...In the following essay I will examine the arguments for and against the idea that there is such a thing as a fixed and essential human nature. This is a debate which goes back to antiquity, to the time of Socrates and to his idea that a person must endeavor to know oneself. Thus founding the first philosophy, which was the study of man and of human nature. Firstly I will examine the argument for a fixed human nature in the form of the theory of argument from design and also determinism. Then I will proceed to examine the argument against a fixed human nature, in the theory of existentialism. Lastly I intend to show the evidence, as to why I conclude that there is no such thing as a fixed human nature, and that the theory of existentialism is the plausible argument. I will examine now, the idea that all humans have a fixed human nature. Plato and Aristotle were the first to concur on metaphysics as the first point of study. They differed to each other in so far as Plato had a dualistic approach and believed in a world outside of the changeable physical world, that we exist in. He thought this world, was just a world of appearances' another world known as the world of ideals or forms. Plato thought the only way we come to know the world of forms was through the intellect. Aristotle however was concerned only with the material world and what he could learn about through his senses. He rejected Plato's idea of an immaterial reality and was concerned only with this world as the...
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...Introduction to a Christian worldview A course in thinking Christianly about the whole of life Chris Gousmett (c) Chris Gousmett, 1996 This edition is produced solely for use as a course manual and is not to be sold, copied or otherwise reproduced in any form. i Contents Introduction 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7 8. 9. 10. The nature and function of worldviews Religion true and false . . . . . . . . .. . . . 1 16 30 The problem of dualism and synthesis in Christianity Major themes in a worldview: Human nature, truth, meaning, purpose . 46 Scripture as the source of a Christian worldview The contours of a Biblical worldview . . . . . . .. . . . . . 59 70 87 104 119 136 157 Structure and direction. Sin and evil. Common grace The task and calling of humankind: to care for the creation . The nature of Christian community. A Christian view of society. The Kingdom of God: God's righteous rule over the whole creation . Bibliography . . . . . . . . ii Introduction The creation of the Father, fallen in sin, is redeemed by the death of the Son of God and is being transformed by the Holy Spirit into the kingdom of God. Herman Bavinck This series of studies is designed to provide a basic introduction to a distinctively Christian worldview that seeks to see the whole gospel applied to the whole of life. This Christian worldview makes a difference, because it is significant for our life in the world. It shapes and directs our lives in important ways, because...
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...prefaces of Bernard Shaw deal with many and diverse themes. At least four, however, concern themselves with evolutionary themes and ideas: Man and Superman, Back to Methusalah, The Simpleton of the Unexpected Isles, and Far-fetched Fables. In Man and Superman, especially the third act, the preface, and The Revolutionist's Handbook and Pocket Companion, Shaw touches on two main themes: the pursuit of man by woman and the direction of evolution, which Shaw sees as leading towards the development of the mind and brain. In Back to Methusalah, Shaw carries forward his vision of evolution as proceeding in the direction of mental development but introduces a seemingly new idea in the last play of the cycle, the antithesis of mind and body. Shaw's dualism receives its most explicit statement in the last play of the cycle although there may be indications of it in the earlier plays. The mind-body antithesis, however, derives as a philosophical problem from Descartes,1 although the antithesis also appeared in the Manichean and Gnostic heresies, the spirit, or mind, being regarded as good and the body as evil. Although the antithesis of body and mind makes its first open appearance in the Methusalah cycle, it is present, at least as an implicit assumption in Man and Superman. Don Juan continually expresses his longing for the life of contemplation, a life which is to be achieved at the expense of the body. We will deal with the presence of the mind body antithesis, and its possible source, in...
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...------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- A2 PHILOSOPHY REVISION NOTES ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- The Body and Soul Introduction * Materialism is the view that the mind cannot be separated from the body * Idealism is the view that the mind is the only reality and the body is unreal. * Dualism is the view that the mind and body both exist and are linked in some way. Plato Review Plato’s distinction between body and soul in the foundation unit so that you can make comparisons with the thinking of Hick and of Dawkins. John Hick Philosophy of Religion (1973); Death and Eternal Life (1976) * The soul is a name for the moral, spiritual self formed by the interaction of genes and environment. The human is a psychophysical person with a divine purpose. * The person shall be resurrected through a divine act of recreation or reconstitution in resurrection, rather than reincarnation as Plato would have it, through God’s creative love. * The new body is not the old one brought back to life but a spiritual body inhabiting a spiritual world just as the physical body inhabited a physical world. * Hick conducts a thought experiment with...
