Entire Phil

8/3/2019 Entire Phil

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This presentation is available for you under the following (eminentlyreasonable!) conditions. I gladly grant to anyone who wants it a freelicence to use this material for non-profit Christian teaching or for

education. I require that I, Mike Fuller, am acknowledged on eachoccasion of use as the author of this material,and that it is not altered in any way.

The images used in the presentation are (to the best of myknowledge) either copyright free, or (particularly the photographs)

my own copyright, and may not be used for any other purpose.

There is no charge made for this material, but any gifts youmay choose to give are gladly received. These will be used tofinance my continued exercise of ministry, particularly the

encouragement of pastors in developing world countries

Please send any such gifts to me at:

Mike Fuller, 87 Middleton Road, Banbury, Oxon. OX16 3QS, UK

or donate through PayPal at www.mikefuller.org.uk


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TheEntire History

of

WesternPhilosophy

inFifty Minutes


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if (the bestphilosophy)doesnt seempeculiar you

havent

understood itEdward Craig


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The Entire History of Western Philosophy in 50 Minutes

Philosophy: the love of Wisdom

especially questions about ultimate reality

why things are the way they are

making sense of life

thinking about thinking

Bertrand Russell

the no-mans landbetween science and

theology, exposed to attack

from both sides


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as soon as you start to comment onphilosophy

you have startedto philosophise!


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Much of the story of philosophy is indialogue with Christian faith.

Can you prove that God exists?

Why is there evil in the world?Can miracles happen?Is there life after death?

Is experience useful evidence?

What is good?Can we describe ultimate reality

with ordinary words?


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The existenceof God

The questionof miracle

The question of

life after death

Threeimportant

themes


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1000 BCE 500 BCE 0 500 CE 1000 CE 1500 CE 2000 CE

Era or school Philosopher

Key point

Key point

Key point


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1000 BCE 500 BCE 0 500 CE 1000 CE 1500 CE 2000 CE

Presocratic Thalesc. 620 540 BCE

Thinking about the

world without firstthinking about gods

Water the 1st

Principle fromwhich everythingcame

God in all things

Philosophical thinking before Socrates


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1000 BCE 500 BCE 0 500 CE 1000 CE 1500 CE 2000 CE

Presocratic Pythagorus570 480 BCE

First systematic

step-by-stepreasoning

Ultimate reality in

number

Philosophical thinking before Socrates


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1000 BCE 500 BCE 0 500 CE 1000 CE 1500 CE 2000 CE

Academics Socratesc. 470 - 399 BCE

Wrote nothing -

recorded by pupilPlato

Concerned withethics: what is good

knowledge = virtueignorance the cause of evil

dialectic argumentproposal, answer, counter answer

Because Plato started an Academy

The unexaminedlife is not worth

living


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1000 BCE 500 BCE 0 500 CE 1000 CE 1500 CE 2000 CE

Academics Plato

Aristocles aka Fatsoc. 427 - 347 BCE

Human being isreally soul that fellfrom the stars

Theory of ideasremembered - on earth,there is only the imperfect

Ideal forms e.g.beauty

Ideal city-state:

The Republic



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Platos allegory of the cave


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1000 BCE 500 BCE 0 500 CE 1000 CE 1500 CE 2000 CE

Academics Aristotle384 - 322 BCE

member of Platosacademy

systematic.scientific, diverseClassification of knowledge

teleology: purpose

God as Primemover

revered by Church

scholars


Nature does notact without a goal


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1000 BCE 500 BCE 0 500 CE 1000 CE 1500 CE 2000 CE

Into the Christian era Cynics: ascetic,minimise emotion

Stoics: virtuebased on good, beindifferent tosuffering

Neo-platonistsbody bad, spiritual good

Augustine 354 430Believe in order tounderstand


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1000 BCE 500 BCE 0 500 CE 1000 CE 1500 CE 2000 CE

Scholastics Anselm1033 - 1109

the first ontological

argument God something than

which nothinggreater can bethought

an argument simplyfrom thinking, not

from observation

Thinking based in Christian monasteries


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The Ontological Argument

from Greek for to be, so

concerned with being Gods definition entails his

existence

What is the better gift: virtual roses .. or the real thing?


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God is that than which nothinggreater can be thought

the concept of God exists in the

understanding God is a possible being

if God exists only in the mind and is only apossible being, then if he existed in realityhe would have been greater

if so, God is a being than which a greatercan be thought which is impossible!

