Schubert Ogden's Transcendental Strategy Against Secularism

1989 ◽  
Vol 82 (4) ◽  
pp. 447-466
Author(s):  
Winfred G. Phillips
Keyword(s):  
A Priori ◽  
Alfred North Whitehead ◽  
Philosophical Theology ◽  
Moral Experience ◽  
Necessary Condition ◽  
Process View ◽  
Charles Hartshorne

Schubert Ogden is often considered a process theologican because, drawing upon the philosophies of Alfred North Whitehead and Charles Hartshorne, he holds a “process” view of the nature of reality and of God. But the strategy used in his philosophical theology makes Ogden a sort of “transcendental” theologian as well. I refer to Ogden's argument in The Reality of God that a necessary condition of the possibility of scientific and moral activity is the kind of confidence in the meaning and worth of life that must be seen as an implicit faith in God. This faith might be characterized as innate or a priori because Ogden portrays it not as derived from, but as presupposed by, all our experience; indeed, Ogden claims that such faith is the necessary condition of the possibility of even “secular” scientific and moral experience. Thus one might see this part of his philosophical theology as pursuing a transcendental strategy of argument.

Descartes’s Philosophical Theology

2019 ◽  
pp. 208-225
Author(s):  
Igor Agostini
Keyword(s):  
A Priori ◽  
Philosophical Theology ◽  
Strict Sense ◽  
A Posteriori ◽  
The Third ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
True Definition

In this chapter I argue the following thesis: 1) Descartes’s Meditations never formulate the problem of God’s existence as it is required by the precepts of order; in particular, the only problem of existence posed by Descartes after the classification of thoughts in the Third Meditation does not concern God directly, but generally aliqua res. 2) Though Descartes qualifies the two proofs of the Third Meditation as a posteriori, they cannot be considered as homologous in their structure to the traditional a posteriori proofs: they both—and the second in particular—contain components that are truly a priori. 3) The proof of the Fifth Meditation, as it starts from the true definition of God and God’s essence, does not constitute a quoadnos version of the a priori demonstration belonging to mathematics, but is, in a strict sense, a potissima demonstration that is at least as evident as those of mathematics.

Process philosophy

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Ray Griffin
Keyword(s):  
William James ◽  
Science And Religion ◽  
Process Philosophy ◽  
Alfred North Whitehead ◽  
Equal Weight ◽  
Divine Omnipotence ◽  
Self Consistent ◽  
Scientific Materialism ◽  
Charles Hartshorne ◽  
Charles Peirce

In the broad sense, the term ‘process philosophy’ refers to all worldviews holding that process or becoming is more fundamental than unchanging being. For example, an anthology titled Philosophers of Process(1965) includes selections from Samuel Alexander, Henri Bergson, John Dewey, William James, Lloyd Morgan, Charles Peirce and Alfred North Whitehead, with an introduction by Charles HARTSHORNE. Some lists include Hegel and Heraclitus. The term has widely come to refer in particular, however, to the movement inaugurated by Whitehead and extended by Hartshorne. Here, process philosophy is treated in this narrower sense. Philosophy’s central task, process philosophers hold, is to develop a metaphysical cosmology that is self-consistent and adequate to all experienced facts. To be adequate, it cannot be based solely on the natural sciences, but must give equal weight to aesthetic, ethical and religious intuitions. Philosophy’s chief importance, in fact, derives from its integration of science and religion into a rational scheme of thought. This integration is impossible, however, unless exaggerations on both sides are overcome. On the side of science, the main exaggerations involve ‘scientific materialism’ and the ‘sensationalist’ doctrine of perception. On the side of religion, the chief exaggeration has been the idea of divine omnipotence. Process philosophy replaces these ideas with a ‘panexperientialist’ ontology, a doctrine of perception in which nonsensory ‘prehension’ is fundamental, and a doctrine of divine power as persuasive rather than coercive.