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...------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- A2 PHILOSOPHY REVISION NOTES ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- The Body and Soul Introduction * Materialism is the view that the mind cannot be separated from the body * Idealism is the view that the mind is the only reality and the body is unreal. * Dualism is the view that the mind and body both exist and are linked in some way. Plato Review Plato’s distinction between body and soul in the foundation unit so that you can make comparisons with the thinking of Hick and of Dawkins. John Hick Philosophy of Religion (1973); Death and Eternal Life (1976) * The soul is a name for the moral, spiritual self formed by the interaction of genes and environment. The human is a psychophysical person with a divine purpose. * The person shall be resurrected through a divine act of recreation or reconstitution in resurrection, rather than reincarnation as Plato would have it, through God’s creative love. * The new body is not the old one brought back to life but a spiritual body inhabiting a spiritual world just as the physical body inhabited a physical world. * Hick conducts a thought experiment with...
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...Pre-Socratic Period Thales of Miletus Background: Thales of Miletus (fl. c. 585 BC) is regarded as the father of philosophy. Thales of Miletus was considered one of the Seven Wise Men of ancient Greece. Thales was the first of the Greek natural philosophers and founder of the Ionian school of ancient Greek thinkers. Works/Writings/Philosophy: His is said to have measured the Egyptian pyramids and to have calculated the distance from shore of ships at sea using his knowledge of geometry. He also predicted an eclipse of the sun. In geometry Thales has been credited with the discovery of five theorems like the one that a triangle inscribed in a semicircle has a right angle. He tried to discover the substance from which everything in nature is made off and suggested water. Thales is important in bridging the worlds of myth and reason. He initiated the revolutionary notion that to understand the world one needed to know its nature and that there was an explanation for all phenomena in natural terms. That was a giant step from the assumptions of the old world that supernatural forces determined almost everything. While considering the effects of magnetism and static electricity, he concluded that the power to move other things without the mover itself changing was a characteristic of "life", so that a magnet and amber must therefore be alive in some way (in that they have animation or the power to act). If so, he argued, there is no difference between the living and the dead...
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... | |Metaphysics | |Social philosophy | |Political philosophy | |Eras[show] | |Ancient | |Medieval | |Modern | |Contemporary | |Traditions[show] | |Analytic | |Continental | |Eastern | |Islamic | |Marxist | |Platonic | |Scholastic | |Philosophers[show] | |Aestheticians | |Epistemologists | |Ethicists | |Metaphysicians | |Logicians | |Social and political philosophers | |Literature[show] | |Aesthetics | |Epistemology...
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...4 March: City of God – Utopian Reader – include a little bit on it – 22 volumes in all. Christianity – Augustine – classicly trained greek scholar. City in north Africa. Story like apostle Paul – orginially a person who persecuted Christians – north African wealth family from – found enlightenment in Christianity. Once he joined became one of the early scholars trained in greek – regulized Christian theology. Influence on western world – top four or five who influenced. Confessions and City of God his writings…look up! What’s the purpose of improving human society – complex – why do it? Can human society be made better? Why bother, what is the point, justification? Takes effort, misery involved, change, unknowns, takes energy, takes risks. HAPPINESS – justification for improving society. What do you have to have to be happy? What is happiness – PHI 101 – happiness according to whom? Lack of misery; literally the elimination of misery. Secondly, food – gives pleasure – Happiness is lack of human misery and maximizing /pleasure and happiness. Bliss 24/7 – hedonism Epicureanism – eliminating misery and maximizing happiness. The justification of utopianism = why did plato want the republic? Justisifcation for improving human society among the Greeks? Poor always poor, always unhappy, death claims everyone - it is rational to maximize pleasure and eliminate misery. Do eternally accouding to plato. Opinions – 1. Relativism is a retreat in the 20th century. Can’t...
