Molina, Luis de (1535–1600)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alfred J. Freddoso
Keyword(s):  
Free Choice ◽  
Political Authority ◽  
Divine Foreknowledge ◽  
Causal Influence ◽  
Intrinsic Nature ◽  
Natural Knowledge ◽  
Divine Knowledge ◽  
History Of ◽  
Necessary Truths ◽  
Political Philosopher

A leading figure in sixteenth-century Iberian scholasticism, Molina was one of the most controversial thinkers in the history of Catholic thought. In keeping with the strongly libertarian account of human free choice that marked the early Jesuit theologians, Molina held that God’s causal influence on free human acts does not by its intrinsic nature uniquely determine what those acts will be or whether they will be good or evil. Because of this, Molina asserted against his Dominican rivals that God’s comprehensive providential plan for the created world and infallible foreknowledge of future contingents do not derive just from the combination of his antecedent ‘natural’ knowledge of metaphysically necessary truths and his ‘free’ knowledge of the causal influence – both natural (general concurrence) and supernatural (grace) – by which he wills to cooperate with free human acts. Rather, in addition to God’s natural knowledge, Molina posited a distinct kind of antecedent divine knowledge, dubbed ‘middle knowledge’, by which God knows pre-volitionally, that is, prior to any free decree of his own will regarding contingent beings, how any possible rational creature would in fact freely choose to act in any possible circumstances in which it had the power to act freely. And on this basis Molina proceeded to forge his controversial reconciliation of free choice with the Catholic doctrines of grace, divine foreknowledge, providence and predestination. In addition to his work in dogmatic theology, Molina was also an accomplished moral and political philosopher who wrote extensive and empirically well-informed tracts on political authority, slavery, war and economics.

A Brief History of Theosemiotic

Theosemiotic ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 15-42
Author(s):  
Michael L. Raposa
Keyword(s):  
Liberation Theology ◽  
Latin American ◽  
William James ◽  
Jonathan Edwards ◽  
Historical Survey ◽  
Causal Influence ◽  
Gustavo Gutierrez ◽  
Book Of Nature ◽  
Religious Significance ◽  
History Of

This chapter supplies a historical survey of theosemiotic, focused less on demonstrating actual lines of causal influence than on exposing the resonance of certain ideas articulated by thinkers sometimes far removed from each other in space and time. It links Peirce’s thought to that of earlier figures (like Augustine, Duns Scotus, John Poinsot, Jonathan Edwards, and Ralph Waldo Emerson), certain contemporaries (especially William James and Josiah Royce), and later thinkers and developments (most notably, H. Richard Niebuhr, Simone Weil, and Gustavo Gutierrez). The chapter begins with an examination of the religious significance of talk about the “book of nature” and concludes with the observation of a certain natural affinity between a theosemiotic inspired by Peirce’s pragmatism and Latin American liberation theology.

Eternity

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eleonore Stump ◽  
Norman Kretzmann
Keyword(s):  
Philosophy Of Religion ◽  
History Of Philosophy ◽  
Human Freedom ◽  
Greek Philosophy ◽  
Medieval Philosophy ◽  
Divine Omniscience ◽  
History Of ◽  
Necessary Truths ◽  
Temporal Location

The distinctive, philosophically interesting concept of eternity arose very early in the history of philosophy as the concept of a mode of existence that was not only beginningless and endless but also essentially different from time. It was introduced into early Greek philosophy as the mode of existence required for fundamental reality (being) contrasted with ordinary appearance (becoming). But the concept was given its classic formulation by Boethius, who thought of eternity as God’s mode of existence and defined God’s eternality as ‘the complete possession all at once of illimitable life’. As defined by Boethius the concept was important in medieval philosophy. The elements of the Boethian definition are life, illimitability (and hence duration), and absence of succession (or timelessness). Defined in this way, eternality is proper to an entity identifiable as a mind or a person (and in just that sense living) but existing beginninglessly, endlessly and timelessly. Such a concept raises obvious difficulties. Some philosophers think the difficulties can be resolved, but others think that in the light of such difficulties the concept must be modified or simply rejected as incoherent. The most obvious difficulty has to do with the combination of atemporality and duration. Special objections have arisen in connection with ascribing eternality to God. Some people have thought that an eternal being could not do anything at all, especially not in the temporal world. But the notion of an atemporal person’s acting is not incoherent. Such acts as knowing necessary truths or willing that a world exist for a certain length of time are acts that themselves take no time and require no temporal location. An eternal God could engage in acts of cognition and of volition and could even do things that might seem to require a temporal location, such as answering a prayer. The concept of God’s eternality is relevant to several issues in philosophy of religion, including the apparent irreconcilability of divine omniscience with divine immutability and with human freedom.

