Kant and the Divine

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher J. Insole
Keyword(s):  
Human Freedom ◽  
Western Philosophy ◽  
Divine Action ◽  
Way Of Life ◽  
Christian Doctrine ◽  
Highest Good ◽  
Internal Coherence ◽  
Theological Critique ◽  
The Relationship

The book offers a definitive study of the development of Kant’s conception of the highest good, from his earliest work, to his dying days. It is argued that Kant believes in God, but that he is not a Christian, and that this opens up an important and neglected dimension of Western philosophy. Kant is not a Christian, because he cannot accept Christianity’s traditional claims about the relationship between divine action, grace, human freedom, and happiness. Christian theologians who continue to affirm these traditional claims (and many do), therefore have grounds to be suspicious of Kant as an interpreter of Christian doctrine. As well as setting out a theological critique of Kant, the book offers a new defence of the power, beauty, and internal coherence of Kant’s non-Christian philosophical religiosity, ‘within the limits of reason alone’, which reason itself has some divine features. This neglected strand of philosophical religiosity deserves to be engaged with by both philosophers, and theologians. The Kant revealed in this book reminds us of a perennial task of philosophy, going back to Plato, where philosophy is construed as a way of life, oriented towards happiness, and achieved through a properly expansive conception of reason and happiness. When we understand this philosophical religiosity, many standard ‘problems’ in the interpretation of Kant can be seen in a new light, and resolved. Kant witnesses to a strand of philosophy that leans into the category of the divine, at the edges of what we can say about reason, freedom, autonomy, and happiness.

Freedom as the Guarantor of the Possibility of the Highest Good

2020 ◽  
pp. 264-282
Author(s):  
Christopher J. Insole
Keyword(s):  
Moral Status ◽  
Human Freedom ◽  
Existence Of God ◽  
Highest Good ◽  
First Cause ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Free Actions

The chapter articulates the following problem: given all that Kant’s notion of freedom, and the intelligible realm can achieve, what precisely is the role of God? That is, what do we need God for? And then, even if we have identified a role which God is expected to fill, there is the further question of whether God can fulfil this role, consistently with Kant’s wider commitments. It is suggested that God either seems to be ‘too much’, or ‘not enough’: ‘too much’, in that God can seem redundant, given all that is achieved by the notion of freedom, and ‘not enough’, in that, were God needed to make up some sort of deficit in our moral status, this would seem to violate Kant’s restrictions on human freedom, which is always ‘all or nothing’, such that all our free actions must come as a first cause from ourselves, and ourselves alone. This is a problem that threatens the cogency of Kant’s ‘moral proof’, which is to say, his understanding of the relationship between the highest good, happiness, and the existence of God.

Divine Agency and Divine Action, Volume IV

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
William J. Abraham
Keyword(s):  
Systematic Theology ◽  
Christian Tradition ◽  
Divine Action ◽  
Christian Doctrine ◽  
Concept Of God ◽  
Presence Of God ◽  
Divine Agency ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship

Following the first three volumes in the series on divine action, this fourth and final volume seeks a prescriptive account of God as an agent. Christian systematic theology raises deep metaphysical questions about the central concepts we use in our thinking about God. One of these central concepts bequeathed by the Christian tradition is that God is an agent. While volumes 2 and 3 offered a wide range of specific divine actions offered in the canonical Christian tradition, the question of how to articulate this basic conviction arises. In this volume, Abraham expounds the concept of God as agent by applying it to various traditional problems in Christian doctrine like the relation of freedom and grace, divine action in liberation theology, the presence of God in the Eucharist, divine providence, the relationship of Christianity and Islam, the relation of the natural sciences to theology and apparent design, and the realm of the demonic. In keeping with the argument of the tetralogy as a whole, specific divine actions are the points of departure for reflection on these topics. The book aims not only to clarify the concept of God as an agent but also to articulate solutions to these traditional problems. It is designed to be the launchpad for further research in divine agency and divine action and how an account of God as an agent can throw fresh light on old theological and philosophical problems.

Un tournant majeur de l'acculturation du cynisme à Rome : le De philosophia de Varron

Elenchos ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. 269-296
Author(s):  
Jordi Pià-Comella
Keyword(s):  
Turning Point ◽  
Way Of Life ◽  
Conceptual Tool ◽  
Highest Good ◽  
Major Turning Point ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
De Officiis

AbstractIn his De philosophia, Varro lists 288 philosophical schools on the highest good before presenting Antiochus’s doctrine as the only true one. One of the particularities of his moral doxography consists in including cynicism which has never been mentioned in the previous moral sources. This paper therefore aims to show that the De philosophia represents a major turning point for the Roman reflection on cynicism. First, Varro defines cynicism as a simple way of life (habitus) and not a doctrine (ratio) so that it could be adopted by all other philosophies. In fact, by ‘reducing’ cynicism to a way of life Varro makes it compatible with his conception of the highest good based on social duties. In that respect, his position on cynicism is opposite to Cicero’s who, in his De officiis, considers cynicism as a dangerous philosophy for Roman values. Finally, Varro uses cynicism as a conceptual tool for thinking, in philosophical terms, one of the most important issues that run through all his work: the relationship between happiness and Ancient Roman simplicity, especially in the context of Roman decadency. For instance, in Varro’s Menippean Satires, Cynics’s destitution partly reminds of the Ancient Romans’ austerity. Therefore, by mentioning cynicism in his moral doxography, Varro gives an original and Roman treatment of the Antiochian inquiry into the concept highest good.

