are essential to any understanding of Hume's philosophy.

Download or read book Of the passions written by David Hume and published by . This book was released on 1826 with total page 582 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals written by David Hume and published by . This book was released on 1907 with total page 202 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Divine Order the Human Order and the Order of Nature written by Eric Watkins and published by . This book was released on 2013-11 with total page 269 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume contains ten new essays focused on the exploration and articulation of a narrative that considers the notion of order within medieval and modern philosophy—its various kinds (natural, moral, divine, and human), the different ways in which each is conceived, and the diverse dependency relations that are thought to obtain among them. Descartes, with the help of others, brought about an important shift in what was understood by the order of nature by placing laws of nature at the foundation of his natural philosophy. Vigorous debate then ensued about the proper formulation of the laws of nature and the moral law, about whether such laws can be justified, and if so, how-through some aspect of the divine order or through human beings-and about what consequences these laws have for human beings and the moral and divine orders. That is, philosophers of the period were thinking through what the order of nature consists in and how to understand its relations to the divine, human, and moral orders. No two major philosophers in the modern period took exactly the same stance on these issues, but these issues are clearly central to their thought. The Divine Order, the Human Order, and the Order of Nature is devoted to investigating their positions from a vantage point that has the potential to combine metaphysical, epistemological, scientific, and moral considerations into a single narrative.

Download or read book A Humean Critique of David Hume s Theory of Knowledge written by Jeremy J. White and published by University Press of America. This book was released on 1998 with total page 194 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Humean Critique of David Hume's Theory of Knowledge provides the first full-length Aristotilian-Thomistic critique of Hume's most mature and familiar work. While giving Hume proper respect and appreciation for his achievement, Jeremy White engages in a thoughtful critique through an approach based in Hume's own method. He successfully uncovers Hume's unconscious indebtedness to his seventeenth century predecessors, including Locke and Bacon, whom he persistently discredited. White's discovery of Hume's assumptions and premises for building his philosophy provide much enlightenment regarding his ideas. The author's intimacy with the processes of Hume's mind and from where he drew his conclusions translates into a tremendous ease and comfort in gaining an understanding of Hume's epistemology and his underlying metaphysical assumptions.

Download or read book Natural Signs and Knowledge of God written by C. Stephen Evans and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2010-05-27 with total page 218 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Is there such a thing as natural knowledge of God? C. Stephen Evans presents the case for understanding theistic arguments as expressions of natural signs in order to gain a new perspective both on their strengths and weaknesses. Three classical, much-discussed theistic arguments - cosmological, teleological, and moral - are examined for the natural signs they embody. At the heart of this book lie several relatively simple ideas. One is that if there is a God of the kind accepted by Christians, Jews, and Muslims, then it is likely that a 'natural' knowledge of God is possible. Another is that this knowledge will have two characteristics: it will be both widely available to humans and yet easy to resist. If these principles are right, a new perspective on many of the classical arguments for God's existence becomes possible. We understand why these arguments have for many people a continued appeal but also why they do not constitute conclusive 'proofs' that settle the debate once and for all. Touching on the interplay between these ideas and contemporary scientific theories about the origins of religious belief, particularly the role of natural selection in predisposing humans to form beliefs in God or gods, Evans concludes that these scientific accounts of religious belief are fully consistent, even supportive, of the truth of religious convictions.

Download or read book Knowledge Belief and God written by Matthew A. Benton and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2018 with total page 356 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Recent decades have seen a fertile period of theorizing within mainstream epistemology which has had a dramatic impact on how epistemology is done. Investigations into contextualist and pragmatic dimensions of knowledge suggest radically new ways of meeting skeptical challenges and of understanding the relation between the epistemological and practical environment. New insights from social epistemology and formal epistemology about defeat, testimony, a priority, probability, and the nature of evidence all have a potentially revolutionary effect on how we understand our epistemological place in the world. Religion is the place where such rethinking can potentially have its deepest impact and importance. Yet there has been surprisingly little infiltration of these new ideas into philosophy of religion and the epistemology of religious belief. Knowledge, Belief, and God incorporates these myriad new developments in mainstream epistemology, and extends these developments to questions and arguments in religious epistemology. The investigations proposed in this volume offer substantial new life, breadth, and sophistication to issues in the philosophy of religion and analytic theology. They pose original questions and shed new light on long-standing issues in religious epistemology; and these developments will in turn generate contributions to epistemology itself, since religious belief provides a vital testing ground for recent epistemological ideas.