Anselm(1033-1109)

The Ontological Argument


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1000 BCE 500 BCE 0 500 CE 1000 CE 1500 CE 2000 CE

Scholastics Thomas Aquinas1225 - 1274 Favoured by RCs

Influenced byAristotle

Five WaysorFive argumentsfor the existence

of God

a cosmologicalargument (4 of the 5)

a teleologicalar ument (the 5th)



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Thomas Aquinass Five Ways

1. Everything is changing

butsomething must have caused it.

2. Every effect must have a cause

3. Things come into existence, andcease to exist. There must be a cause.

4. Excellence must come from perfection

5. The harmony of things suggests design.

This all must be God!


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The Cosmological Argument

cosmos - the world or universe

based on what can be seen

concept of contingency -

dependent on something thatmay or may not happen


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The Unmoved Mover

Thomas AquinasFirst Way

everything that is in motion (changed) ismoved by something else

infinite regress is impossible

emphasis on dependency

it is necessary to arrive at a firstmover, moved by no other, and thiseveryone understands to be God.

1


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The Uncaused Causer

Thomas AquinasSecond Way

everything that happens has a cause infinite regress is impossible

emphasis on agency

There is no case known in which a thing isfound to be the efficient cause of itself itis necessary to admit a first efficient cause,

to which everyone gives the name of God

2


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Possibility and Necessity

Thomas AquinasThird Way

things come into being and later cease toexist

some contingent beings exist

if any contingent beings exist, then anecessary being must exist(the cause of the universe must be external to it and mustalways have existed)

3


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Excellence

Thomas AquinasFourth Way

in this world there is a scale of more goodand less good

this cannot be an infinite scale

there must therefore exist perfection atone end of the scale - which is whateveryone knows as God 4


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The Teleological Argument

telos - end or purpose

focus on order, regularity,benefit and purpose

uses analogy recalls Plato: all things ordered

by the mind

based on what can be seen


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The Argument from Design

Thomas AquinasFifth Way

everything works to some purpose observed beneficial results suggest there is

a pattern of direction behind this

modern example - animal migration this must be God!


Thomas Aquinas1225-1274

5


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whatever lacks knowledge cannot movetowards an end, unless it be directedtherefore some intelligent being exists by

whom all natural things

are directed to their end;and this being we call God

Summa Theologica




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The Question of Miracle


1. God does what naturecould never do

2. God does what naturecould do, but in adifferent sequence orconnection

3. God does what nature cando, but from his power


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1000 BCE 500 BCE 0 500 CE 1000 CE 1500 CE 2000 CE


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1000 BCE 500 BCE 0 500 CE 1000 CE 1500 CE 2000 CE

Scholastics William ofOccam d. 1347 Occams Razor:

Entities are not tobe multipliedbeyond necessity

All being equal,

accept the simplestanswer


1000 BCE 500 BCE 0 500 CE 1000 CE 1500 CE 2000 CE


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1000 BCE 500 BCE 0 500 CE 1000 CE 1500 CE 2000 CE

The Age of Science Thomas Hobbes1588 - 1679

materialist: God ismatter

natural state ofhuman beings = war

society prevents a

falling back to thisstate (social contract)

1000 BCE 500 BCE 0 500 CE 1000 CE 1500 CE 2000 CE


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1000 BCE 500 BCE 0 500 CE 1000 CE 1500 CE 2000 CE

Rationalists Descartes1596-1650

the father ofmodern philosophy

a philosophicalframework for thenatural sciences

a mathematician deduction(from the

reality of the mind), notperception (from senses)

Knowledge comes from logical deduction

Cogito ergo sum Ithink, therefore I am

1000 BCE 500 BCE 0 500 CE 1000 CE 1500 CE 2000 CE


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1000 BCE 500 BCE 0 500 CE 1000 CE 1500 CE 2000 CE

Rationalists Spinoza1632 - 1677

the Universe is One

mind and bodyjustdifferent ways ofconceiving this oneReality

everything is anecessary part ofthat Reality

therefore there isno free will

Knowledge comes from logical deduction

1000 BCE 500 BCE 0 500 CE 1000 CE 1500 CE 2000 CE


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1000 BCE 500 BCE 0 500 CE 1000 CE 1500 CE 2000 CE

Empiricists John Locke1632 - 1704

everything we knowis derived from

experience

the mind at birth is atabula rasa(a blank slate)

primary(objective - reallyexist) & secondary(subjective ideas in the mind)

qualities of objects

Knowledge is based on sense experience

The mind is furnishedwith ideas by

experience alone

1000 BCE 500 BCE 0 500 CE 1000 CE 1500 CE 2000 CE


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1000 BCE 500 BCE 0 500 CE 1000 CE 1500 CE 2000 CE