How Achievement Motivation Influences the Attitude of Schoolchildren and Students Towards Independent Sports Activities

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 38-46
Author(s):  
A.S. Grachev
Keyword(s):  
Physical Education ◽  
Achievement Motivation ◽  
Russian Federation ◽  
Male Students ◽  
Way Of Life ◽  
Education Material ◽  
State Technological ◽  
Technological University ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Sports Activities

Summary Purpose: to determine the relationship between achievement motivation and the attitudes of schoolchildren of 11-17 years old and students of 18-21 years old to independent sports and passing control standards in the discipline \”Physical Education\”. Material: 1576 schoolchildren (boys n = 780 and girls n = 796) of comprehensive schools of Belgorod, Stary Oskol, Stroitel and Shebekino (Belgorod region, Russian Federation) and 246 students (men n = 127) were surveyed. and women n = 119) Belgorod State Technological University named after V.G. Shukhov (Belgorod, Russian Federation). The questionnaire consisted of three blocks of questions: the 1st block of questions - questions aimed at determining the age, sex, place of study of the respondent; 2nd block of questions - 8 questions, allowing to assess the attitude of the respondent to independent sports activities and the desire to take control standards of the discipline Y’Physical Education\”; 3rd block of questions is a test of 20 questions, developed by A.A. Rean, to assess the motivation to achieve success and avoid failures. Results: the motivation for avoiding failures was diagnosed in 5% male students and 10% female students. A direct correlation between achievement motivation and the attitude of schoolchildren and students towards independent sports activities and passing control standards has been revealed. Conclusions: there are no differences in the correlation between the relationship between achievement motivation and attitudes toward independent sports by gender. Schoolchildren and students with motivation to achieve regular self-exercise. Schoolchildren and students with a pronounced motivation for avoiding failures prefer a passive way of life. They do not want to pass standards on the discipline \”Physical Education\” and do not go in for sports on their own.

DONG SON BRONZE DRUM - THE WORK OF THE LAC VIET PEOPLE

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nguyen Van Hao
Keyword(s):  
Classification Criteria ◽  
Way Of Life ◽  
Tribal Identity ◽  
The Relationship

Bronze drums are widely distributed, broader than the range of a nation. Therefore, the identification of each kind of drum is a basic subject, should be concerned. In determining the tribal identity of the drum, the classification of drum is the key stage, the relationship between the objective of the classification and classification criteria is the relation as shape and shadow, if there is no right criteria then the result of division will be difficult to reach the desired goal. Likewise, the criterion of the pattern on the bronze drum brought to the affirmation is the Dong Son bronze drum of the Lac Viet people. And the parallel is the affirmation of the culture, way of life, residence of the nation created the drum.

La ética del Otro: una introducción al pensamiento de Emmanuel Lévinas

2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-14
Author(s):  
Carlos Alvaréz Teijeiro
Keyword(s):  
Interpersonal Relationships ◽  
Emmanuel Levinas ◽  
Radical Change ◽  
The Other ◽  
Western Philosophy ◽  
Ethical Implications ◽  
Essential Question ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
First Philosophy

Emmanuel Lévinas, the philosopher of ethics par excellence in the twentieth century, and by own merit one of the most important ethical philosophers in the history of western philosophy, is also the philosopher of the Other. Thereby, it can be said that no thought has deepened like his in the ups and downs of the ethical relationship between subject and otherness. The general objective of this work is to expose in a simple and understandable way some ideas that tend to be quite dark in the philosophical work of the author, since his profuse religious production will not be analyzed here. It is expected to show that his ideas about the being and the Other are relevant to better understand interpersonal relationships in times of 4.0 (re)evolution. As specific objectives, this work aims to expose in chronological order the main works of the thinker, with special emphasis on his ethical implications: Of the evasion (1935), The time and the Other (1947), From the existence to the existent (1947), Totality and infinity: An essay on exteriority (1961) and, last, Otherwise than being, or beyond essence (1974). In the judgment of Lévinas, history of western philosophy starting with Greece, has shown an unusual concern for the Being, this is, it has basically been an ontology and, accordingly, it has relegated ethics to a second or third plane. On the other hand and in a clear going against the tide movement, our author supports that ethics should be considered the first philosophy and more, even previous to the proper philosophize. This novel approach implies, as it is supposed, that the essential question of the philosophy slows down its origin around the Being in order to inquire about the Other: it is a philosophy in first person. Such a radical change of perspective generates an underlying change in how we conceive interpersonal relationships, the complex framework of meanings around the relationship Me and You, which also philosopher Martin Buber had already spoken of. As Lévinas postulates that ethics is the first philosophy, this involves that the Other claims all our attention, intellectual and emotional, to the point of considering that the relationship with the Other is one of the measures of our identity. Thus, “natural” attitude –husserlian word not used by Lévinas- would be to be in permanent disposition regarding to the meeting with the Other, to be in permanent opening state to let ourselves be questioned by him. Ontology, as the author says, being worried about the Being, has been likewise concerned about the Existence, when the matter is to concern about the particular Existent that every otherness supposes for us. In conclusion it can be affirmed that levinasian ethics of the meeting with the Other, particular Face, irreducible to the assumption, can contribute with an innovative looking to (re)evolving the interpersonal relationships in a 4.0 context.