Download or read book Aquinas s Way to God written by Gaven Kerr OP and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2015-02-25 with total page 233 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Gaven Kerr provides the first book-length study of St. Thomas Aquinas's much neglected proof for the existence of God in De Ente et Essentia Chapter 4. He offers a contemporary presentation, interpretation, and defense of this proof, beginning with an account of the metaphysical principles used by Aquinas and then describing how they are employed within the proof to establish the existence of God. Along the way, Kerr engages contemporary authors who have addressed Aquinas's or similar reasoning. The proof developed in the De Ente is, on Kerr's reading, independent of many of the other proofs in Aquinas's corpus and resistant to the traditional classificatory schemes of proofs of God. By applying a historical and hermeneutical awareness of the philosophical issues presented by Aquinas's thought and evaluating such philosophical issues with analytical precision, Kerr is able to move through the proof and evaluate what Aquinas is saying, and whether what he is saying is true. By means of an analysis of one of Aquinas's earliest proofs, Kerr highlights a foundational argument that is present throughout the much more commonly studied Thomistic writings, and brings it to bear within the context of analytical philosophy, showing its relevance to the contemporary reader.

Download or read book The Existence of God written by Yujin Nagasawa and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2011-04-19 with total page 186 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Does God exist? What are the various arguments that seek to prove the existence of God? Can atheists refute these arguments? The Existence of God: A Philosophical Introduction assesses classical and contemporary arguments concerning the existence of God: the ontological argument, introducing the nature of existence, possible worlds, parody objections, and the evolutionary origin of the concept of God the cosmological argument, discussing metaphysical paradoxes of infinity, scientific models of the universe, and philosophers’ discussions about ultimate reality and the meaning of life the design argument, addressing Aquinas’s Fifth Way, Darwin’s theory of evolution, the concept of irreducible complexity, and the current controversy over intelligent design and school education. Bringing the subject fully up to date, Yujin Nagasawa explains these arguments in relation to recent research in cognitive science, the mathematics of infinity, big bang cosmology, and debates about ethics and morality in light of contemporary political and social events. The book also includes fascinating insights into the passions, beliefs and struggles of the philosophers and scientists who have tackled the challenge of proving the existence of God, including Thomas Aquinas, and Kurt Gödel - who at the end of his career as a famous mathematician worked on a secret project to prove the existence of God. The Existence of God: A Philosophical Introduction is an ideal gateway to the philosophy of religion and an excellent starting point for anyone interested in arguments about the existence of God.

Download or read book Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion written by David Hume and published by . This book was released on 1779 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion is a philosophical work written by the Scottish philosopher David Hume. Through dialogue, three fictional characters named Demea, Philo, and Cleanthes debate the nature of God's existence. While all three agree that a god exists, they differ sharply in opinion on God's nature or attributes and how, or if, humankind can come to knowledge of a deity. In the Dialogues, Hume's characters debate a number of arguments for the existence of God, and arguments whose proponents believe through which we may come to know the nature of God. Such topics debated include the argument from design - for which Hume uses a house - and whether there is more suffering or good in the world (Argument from evil)

Download or read book The Philosophical Theology of St Thomas Aquinas written by Elders and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2022-05-20 with total page 342 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The philosophical theology of St. Thomas Aquinas is the crowning piece of his metaphysics. Leo J. Elders studies it against the background of the attempts of the great philoso- phers of the past to penetrate deeper into the knowledge of God. While the Introduction treats the nature of philosophical theology according to Aquinas, Chapter One presents a concise history of the idea of God in Western philosophical thinking. Chapters Two and Three deal with the question of the cognoscibility of God and the Five Ways of St. Thomas. New solutions are proposed of some difficulties in the Third and Fourth Ways. The attributes of God are studied in the order of the Summa theologiae I. Chapter Seven considers the grammar of God-language. The following chapters examine divine knowledge, foreknowledge of future events, divine will and providence as well as creation. The last chapter deals with the problem of the co-existence of God and finite creatures. This study shows that the philosophical theology of St. Thomas Aquinas is a coherent whole of impressive depth and beauty. It has its basis in our daily experience of the world and the general principles of being, but its conclusions reach the summits of negative theology.

Download or read book Meditations Objections and Replies written by René Descartes and published by Hackett Publishing. This book was released on 2006-03-30 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This edition features reliable, accessible translations; useful editorial materials; and a straightforward presentation of the Objections and Replies, including the objections from Caterus, Arnauld, and Hobbes, accompanied by Descartes' replies, in their entirety. The letter serving as a reply to Gassendi--in which several of Descartes' associates present Gassendi's best arguments and Descartes' replies--conveys the highlights and important issues of their notoriously extended exchange. Roger Ariew's illuminating Introduction discusses the Meditations and the intellectual environment surrounding its reception.