Empiricists David Hume1711 - 1776

anything not given inexperience is to be

discarded therefore there is

no God, self,causation, inductiveknowledge

I am nothing but abundle ofperceptions

miracles violations

of laws of nature

Knowledge is based on sense experience


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David Hume1711 - 1776

Hume described miracles as violations of the

laws of nature he said that claims of miracles came from

ignorant and barbarous people

with poor quality of testimony

who might gain from their accounts

many religions cite miracle as support for

their beliefs - but they could not all be right

Arguments against miracles

1000 BCE 500 BCE 0 500 CE 1000 CE 1500 CE 2000 CE


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1000 BCE 500 BCE 0 500 CE 1000 CE 1500 CE 2000 CE

A response to Hume William Paley1743 - 1805

evidence increation of design

the Clockmakeranalogy

an argument from

design(teleological argument)


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The Argument fromDesign


William Paley(1743-1805)

In crossing a heath, suppose I pitched myfoot against a stone I might possibly answerthat it had lain there for ever But

suppose I found a watch upon the ground I

should hardly think of the answer which I hadgiven before when we come to inspect thewatch we perceive that its several parts are

framed and put together for a purpose Natural Theolo


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William Paley(1743-1805)

analogy of watchfound on heath

could not sayalways there!

human eye design

must be a designer

Purpose Regularity

regularity, order,rule in universe

motion of planets,gravity, in solarsystem

designing principle

at work

1000 BCE 500 BCE 0 500 CE 1000 CE 1500 CE 2000 CE

Two things fill the mind with ever new


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Idealists Immanuel Kant1711 - 1776

categories forincoming sense-

data

categoricalimperative a

universal moral law a moral argument

for the existenceof God

Rationalism + empiricism

Two things fill the mind with ever newand increasing admiration and awe thestary heavens above and the moral law

within

Th M l f h E f G d


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The Moral Argument for the Existence of God

we recognise an obligation to achieve the higheststandard of goodness

and that this goodness should be rewarded byhappiness

good and happy - the summum bonum, thehighest good - ought to happen

so it has to be possible

BUTwhile we can achieve good, we cant alwaysensure happiness as well

THEREFORE there must be a God who can do this


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1000 BCE 500 BCE 0 500 CE 1000 CE 1500 CE 2000 CE


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Idealists Hegel1770 - 1831

dialectic thesis,antithesis,

synthesis

a progressiontowards absolute

truth

Rationalism + empiricism

1000 BCE 500 BCE 0 500 CE 1000 CE 1500 CE 2000 CE


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Materialists Karl Marx1818 - 1883

atheistic dialecticalmaterialism

socialism thenecessary outcomeof economic

conflict religion keeps the

oppressed quiet

Everything is made of matter

1000 BCE 500 BCE 0 500 CE 1000 CE 1500 CE 2000 CE


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MaterialistsLudwigFeuerbach1804-1872

people are scared toface up to the factthat there is nothingafter death

so they make up

the father-figurethey would like to bereal

Everything is made of matter

1000 BCE 500 BCE 0 500 CE 1000 CE 1500 CE 2000 CE


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To the present day

Existentialists: thehuman predicament(Kierkegaard,Nietzsche, Sartre)

Linguisticphilosophy:(Wittgenstein)religiousstatements notopen to truth or

falsity

God isdead!

1000 BCE 500 BCE 0 500 CE 1000 CE 1500 CE 2000 CE


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To the present day Paul Tillich1883-1965

Philosophyframes thequestions to

which theologybrings theanswers

1000 BCE 500 BCE 0 500 CE 1000 CE 1500 CE 2000 CE


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To the present day

Freud:projected order

Coplestone:

self-causing universeRussell:

just there

Dawkins:The God Delusion

Wiles:Auschwitz > God

not involved

Holland:perception

Swinburne:good testimony

Hartshorne:memory in themind of God

Hick:replica

Vardy:reprint

D s Phil s ph ff P f f th Exist n f G d?


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Does Philosophy offer Proof of the Existence of God?

No - but some more recentphilosophers have argued that there isa demonstrable weight of probability

that makes belief in God anintellectually defensible claim

How much can the discipline of philosophy


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p f p p yhelp us develop better analytical skills?

How much can we know about God bythinking, rather than by revelation?

How can philosophical thinking prepare the

human heart to understand the humanpredicament, and so be open to the GoodNews of Jesus?

How can addressing philosophical issuescreate opportunities for dialoguewith todays youth?


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