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...A618C90F-C2C6-4FD6-BDDB-9D35FE504CB3 First American paperback edition published in 2006 by Enchanted Lion Books, 45 Main Street, Suite 519, Brooklyn, NY 11201 Copyright © 2002 Philip Stokes/Arcturus Publishing Limted 26/27 Bickels Yard, 151-153 Bermondsey Street, London SE1 3HA Glossary © 2003 Enchanted Lion Books All Rights Reserved. The Library of Congress has cataloged an earlier hardcover edtion of this title for which a CIP record is on file. ISBN-13: 978-1-59270-046-2 ISBN-10: 1-59270-046-2 Printed in China Edited by Paul Whittle Cover and book design by Alex Ingr A618C90F-C2C6-4FD6-BDDB-9D35FE504CB3 Philip Stokes A618C90F-C2C6-4FD6-BDDB-9D35FE504CB3 ENCHANTED LION BOOKS New York Contents The Presocratics Thales of Miletus . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Pythagoras of Samos . . . . . 10 Xenophanes of Colophon 12 Heraclitus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 The Scholastics St Anselm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 St Thomas Aquinas . . . . . . . 50 John Duns Scotus . . . . . . . . . 52 William of Occam . . . . . . . . . 54 The Liberals Adam Smith . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106 Mary Wollstonecraft . . . . 108 Thomas Paine . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110 Jeremy Bentham . . . . . . . . . 112 John Stuart Mill . . . . . . . . . . 114 Auguste Comte . . . . . . . . . . . 116 The Eleatics Parmenides of Elea . . . . . . . 16 Zeno of Elea . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 The Age of Science Nicolaus Copernicus . . . . . . 56 Niccolò Machiavelli...
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...Institute for Christian Teaching THE BIBLE: REVELATION AND AUTHORITY Richard M. Davidson 402-00 Institute for Christian Teaching 12501 Old Columbia Pike Silver Spring, MD 20904 USA Symposium on the Bible and Adventist Scholarship Juan Dolio, Dominican Republic March 19-26, 2000 Page 1 of 33THE BIBLE: REVELATION AND AUTHORITY 3/2/2014http://fae.adventist.org/essays/26Bcc_017 -055.htm Introduction I have not always held the view of Scriptural revelation and authority that I now maintain. Having journeyed through a different perspective on the revelation/authority of Scripture and then returning to the position that I now hold, I am convinced that this issue is basic to all other issues in the church. The destiny of our church depends on how its members regard the revelation and authority of the Bible. In the following pages I have summarized the biblical self-testimony on its revelation and authority. The major focus of the paper is biblical authority, but a short statement concerning revelation-inspiration-illumination introduces the subject, and other biblical testimony on the nature of revelation is subsumed under the discussion of biblical authority. The paper also includes a brief historical treatment of the Enlightenment and post-Enlightenment understandings of biblical revelation/authority and an analysis and critique of their basic presuppositions in light of Scripture. Following the conclusion, a selected bibliography of sources cited and other...
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...mTELECOURSE STUDY GUIDE FOR The Examined Life FOURTH EDITION author J. P. White Chair, Department of Philosophy Santa Barbara City College contributing author Manuel Velasquez Professor of Philosophy Santa Clara University This Telecourse Study Guide for The Examined Life is part of a collegelevel introduction to philosophy telecourse developed in conjunction with the video series The Examined Life, and the text Philosophy: A Text with Readings, tenth edition, by Manuel Velasquez, The Charles Dirksen Professor, Santa Clara University. The television series The Examined Life was designed and produced by INTELECOM Intelligent Telecommunications, Netherlands Educational Broadcasting Corporation (TELEAC/NOT), and Swedish Educational Broadcasting Company (UR) Copyright © 2007, 2005, 2002, 1999 by INTELECOM Intelligent Telecommunications All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the written permission of INTELECOM Intelligent Telecommunications, 150 E. Colorado Blvd., Suite 300, Pasadena, California 91105-1937. ISBN: 0-495-10302-0 Contents Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . v Lesson One — What is Philosophy? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ....
