Religion, Philosophy and Knowledge

164 Pages·2016·2.542 MB·English

by  Gregory W. Dawes (auth.)

Religion, Philosophy and Knowledge
Gregory W. Dawes
Religion, Philosophy
and Knowledge
Gregory W. Dawes
Editorial Board
Dunedin
New Zealand
ISBN 978-3-319-43499-5 ISBN 978-3-319-43500-8 (ebook)
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-43500-8
Library of Congress Control Number: 2016948825
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2016
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To Alan Musgrave, mentor and friend
C
ontents
1 Philosophy and Religion 1
1.1 The Philosophy of Religion 2
1.2 A Focus on Knowledge 3
Notes 4
Part I Religious Language and Thought
2 Religious Language 7
2.1 The Theory of Speech Acts 7
2.2 Religious Utterances 8
2.3 Direction of Fit 9
Notes 10
3 Modes of Thought 11
3.1 Mimetic Culture 12
3.2 Mythic Culture 13
3.3 Theoretic Culture 15
3.4 Philosophy and Myth 16
Notes 18
vii
viii CONTENTS
4 Theology/Dharmatology 19
4.1 From Myth to Theory 20
4.2 Expressing the Inexpressible 23
4.2.1 Apophatic Theology/Dharmatology 23
4.2.2 Metaphor and Analogy 24
Notes 25
Part II The Aims of Religion
5 A Sacred Order 29
5.1 A Normative Order 30
5.2 A Sacred Order 30
Notes 32
6 Individual Salvation 33
6.1 The Idea of Salvation 33
6.2 Types of Salvation 35
Notes 36
7 Knowledge and Skill 37
7.1 Knowing-That and Knowing-How 38
7.2 Religious Knowing-How 39
7.3 Theological Non-realism 41
Notes 42
8 Embodied Knowledge 43
8.1 Embodiment and Mind 44
8.2 The Ritual Dimension 45
8.2.1 Ritual and Acceptance 46
8.2.2 Acceptance and Belief 47
8.3 Tacit Knowledge 48
Notes 49
CONTENTS ix
Part III Modes of Knowing
Mode 1 Knowledge by Way of Signs
9 Divination 55
9.1 The Practice of Divination 56
9.2 The Theory of Divination 57
9.3 An Evaluation 57
Notes 59
10 Dreams and Visions 61
10.1 Dreams as Revelations 62
10.2 Visions as Revelations 63
10.3 Explanations of Dreams and Visions 64
10.4 Dreams, Visions, and Knowledge 65
Notes 67
Mode 2 Knowledge by Acquaintance
11 Mysticism and Knowledge 71
11.1 The Character of Mystical Experience 71
11.1.1 Mystical Experience as Direct Acquaintance 72
11.1.2 Evaluations of Mysticism 73
11.2 The Diversity of Mystical Experiences 73
11.2.1 The Diversity Question 74
11.2.2 The Intrinsic Diversity Thesis 75
11.2.3 The Common Core Thesis 75
11.3 The Mechanism of Mystical Experiences 76
11.3.1 Experiencing a Spiritual Entity 77
11.3.2 Proposed Mechanisms 78
Notes 79
x CONTENTS
12 Testing Mystical Claims 81
12.1 The Reproducibility of Mystical Experience 82
12.2 Debunking Mystical Experiences 82
12.3 The Testing of Mystical Claims 83
12.3.1 Independent Tests 84
12.3.2 Consistency with Other Beliefs 85
Notes 85
13 Self-Authentication 87
13.1 The Idea of a Self-Authenticating Experience 87
13.2 Two Types of Experiences 89
13.3 Public and Private 90
Notes 91
Mode 3 Discursive Reason
14 Ontological Arguments 95
14.1 St Anselm’s Ontological Argument 95
14.2 A Modal Ontological Argument 97
14.2.1 Modality and Possible Worlds 97
14.2.2 Plantinga’s Argument 97
Notes 98
15 Cosmological Arguments 99
15.1 A Cosmological Argument 99
15.2 Bringing Explanation to an End 100
Notes 101
16 Teleological (Design) Arguments 103
16.1 Traditional Design Arguments 104
16.2 The Fine-Tuning Argument 104
Notes 107
CONTENTS xi
17 The Role of Reason 109
17.1 Objections to Theistic Arguments 109
17.2 The Role of Arguments 110
17.3 Complete and Incomplete Justification 111
17.3.1 The Scope of the Argument 112
17.3.2 Degree of Confidence 113
17.4 Reason as Master, Reason as Servant 114
Notes 115
Mode 4 Testimony (Authority)
18 Possession and Prophecy 119
18.1 Spirit Possession 120
18.2 Explaining Prophetic Experience 122
18.3 Testing Prophetic Claims 123
Notes 125
19 Revelation and Faith 127
19.1 Forms of Divine Revelation 128
19.2 Faith as a Response to Revelation 129
19.3 Faith Within Buddhism 130
Notes 131
20 Self-Authentication, Again 133
20.1 Locke on Faith and Reason 133
20.2 The Appeal to Self-Authentication 135
20.2.1 The Aquinas-Calvin View of Faith 136
20.2.2 The Bootstrapping Problem 137
Notes 139