Objective Purport, Relational Confirmation, and the Presumption of Moral Objectivism

2021 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 199-208
Author(s):  
Tanner Hammond ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Prima Facie ◽  
Moral Experience ◽  
Necessary Condition ◽  
Law Of Likelihood ◽  
Moral Objectivism ◽  
Moral Facts

All else being equal, can an objective-seeming character of moral experience support a presumption in favor of some form of moral objectivism? Don Loeb (2007) has argued that even if we grant that moral experience appears to present us with a realm of objective moral facts—something he denies we have reason to do in the first place—the objective purport of moral experience cannot by itself provide even prima facie support for moral objectivism. In what follows, I contend against Loeb that granting the objective purport of ordinary moral experience is sufficient to shift a presumptive case in favor of moral objectivism, and this by constituting non-explanatory, relational confirmation that incrementally raises the prima facie probability that moral facts exist. More specifically, I appeal to a modest confirmational principle shared by Likelihoodists and Bayesians—namely, the Weak Law of Likelihood—in an effort to show that (i) at a minimum, granting the objective purport of moral experience establishes a middling scrutable probability for a sufficient but not necessary condition of moral objectivism being true, and that (ii) this moderate probability in turn constitutes evidence that makes it prima facie more probable than not that at least some form of moral objectivism is true.

THE ROLE OF ANALYTICAL APPROACH IN PLANNING OPERATING EXPENSES OF AN ENTERPRISE

2017 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 107-120
Author(s):  
Gracjan Chrobak
Keyword(s):  
Analytical Approach ◽  
Mean Squared Error ◽  
A Priori ◽  
Economic Benefits ◽  
Control Area ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Necessary Condition ◽  
Percentage Error ◽  
Accounting Systems ◽  
Logarithmic Curve

Generating economic benefits from the sale of “labor effects” precedes expenses incurrence. The basic criterion for grouping them is a nature of expense method. From the point of view of planning manufacturing processes in an enterprise, it is important to learn about the future expenses estimates, thanks to the use of one of a priori cost accounting systems. The aim of the paper is to review analytical functions for determining the estimated expenses from operating activities, to study the effectiveness thereof against the mechanical approach. The following research theses have been included in the study. Within the analytical approach, due to the non-linearity of the costs by nature, the “good” quality of their “projection” in the depicted enterprise provides a logarithmic curve. Achieving the minimum amount of mean error (ME) of this function in the control area implies the accuracy of the forecast. For the expenses, which are not determined as by nature, satisfactory prediction accuracy appears to be “supplied” by the Holt and Winters models, taking into account possibility of seasonal fluctuations. Each time the distance between the standard deviation of residuals (SE) and the root of mean squared error (MSE) is a necessary condition, whereas the minimization of mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) within the control range a sufficient condition for this fit.

Process Thought and the Eclipse of God

Philotheos ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 218-226
Author(s):  
Larry Hart ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Modern Philosophy ◽  
Martin Buber ◽  
Alfred North Whitehead ◽  
Process Thought ◽  
The World ◽  
Charles Hartshorne

Martin Buber in his famous critique of modern philosophy and psychology, described the philosophical hour through which the world is now passing as a spiritual eclipse—a historical obscuring of “the light of heaven.” This essay explores process thought as first formulated by the mathematician/philosopher Alfred North Whitehead, and then expounded by Charles Hartshorne, John Cobb, and other theologians as paradigmatic of Buber’s concern. Accordingly, it proposes, that when consciousness shifts in such a way that God becomes recognizable as immediately present, as the aura in which the person of faith lives, the eclipse is over.

