A Religion of Reason

Author(s):  
Frederick C. Beiser

This chapter is an examination of Cohen’s main work on the philosophy of religion, his Religion der Vernunft aus den Quellen des Judentums. Cohen’s religion of reason was an attempt to respond to two opposing conceptions of religion: that of the romantics (Schleiermacher, Fries) and that of the Tübingen school (Baur, Strauβ‎). The romantics saw the essence of religion in feeling, the Tübingen school saw it in myth. Cohen tried to rescue the rational content of religion by interpreting it mainly in ethical terms, which he believed to consist in rational imperatives. Cohen’s concept of God is interpreted in terms of the validity of these ethical imperatives and not in terms of the existence of any entity. One section considers Cohen’s re-examination of the relationship between religion and ethics, which now stresses the distinctive characteristics of religion within ethics. The final section criticizes Rosenzweig’s interpretation of Cohen as a proto-existentialist.

Author(s):  
Thomas Linke

Abstract This is a new (and for the first time complete) edition of a speech about Buddhism by Rudolf Otto from 1913. This speech is his first academic reflexion of his journey around the world and his most detailed explanation of his view on this religion. In the first part of his speech Otto compares Buddhism with Christianity and finds a lot of parallels. In the second part he defines differences between these two religions and proclaims – from a Christian perspective – Christianity as more valuable than Buddhism. The preface puts the speech into its context: Otto’s relationship to and his knowledge of Buddhism (1), the history of publication of this speech (2), Otto’s specific view on Buddhism in comparison to his contemporaries (3), the meaning of this speech in his œuvre (4) and explanations about the edition (5). The editor has the opinion, that this speech is an important transition from Ottos philosophy of religion to his main work The Idea of the Holy. It further is a good example of what Otto means when speaking about the comparison of religions.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-31
Author(s):  
David Larkin

Initially criticized for its naïve representation of landscape features, Strauss's Alpensinfonie (1915) has in recent years been reinterpreted by scholars as a deliberate challenge to metaphysics, a late outgrowth of the composer's fascination with Nietzsche. As a consequence, the relationship between Strauss's tone poem and earlier artworks remains underexplored. Strauss in fact relied heavily on long-established tropes of representing mountain scenes, and when this work is situated against a backdrop of similarly themed Romantic paintings, literature, travelogues and musical compositions, many points of resemblance emerge. In this article, I focus on how human responses to mountains are portrayed within artworks. Romantic-era reactions were by no means univocal: mountains elicited overtly religious exhalations, atheistic refutations of all supernatural connections, pantheistic nature-worship, and also artworks which engaged with nature purely in an immanent fashion. Strauss uses a range of strategies to distinguish the climber from the changing scenery he traverses. The ascent in the first half of Eine Alpensinfonie focuses on a virtuoso rendition of landscape in sound, interleaved with suggestions as to the emotional reactions of the protagonist. This immanent perspective on nature would accord well with Strauss's declared atheism. In the climber's response to the sublime experience of the peak, however, I argue that there are marked similarities to the pantheistic divinization of nature such as was espoused by the likes of Goethe, whom Strauss admired enormously. And while Strauss's was an avowedly godless perspective, I will argue in the final section of the article that he casts the climber's post-peak response to the sublime encounter in a parareligious light that again has romantic precedents. There are intimations of romantic transcendence in the latter part of the work, even if these evaporate as the tone poem, and the entire nineteenth-century German instrumental tradition it concludes, fades away into silence.


2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (121) ◽  
pp. 185-195
Author(s):  
Zatov Zatov

A comparative study of the mythological picture of the world, early forms of religion allows us to identify common features characteristic of the worldview and spiritual guidelines of mankind as a whole. These features can be traced in archaic ideas about the structure of the universe, in understanding their spiritual and bodily essence, the infinity of God and the eternity of the soul, the relationship and interdependence of life forms in the world. This allows us to assert the thesis of the unity of mankind in its spiritual origins, despite racial and ethnic diversity. In the process of a comparative analysis of mythology, early forms of religion, the concept of God, the pantheon and the function of the gods, similar moments and ethnological specifics of understanding the essence of the soul and reincarnation in totemistic beliefs, in cosmological and theogonistic concepts are revealed.The author also analyzes the role and significance of the cult of ancestors, traces the evolution of the idea of proto-monotism (the creative function of Tengri and Brahma, the intention of henotheistic faith) and its place in religious knowledge.