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...experience - The strengths and weaknesses of the view that claims about what exists must ultimately be grounded in and justified by sense experience. This is an analysis of the "empiricist" view: both Hume and Locke are empiricists as they argue that all knowledge depends on experience. Note that the first item asks us to evaluate empiricism as an explanation of the origin of ideas, and the second asks us to evaluate the claim that knowledge must be justified with reference to experience. Locke on the origin of Ideas AO1 Position and its implications: The mind is a tabula rasa or "blank slate" at birth, empty of all ideas and knowledge; it is gradually filled through experience AO1 Detail, Illustration: An Essay Concerning Human Understanding II.1 Locke's definition of "idea" = "the object of thinking" He gives examples: "such as are those expressed by the words whiteness, hardness, sweetness, thinking, motion, man, elephant, army, drunkenness, and others" We might say concepts rather than ideas, the basic mental building blocks of propositions or declarative sentences Ideas are acquired through two processes, sensation or reflection; each is a type of perception, the first of external objects, the second an inward perception of mental processes. Sensation The senses "convey" perceptions into the mind, or rather "they convey into the mind what produces there those perceptions". These are the ideas of "sensible qualities" e.g...
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...nd Ontology aa e ysics of Ide etaph as M rn de o Id An Ess M Marc A. Hight ay i nE ar ly Idea and Ontology Idea and Ontology an essay in early modern metaphysics of ideas marc a. hight t h e p e n n s y l va n i a s t at e u n i v e r s i t y p r e s s u n i v e r s i t y p a r k , p e n n s y l va n i a Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Hight, Marc A., 1969– Idea and ontology : an essay in early modern metaphysics of ideas / Marc A. Hight. p. cm. Summary: ‘‘Provides an interpretation of the development of the ontology of ideas from Descartes to Hume that reaffirms the vital role metaphysical concerns played in early modern thinking’’—Provided by publisher. Includes bibliographical references and index. isbn 978–0-271–03383–9 (cloth : alk. paper) 1. Ontology. 2. Idea (Philosophy). 3. Metaphysics. I. Title. BD301.H54 2008 110.9—dc22 2008002466 2008 The Pennsylvania State University All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America Published by The Pennsylvania State University Press, University Park, PA 16802–1003 Copyright The Pennsylvania State University Press is a member of the Association of American University Presses. It is the policy of The Pennsylvania State University Press to use acid-free paper. This book is printed on Natures Natural, containing 50% post-consumer waste, and meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Material...
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...political implications of Christian belief and the ways in which it may be deployed in political debate. The book is a contribution to the modern debate about the moral pluralism of western liberal societies, discussing the place of religious belief in the formation of policy and asking what sorts of issues in modern society might be the legitimate objects of a Christian social and political concern. Raymond Plant has written an important study of the relationship between religion and politics which will be of value to students, academics, politicians, church professionals, policy makers and all concerned with the moral fabric of contemporary life. r ay m on d pl an t is Professor of European Political Thought at the University of Southampton and a Member of the House of Lords. He was a Home affairs spokesperson for the Labour Party from 1992 to 1996, and Master of St Catherine's College, Oxford, from 1994 to 2000. Lord Plant's main publications are Social and Moral Theory in Casework (1970), Community and Ideology: An Essay in Applied Moral Philosophy (1974), Hegel (1974), Political Philosophy and Social Welfare (with H. Lesser and P. TaylorGooby, 1979), Philosophy, Politics and Citizenship (with A. Vincent, 1983), Hegel: Second Edition (1983) and Modern Political Thought (1994). POLITICS, THEOLOGY AND HISTORY R AY M O N D P L A N T University of Southampton...
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...Institute for Christian Teaching THE BIBLE: REVELATION AND AUTHORITY Richard M. Davidson 402-00 Institute for Christian Teaching 12501 Old Columbia Pike Silver Spring, MD 20904 USA Symposium on the Bible and Adventist Scholarship Juan Dolio, Dominican Republic March 19-26, 2000 Introduction I have not always held the view of Scriptural revelation and authority that I now maintain. Having journeyed through a different perspective on the revelation/authority of Scripture and then returning to the position that I now hold, I am convinced that this issue is basic to all other issues in the church. The destiny of our church depends on how its members regard the revelation and authority of the Bible. In the following pages I have summarized the biblical self-testimony on its revelation and authority. The major focus of the paper is biblical authority, but a short statement concerning revelation-inspiration-illumination introduces the subject, and other biblical testimony on the nature of revelation is subsumed under the discussion of biblical authority. The paper also includes a brief historical treatment of the Enlightenment and post-Enlightenment understandings of biblical revelation/authority and an analysis and critique of their basic presuppositions in light of Scripture. Following the conclusion, a selected bibliography of sources cited and other useful books and articles on the subject is provided. Appendices include: (1) a chart schematizing the two major...
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