The Theological Significance of Hartshorne's Response to Positivism

1985 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 573-588
Author(s):  
Colin Grant
Keyword(s):  
Human Life ◽  
Two Dimensions ◽  
Alfred North Whitehead ◽  
Central Focus ◽  
Charles Hartshorne

Charles Hartshorne is usually regarded as the developer of the theological approach initiated by Alfred North Whitehead. Justification for this view is to be found not only in the central focus of Hartshorne's voluminous writings, but also in his own references to Whitehead's accomplishments. He notes that Whitehead did not regard himself as a theologian, but rather saw his task as that of attempting to reconcile the professedly neutral burgeoning fields of science and the wider ideals necessary to civilized human life. It is in the context of this pursuit that Whitehead makes his extremely suggestive, but tantalizingly vague, comments which provide a foundation for theological reconstruction. According to this approach, two dimensions, or natures, must be distinguished in God, a conceptual primordial nature which structures the possibilities for life and a concrete consequential nature which receives the actualities which result from the possibilities that are realized.

scholarly journals Evolving Self-Assembly in Autonomous Homogeneous Robots: Experiments with Two Physical Robots

2009 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 465-484 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christos Ampatzis ◽  
Elio Tuci ◽  
Vito Trianni ◽  
Anders Lyhne Christensen ◽  
Marco Dorigo
Keyword(s):  
Self Assembly ◽  
Motor Coordination ◽  
Fitness Function ◽  
A Priori ◽  
Research Work ◽  
Evolutionary Robotics ◽  
Direct Access ◽  
Necessary Condition ◽  
Perceptual Cues ◽  
Dynamic Neural Networks

This research work illustrates an approach to the design of controllers for self-assembling robots in which the self-assembly is initiated and regulated by perceptual cues that are brought forth by the physical robots through their dynamical interactions. More specifically, we present a homogeneous control system that can achieve assembly between two modules (two fully autonomous robots) of a mobile self-reconfigurable system without a priori introduced behavioral or morphological heterogeneities. The controllers are dynamic neural networks evolved in simulation that directly control all the actuators of the two robots. The neurocontrollers cause the dynamic specialization of the robots by allocating roles between them based solely on their interaction. We show that the best evolved controller proves to be successful when tested on a real hardware platform, the swarm-bot. The performance achieved is similar to the one achieved by existing modular or behavior-based approaches, also due to the effect of an emergent recovery mechanism that was neither explicitly rewarded by the fitness function, nor observed during the evolutionary simulation. Our results suggest that direct access to the orientations or intentions of the other agents is not a necessary condition for robot coordination: Our robots coordinate without direct or explicit communication, contrary to what is assumed by most research works in collective robotics. This work also contributes to strengthening the evidence that evolutionary robotics is a design methodology that can tackle real-world tasks demanding fine sensory-motor coordination.

scholarly journals De-Historicizing (Mainstream) Ottoman Historiography on Tanzimat and Tahdith: Jus Gentium and Pax Britannica ViolateOsmanli Sovereignty in Arabia

Histories ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (4) ◽  
pp. 218-255
Author(s):  
Khaled Al-Kassimi
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Cultural Difference ◽  
A Priori ◽  
Legal Reasoning ◽  
Philosophical Theology ◽  
Age Of Reason ◽  
Self Image ◽  
Regulatory Measures ◽  
Secular Humanist ◽  
19Th And 20Th Century

