Life's Ultimate Questions

398 Pages·1999·63.25 MB·English

by  Ronald H. Nash

L i f e ' s U 1 i m a e Qu
t t
An Introduction to Philosophy
Ronald H. Nash
Life's Ultimate Questions
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Life's Ultimate Questions
An Introduction to Philosophy
Ronald H. Nash
ZondervanPub1ishingHouse
Grand Rapids, Michigan
A Division of HarperCollinsPublishers
Life's Ultimate Questions
Copyright© 1999 by Ronald H. Nash
Requests for information should be addressed to:
=-= ZondervanPublishingHouse
Grand Rapids, Michigan 49530
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Nash, Ronald H.
Life's ultimate questions : an introduction to philosophy I Ronald H. Nash.
p. em.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN: 0-310-22364-4 (alk. paper)
1. Christianity-Philosophy. 2. Philosophy Introductions. I. Title.
BR1 OO.N27 1999
190-dc21 99-26079
CIP
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Interior design by Sherri L. Hoffman
Printed in the United States of America
This edition printed on acid-free paper.
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CONTENTS
Preface 7
Introduction
1. Worldview Thinking 13
PART ONE: Six Conceptual Systems
2. Naturalism 37
3. Plato 59
4. Aristotle 96
5. Plotinus 123
6. Augustine 140
7. Aquinas 167
PART 1WO: Important Problems in Philosophy
8. The Law of Noncontradiction 193
9. Possible Worlds 209
10. Epistemology 1: Whatever Happened to Truth? 228
11. Epistemology II: A Tale of Two Systems 252
12. Epistemology III: Reformed Epistemology 272
13. God I: The Existence of God 289
14. God II: The Nature of God 306
15. Metaphysics: Some Questions About Indeterminism 326
16. Ethics I: The Downward Path 342
17. Ethics II: The Upward Path 356
18. Human Nature: The Mind-Body Problem and Survival
After Death 369
Glossary 386
Index of Persons and Topics 393
PREFACE
Itook my first philosophy course during my senior year in college. When
I left the classroom after those first sixty minutes, I said, "Wow! Where
has this stuff been all my life?" I decided to stay for another year to com
plete a philosophy major before beginning graduate studies at Brown
University. I taught my first philosophy class in 1957, and I've been teach
ing the subject ever since: forty-one years and still kicking. I estimate I
have taught more than fifteen thousand students at the bachelor's, mas
ter's, and doctor's levels.
During many of those forty-one years, I had difficulty finding a satis
factory textbook for my Introduction to Philosophy courses. All of the books
I examined and many that I used seemed to have been written not for stu
dents but for a relatively small group of philosophers. Now that it's finished,
this book is the kind of text I wish I'd had when I began teaching.
This book represents a synthesis of three distinct approaches: a sec
tion that deals with important philosophical problems and issues; another
section dealing with six major systems in the history of philosophy; and
a section that relates approaches in the first two sections to worldview
thinking. This book differs from other beginning texts in the emphasis it
gives to the notion of a worldview.
I have written this book with several kinds of readers in view: the
college and seminary students who will be using the book as a text; their
professors, who will use it as a teaching tool; and readers outside of any
academic community who want to know more about philosophy and its
relevance for their lives and their own worldview. I had at least five objec
tives in writing this book:
-To show that many of life's problems can be illuminated by phi
losophy. In fairness, I must also admit that some philosophers pro
duce more darkness than light on the subjects they discuss.
-To help students think more clearly about the problems and
philosophers discussed in this book.
-To introduce readers to several important philosophical tools,
including logic and ways of developing an argument.
-To introduce readers to examples of conceptual analysis. Many
centuries ago, Socrates noted how often human arguments con
tain an implicit appeal to some concept or term that few people
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PREFACE
seemed able to define. Twenty-five hundred years of philosophy
have not diluted the wisdom of Socrates' judgment.
-To introduce readers to worldview thinking. Conceptual analysis
deals with individual ideas or concepts. Sooner or later we have to
combine separate concepts into patterns of thought that this book
calls worldviews.
Chapter 1 introduces the reader to the idea of a worldview, to the
importance of worldviews, and to their place in philosophy. It also serves
as an introduction to the book. One of the more important things that a
study of philosophy ought to do is acquaint the reader with the role that
worldviews play in every person's thought and conduct. I want readers
to advance their understanding of their own worldview. I would like to
think that by the time readers have finished the book, their worldview
will have undergone some changes and will be better because of those
changes. I trust many readers will have eliminated inconsistent or inade
quate beliefs from their worldviews. In chapter 1, I introduce some of the
elements of any reasonably complete worldview and discuss the tests by
which we can evaluate these beliefs. One such test is the law of non
contradiction, a topic I cover in chapter 8.
Part 1 of the book covers six important systems from the history of
philosophy. The content of part 1 is significant for several reasons. For
one thing, knowing the fundamental ideas of thinkers like Plato, Aristo
tle, Augustine, and Aquinas used to be a vital part of what it meant to be
an educated person. Moreover, the study of these six systems will enable
us to tap into formative discussions of life's ultimate questions at differ