The Meaning of the Concept of “Spiritual Energy” in the Philosophy of William James and Henry Bergson

2020 ◽  
Vol 63 (4) ◽  
pp. 115-131
Author(s):  
Maria M. Kuznetsova
Keyword(s):  
Spiritual Development ◽  
William James ◽  
Science And Religion ◽  
Western Philosophy ◽  
Creative Evolution ◽  
Spiritual Energy ◽  
Spiritual Reality ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship

The article examines the philosophy of Henri Bergson and William James as independent doctrines aimed at rational comprehension of spiritual reality. The doctrines imply the paramount importance of consciousness, the need for continuous spiritual development, the expansion of experience and perception. The study highlights the fundamental role of spiritual energy for individual and universal evolution, which likens these doctrines to the ancient Eastern teaching as well as to Platonism in Western philosophy. The term “spiritual energy” is used by Bergson and James all the way through their creative career, and therefore this concept should considered in the examination of their solution to the most important philosophical and scientific issues, such as the relationship of matter and spirit, consciousness and brain, cognition, free will, etc. The “radical empiricism” of William James and the “creative evolution” of Henry Bergson should be viewed as conceptions that based on peacemaking goals, because they are aimed at reconciling faith and facts, science and religion through the organic synthesis of sensory and spiritual levels of experience. Although there is a number of modern scientific discoveries that were foreseen by philosophical ideas of Bergson and James, both philosophers advocate for the artificial limitation of the sphere of experimental methods in science. They call not to limit ourselves to the usual intellectual schemes of reality comprehension, but attempt to touch the “living” reality, which presupposes an increase in the intensity of attention and will, but finally brings us closer to freedom.

scholarly journals Does Respect Foster Tolerance? (Re)analyzing and Synthesizing Data From a Large Research Project Using Meta-Analytic Techniques

2021 ◽  
pp. 014616722110244
Author(s):  
Steffen Zitzmann ◽  
Lukas Loreth ◽  
Klaus Michael Reininger ◽  
Bernd Simon
Keyword(s):  
Regression Coefficient ◽  
Theory Development ◽  
High Status ◽  
Social Psychological ◽  
Way Of Life ◽  
Research Project ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Large Research ◽  
Existing Data

Our own prior research has demonstrated that respect for disapproved others predicts and might foster tolerance toward them. This means that without giving up their disapproval of others’ way of life, people can tolerate others when they respect them as equals (outgroup respect–tolerance hypothesis). Still, there was considerable variation in the study features. Moreover, the studies are part of a larger research project that affords many additional tests of our hypothesis. To achieve integration along with a more robust understanding of the relation between respect and tolerance, we (re)analyzed all existing data from this project, and we synthesized the results with the help of meta-analytic techniques. The average standardized regression coefficient, which describes the relationship between respect and tolerance, was 0.25 (95% confidence interval [CI] = [0.16, 0.34]). In addition to this overall confirmation of our hypothesis, the size of this coefficient varied with a number of variables. It was larger for numerical majorities than for minorities, smaller for high-status than for low-status groups, and larger for religious than for life-style groups. These findings should inspire further theory development and spur growth in the social-psychological literature on tolerance.

What is Human? Reading Social Idealism against the Reality of Blackman and Azaria

2018 ◽  
Vol 60 (1) ◽  
pp. 365-391
Author(s):  
Ka Lok Yip
Keyword(s):  
United Kingdom ◽  
Human Agency ◽  
Human Freedom ◽  
Dominant Focus ◽  
Structural Power ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Theoretical Perspectives ◽  
The Relationship

This article explores the oscillation between individualism and holism and between voluntarism and determinism underlying Philip Allott’s philosophy of social idealism and attributes it to an under-analysis of the relationship between human agency, culture, and structure. Drawing on different social theoretical perspectives and philosophical approaches, it examines this aspect of social idealism through the lens of two recent cases, Alexander Blackman in the United Kingdom and Elor Azaria in Israel. It argues that a dominant focus on either the individuals or their context is necessarily reductionist while collapsing the two risks obscuring causality and responsibility and relegating their apportionment to those in possession of cultural and structural power. Only by differentiating between the relative degrees of human freedom and constraints in different situations, can the limits to human agency become recognisable, comprehensible, and therefore amenable to being tackled, transformed, and potentially overcome.

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