Download or read book The Clarity of God s Existence written by Owen Anderson and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2008-07-23 with total page 225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Clarity of God's Existence examines the need for theistic proofs within historic Christicanity, and the challenges to these since the Enlightenment. Historically (and scripturally), Christianity has maintained that unbelief is inexcusable. If failing to know God is a sin, the immplication is that humans can and should know God. Humans should know God because his eternal power and divine nature are clearly revealed in the things that are made. And yet, Anderson argues, more time is spent on avoiding the need for clarity to establish inexcusability than on actually providing an argument or proof. Proofs that rely on Aristotle or Plato and that establish a Prime Mover or designer are thought to be sufficient. But the adequacy of these, not only to prove the God of theism, but also to prove anything at all, has been called into question by Enlightenment thinkers like David Hume. After considering the traditional proofs, and tracing the history of challenges to theistic proofs (from Hume to Kant and down to the twentieth century) Anderson argues that the standard methods of apologetics have failed to sufficiently respojnd. Classical Apologetics, Evidentialism, Presuppositionalism, Reformed Epistemology, and others fail to adequately answer the challenges of the Enlighenment. If this is the case, what is the outcome for Christianity? Anderson offers an explanation as to why traditional proofs have failed, and for what is necessary to offer a proof that not only responds to Hume and Kant but also establishes the clarity of God's existence. The traditional proofs failed precisely in not aiming at the clarity of God's existence, and They failed in this because of a faulty view of the goal of Christian life. If the blessed life is to be attained in a direct vision of God in heaven, then there is little to no reason to ask for more than the bare minimum required to get into heaven (justification). Furthermore, if the highest blessing is this direct vision, then the glory of God revealed in his work is considered as less important and even set aside. By way of contrast, if God's eternal power and divine nature are clearly revealed in his works, and the blessing comes in knowing God, then it is of the almost importance for Christianity to demonstrate the clarity of God's existence. "This is an exciting book that advances the status of philosophy of religion by analyzing and probing some fundamental issues in contemmporary philosophy and theology. The emphasis on clarity is, to me, new and fresh and provocative. I'm really surprised that the constellation of clarity, responsiblity, and inexcusability has not been examined in detail before."---Stephen Webb Wabash College

Download or read book The Logic of the Heart written by James R. Peters and published by Baker Academic. This book was released on 2009-03-01 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Philosopher James R. Peters defends the reasonableness of the Christian faith in The Logic of the Heart. He paves a middle road between the Enlightenment's worship of reason and postmodernism's emphasis on freedom and self-rule. He delves into the thought of theologian St. Augustine and philosopher-mathematician Blaise Pascal and engages the skeptic David Hume, who argued against the possibility of miracles. Throughout this process, Peters provides an alternative to postmodern thought as well as the widespread New Atheism. This work is appropriate for undergraduate and graduate students pursuing studies in philosophy of religion and historical theology. Since Peters writes in nontechnical language, readers interested in the relationship between faith and reason will also benefit from The Logic of the Heart.

Download or read book Logic and the Nature of God written by Stephen T. Davis and published by Springer. This book was released on 1983-06-30 with total page 177 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The book '... should be assured of the attention of the many on both sides of the Atlantic who are fascinated by this subject.' John Hick

Download or read book The Greatest Books of Spiritual Wisdom written by Martin Luther and published by Good Press. This book was released on 2023-12-22 with total page 8049 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Greatest Books of Spiritual Wisdom is a seminal collection that brings together the works of some of the most influential thinkers in the realm of spiritual and philosophical discourse. This anthology spans centuries, cultures, and ideologies, showcasing a rich variety of literary styles and theological perspectives. From the introspective reflections of St. Teresa of Ávila to the rigorous arguments of John Stuart Mill, and the mystic insights of Gregory of Nyssa, the collection is a testimony to the diverse ways humanity has sought to understand and articulate spiritual experiences. The selected works invite readers to explore fundamental questions of existence, morality, and faith, making it a pivotal contribution to spiritual literature. The contributors to this anthology represent a pantheon of influential figures whose thoughts have shaped religious, philosophical, and ethical landscapes across the world. Spanning ancient to modern times, these authors include philosophers, theologians, clergy, and lay thinkers affiliated with a wide array of religious and philosophical movements. By bringing together such disparate voices, the collection offers a unique cross-cultural and interdenominational dialogue that enriches our understanding of spirituality and its role in human life. Their collective wisdom underscores the perpetual quest for meaning, transcending the boundaries of time and place. The Greatest Books of Spiritual Wisdom is an indispensable resource for anyone interested in the profound questions of life, faith, and existence. It offers readers the rare opportunity to engage with the minds of some of history's greatest spiritual leaders and philosophers within a single volume. This anthology is not just a compilation of texts; it is an invitation to a journey across ages and ideologies, encouraging deep reflection and personal growth. For scholars, seekers, and reflective readers alike, this collection is a beacon of light, illuminating the diverse pathways of spiritual inquiry and awakening.