ent stages of their development.
Why, many will ask, are the conceptual systems of no philosophers
after Aquinas included? For one thing, this is not a textbook in the his
tory of philosophy. I would like to think that many of my readers will
want some day to take a history course that will introduce them to the
systems of Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz, Locke, Berkeley, Hume, Kant,
Hegel, and others. This book is intended for beginners. There will be
plenty of opportunities later in life to explore the intricacies of modern
and contemporary philosophy. Moreover, part 2 of this book covers a
number of issues that have gained prominence in recent centuries and
that owe much to the work of modern and contemporary philosophers.
Who can complain about my decision to include the systems of Plato,
Aristotle, Augustine, and Aquinas in part 1? I added the system of Ploti
nus because it marks a brilliant synthesis of the work of Plato and Aris
totle and also because it played a major role in the development of the
systems of Augustine and Aquinas. Only someone unfamiliar with the
importance of Plotinus would object. Then, to provide balance and to
close a major gap, I included the materialistic and naturalistic beliefs of
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PREFACE
such ancient thinkers as Democritus, Epicurus, and Lucretius. Part 1
begins with the chapter on naturalism because most of the core beliefs
of ancient naturalism were opposed by Plato and Aristotle. Naturalism
continues to be an influential worldview, even though many of its mod
ern formulations appear to be more sophisticated than the ancient opin
ions I examine.
Part 2 introduces readers to a number of important philosophical
problems and topics (see the table of contents). It begins with a short
examination of the law of noncontradiction and then moves to a topic
that has gained prominence only in the last thirty years or so, namely,
the doctrine of possible worlds (chap. 9). In my judgment, when this
material in chapter 9 is taught properly, students find it interesting and
exciting. When it is taught badly, however, many students will think their
professor needs a week off in either an asylum or a monastery. I consid
ered placing this material in part 1 but decided students could handle it
better after completing their study of the six conceptual systems. The
study of possible worlds comes near the beginning of part 2 because stu
dents grounded in the subject will find much of the material in the topi
cal chapters easier to understand. Professors are welcome, of course, to
tackle the chapters in part 2, including chapter 9, in any order they please.
The book contains more material than any one-semester course could
possibly cover. I think most professors will appreciate this fact. It affords
them the opportunity to vary the topics, thus allowing for some freshness
each time they teach the course. Professors who wish to include topics,
issues, and questions not covered in this book are free to supplement it
with other readings. It is always the professor's option not to cover some
sections of some chapters in class. If I have done my job well, most stu
dents will be able to grasp the major details of such omitted material
through their own study.
It is important, I believe, for students to have the opportunity to do
some reading in primary sources. These should include Plato's Phaedo,
Republic (books 6 and 7), and if time permits, possibly the Euthyphro
and Meno. Selections from Aristotle's Nichomachean Ethics, Plotinus's
Enneads, Augustine's Confessions plus selections from other examples of
Augustine's works, along with selections from Aquinas's Summa 7beolo
giae, should also be considered.
I have written this book from a perspective for which I have great
sympathy. However, I do not belabor this perspective and believe that
my approach leaves open the possibility of this text being adopted by
philosophers who may disagree with some of its content but who
nonetheless will welcome the organization and clarity of the book, along
with its usefulness as a teaching tool. Many philosophy professors have
used textbooks at variance with their own convictions, finding them a
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PREFACE
foil for their lectures. My book may well function in a similar way for an
open-minded teacher who disagrees with some of its opinions. Why
should a theistic perspective in such a book preclude its adoption by
someone who is not a theist, especially at a time in history when so many
scholars claim to be tolerant with respect to worldviews different from
their own?
I am painfully aware of the fact that I have had to omit material that
some readers and professors might hope to find in the book. Some of
this content was excluded because the book could not exceed a preas
signed page limit. Other material was omitted because, in my judgment,
it is too difficult for beginners. This is supposed to be an introduction to
philosophy, not a doctoral-level thesis or monograph. Many favorite top
ics of a generation ago have become passe. Nothing prevents professors
from covering other issues and thinkers in supplementary texts.
I owe a word of thanks to several friends who read an early draft of
the book and made many helpful comments. They include Dr. Frank
Beckwith of Trinity International University, Dr. Paul Boling of Bryan Col
lege, Dr. Carlton Fisher of Houghton College, Dr. Stephen Parrish of
William Tyndale College, Dr. J. P. Moreland of Biola University, Dr. Roger
Nicole of Reformed Theological Seminary, Joseph Stanford Goss of
Chicago, and Kevin Bywater of Colorado Springs. I also wish to acknowl
edge the splendid work of Linda Triemstra in editing the manuscript.
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