2020 ◽  
pp. 228-240
Author(s):  
Christopher J. Insole

This chapter shows how central it is, for Kant, that the concept of God only comes downstream from, and after, the possibility of belief in the ‘moral world’. This moral world is the realm of freedom, wherein autonomy is possible. Only if (deterministic) space and time do not go ‘all the way down’, are freedom, and autonomy, possible. If space and time are ‘things-in-themselves’, Kant asserts, ‘then freedom cannot be saved’ (A536/B564). Only if there is a dimension of reality beyond mechanism, is end-setting, and so autonomy, and the highest good possible. Not even God could achieve the highest good in a universe without end-setting, and without freedom, because this universe would be a sort of ‘desert’ with no ‘inner value’. The sequence of thought we find, both in the second Critique, and in other texts is this: first of all, Kant identifies a need for happiness in proportion to virtue; then Kant identifies the obstacle to the realization of such happiness, which is the mechanistic and deterministic structure of nature; and then Kant moves to the solution, which involves leaning into the realm of freedom, which realm includes God. The significance of the third phase in the progression of thought (the realm of freedom) has not been sufficiently considered, it is argued, when considering the Kant’s ‘moral proof’, and the relationship, for Kant, between morality, the highest good, and God.


Author(s):  
Tim Bayne

Religions differ widely in their conceptions of God’s nature, from God as a unity to God as a triune and God as a supernatural being or the totality of all that there is. ‘The concept of God’ restricts its attention to what philosophers of religion call ‘classical monotheism’ because monotheism—or theism—has dominated philosophy of religion within the Western world. Theism lies at the heart of the Abrahamic religions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, and is found in certain strands of Hinduism. Theists regard God as the creator of the world; a perfect being of unlimited knowledge, power, and goodness; and the proper object of our worship.


2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 28 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marek Gruszczyński

The paper discusses methodological topics of bankruptcy prediction modelling—unbalanced sampling, sample bias, and unbiased predictions of bankruptcy. Bankruptcy models are typically estimated with the use of non-random samples, which creates sample choice biases. We consider two types of unbalanced samples: (a) when bankrupt and non-bankrupt companies enter the sample in unequal numbers; and (b) when sample composition allows for different ratios of bankrupt and non-bankrupt companies than those in the population. An imbalance of type (b), being more general, is examined in several sections of the paper. We offer an extended view of the relationship between the biased and unbiased estimated probabilities of bankruptcy—probability of default (PD). A common error in applications is neglecting the possibility of calibrating the PD obtained from a bankruptcy model to the unbiased PD that is population adjusted. We show that Skogsviks’ formula of 2013 coincides with prior correction known for the logit model. This, together with solutions for other binomial models, serves as practical advice for obtaining the calibration of unbiased PDs from popular bankruptcy models. In the final section, we explore sample bias effects on classification.


1976 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Carol Hagemann-White

AbstractThe author reports her experience of and observations on the teaching of sociology at the Free University of Berlin. She examines the teaching behavior of the instructors, the relationship between colleagues, and those between teachers and students. Certain tendencies in the practice of teaching are viewed as expressing a form of coping by projection with the failures experienced in trying to reform studies, failures that are in fact caused by the unfavorable real conditions at the university. A tendency to make university teaching more like schooling is observed; reasons for this are found in the effects of pressure towards professional competition, which prevents both fruitful cooperation between instructors and genuine communication with students. The additional difficulties experienced by women in teaching are described. In the final section conclusions are drawn in the form of practical suggestions which take account of the actual possibilities of a university with very large numbers of students.


Author(s):  
Paul D. Williams

This chapter analyses the relationship between the two related concepts of the responsibility to protect (R2P) and the protection of civilians (POC) with particular emphasis on how their relationship has played out in the context of United Nations peacekeeping operations. It begins by providing an overview of the main similarities and differences between R2P and POC before moving on to examine various attempts to link the two concepts with specific reference to their application within UN peacekeeping operations. The final section analyses some of the main criticisms levelled against their linkage. The chapter concludes that a de-coupling strategy is unlikely to succeed, in part because POC can never be made completely apolitical and uncontroversial. As UN peacekeepers are called upon to operationalize both the R2P and POC agendas, a key policy challenge will be ensuring that the relationship between the two does not become counter-productive.


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