The (secular-humanist) philosophical theology governing (positivist) disciplines such as International Law and International Relations precludes a priori any communicative examination of how the exclusion of Arab-Ottoman jurisprudence is necessary for the ontological coherence of jurisprudent concepts such as society and sovereignty, together with teleological narratives constellating the “Age of Reason” such as modernity and civilization. The exercise of sovereignty by the British Crown—in 19th and 20th century Arabia—consisted of (positivist) legal doctrines comprising “scientific processes” denying Ottoman legal sovereignty, thereby proceeding to “order” societies situated in Dar al-Islam and “detach” Ottoman-Arab subjects from their Ummah. This “rational exercise” of power by the British Crown—mythologizing an unbridgeable epistemological gap between a Latin-European subject as civic and an objectified Ottoman-Arab as despotic—legalized (regulatory) measures referencing ethno/sect-centric paradigms which not only “deported” Ottoman-Arab ijtihad (Eng. legal reasoning and exegetic hermeneutics) from the realm of “international law”, but also rationalized geographic demarcations and demographic alterations across Ottoman-Arab vilayets. Both inter-related disciplines, therefore, affirm an “exclusionary self-image” when dealing with “foreign epistemologies” by transforming “cultural difference” into “legal difference”, thus suing that it is in the protection of jus gentium that “recognized sovereigns” exercise redeeming measures on “Turks”, “Moors”, or “Arabs”. It is precisely the knowledge lost ensuing from such irreflexive “positivist image” that this legal-historical research seeks to deconstruct by moving beyond a myopic analysis claiming Ottoman-Arab ‘Umran (Eng. civilization) as homme malade (i.e., sick man); or that the Caliphate attempted but failed to become reasonable during the 18th and 19th century because it adhered to Arab-Islamic philosophical theology. Therefore, this research commits to deconstructing “mainstream” Ottoman historiography claiming that tanzimat (Eng. reorganization) and tahdith (Eng. modernization) were simply “degenerative periods” affirming the temporal “backwardness” of Ottoman civilization and/or the innate incapacity of its epistemology in furnishing a (modern) civil society.

scholarly journals Heteronomi som forutsetning for autonomi

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 ◽  
pp. 44-65
Author(s):  
Fredrik Nilsen
Keyword(s):  
Immanuel Kant ◽  
Categorical Imperative ◽  
Moral Experience ◽  
Necessary Condition ◽  
Moral Law ◽  
Formula Of Humanity ◽  
Minor Works

In his major works in ethics, Immanuel Kant (1724—1804) does not pay much attention to the question how humans become moral. The main tasks for Kant in these works are to establish the moral law and discuss its application. However, in his minor works in ethics and pedagogy he draws our attention to the question mentioned and claims that humans first become moral when they get 16 years old. Before we reach this age, our will (Willkür) is able to choose, that means prioritize, between rationality (the moral law) and sensitivity (inclinations), but our will (Wille) lacks the capacity to impose the moral law on ourselves. To evolve in this regard so that our will becomes fully moral and autonomous, we need moral restrictions from other people with more moral experience. The relevant Kantian distinction in this regard is the distinction Kant draws between persons and moral actors in the wake of his formula of the categorical imperative called the formula of humanity. According to this distinction, a person needs to be educated heteronomously in order to reach the level of moral actor and become autonomous. Constraint is therefore a necessary condition for self-constraint.

Rahner, Karl (1904–84)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jack A. Bonsor
Keyword(s):  
A Priori ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Thomas Aquinas ◽  
Christian Faith ◽  
Necessary Condition ◽  
Self Awareness ◽  
Relationship With God ◽  
True Nature ◽  
Modern Mind ◽  
The Subject

Rahner sought to offer an account of the Christian faith that would be credible to the modern mind. His early philosophical works lay the foundation for this theological project. Using both the method and categories of the early Heidegger, Rahner placed the thought of the medieval philosopher and theologian Thomas Aquinas in conversation with modern philosophy. He asked of Aquinas’ epistemology Kant’s question about the conditions of human subjectivity which make knowledge possible. Rahner argued that Aquinas’ description of knowledge and human freedom requires, as its necessary condition, that the subject possess an openness to a universal horizon of being, an openness to God. There is, in the structure of subjectivity, a constitutive, experiential, a priori relationship with the divine mystery. While this openness occurs within an individual’s self-awareness, it is always mediated by and interpreted through the objects, people, language and ideas that make up one’s historical context (the categorical). In his theology, Rahner argued that the true nature of humanity’s relationship with God had been revealed by Jesus to be one of absolute nearness. Rahner rendered Christian doctrines credible by correlating them with the transcendental experience of a God who is near.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document