Báñez, Domingo (1528–1604)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mauricio Beuchot
Keyword(s):  
Free Choice ◽  
Thomas Aquinas ◽  
Summa Theologiae ◽  
Divine Foreknowledge ◽  
Teresa Of Avila

Domingo Báñez, once spiritual advisor to St Teresa of Avila, was a prominent Spanish theologian. In his commentaries on the Summa theologiae of Thomas Aquinas, he challenged an essentialist reading of Aquinas, and insisted that esse (being) was an act. He is best known for his opposition to Molina’s attempt to reconcile human free choice with divine foreknowledge, providence and grace. He also wrote on logic, and commented on Aristotle’s On Generation and Corruption.

scholarly journals From Islamic reform to Muslim activism : The evolution of an Islamist ideology in Kenya

2019 ◽  
Vol 118 (472) ◽  
pp. 531-552 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ngala Chome
Keyword(s):  
Public Discourse ◽  
Political Authority ◽  
The State ◽  
Muslim Population ◽  
Islamic Reform ◽  
History Of ◽  
Muslim Politics

Abstract This article traces the evolution of an Islamist ideology in Kenya’s public discourse, putting Islamist ideas within a longer history of Muslim politics than most other studies. Specifically, it examines internal debates amongst the minority Muslim population of Kenya, and debates between Muslims and the state and Muslims and the wider Christian public, regarding how to improve the Muslim condition in a Christian-dominated country. The immediate background for the emergence of Islamist ideas is then discussed through an examination of trends since the 1990s, including increased contestations of religious and political authority, and responses to Muslim activism by the state and the wider Christian public. The article concludes that Islamist politics in Kenya, and elsewhere, are more often than not a result of local histories as much as they are part of a global Muslim ‘victimization’ narrative.

scholarly journals Barbara McClintock, 16 June 1902 - 2 September 1992

1994 ◽  
Vol 40 ◽  
pp. 265-280 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Biological Sciences ◽  
Turn Of The Century ◽  
Genetic Knowledge ◽  
Natural Knowledge ◽  
William Bateson ◽  
Exact Determination ◽  
History Of ◽  
Barbara Mcclintock ◽  
The Impact

Barbara McClintock’s remarkable life spanned the history of genetics in the 20th century. Though technically rooted in Mendel’s experiments carried out decades earlier, the science of genetics began with the rediscovery of his work at the turn of the century. In 1902, the year of McClintock’s birth, William Bateson wrote prophetically that ‘an exact determination of the laws of heredity will probably work more change in man’s outlook on the world, and in his power over nature, than any other advance in natural knowledge that can be clearly foreseen’. Indeed, the science of genetics, to which McClintock made seminal contributions, both experimental and conceptual, has come to dominate all of the biological sciences, from molecular biology, through cell and developmental biology, to medicine and agriculture. And Bateson’s immodest guess was arguably an underestimate of the impact of genetic knowledge on humanity.

Making Natural Knowledge: Constructivism and the History of Science

1998 ◽  
Vol 103 (5) ◽  
pp. 1554
Author(s):  
Londa Schiebinger ◽  
Jan Golinski
Keyword(s):  
History Of Science ◽  
Natural Knowledge ◽  
History Of

Sarvāstivāda Abhidharma

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
K.L. Dhammajoti
Keyword(s):  
Subsequent Development ◽  
Chinese Translation ◽  
Intrinsic Nature ◽  
The Past ◽  
Doctrinal Development ◽  
History Of ◽  
Complete Set ◽  
The Buddha ◽  
First Time ◽  
Tremendous Impact

Abhidharma had its origin in certain systematizing, analytical, and exegetical features found in the Sūtra, particularly, mātṛikā (summary list), abhidharma-kathā (discussion about the doctrine), vibhaṅga (“analytical exposition”), and upadeśa (exegetical elaboration). Buddhist philosophies may have been primarily initiated and vigorously elevated in the Abhidharma tradition. However, while the Abhidharma treatises undoubtedly exhibit highly developed scholastic and hermeneutical components, Abhidharma is essentially a soteriology. The Sarvāstivāda Ābhidhārmikas consistently claim that Abhidharma is truly “Buddha-word,” being the sine quo non for ascertaining the true intents of the sutras—it constitutes the ultimate authority for discerning the definite and explicit discourses (nītārtha-sūtra) of the Buddha. Sarvāstivāda, the “All-exist School,” was undoubtedly one of the most important Buddhist schools in the period of Abhidharma Buddhism. Since its establishment around the 2nd century bce, it exerted tremendous impact, directly or indirectly, on the subsequent development of Indian Buddhism. This school possesses a complete set of seven canonical Abhidharma texts, nearly all of which are now preserved in Chinese translation, and one, the Prajñapti-śāstra, is preserved in a complete Tibetan translation. A huge compendia, The Great Abhidharma Commentary (Abhidharma-mahāvibhāṣā), whose gradual compilation must have spanned over more than half a century and was fully completed around 150 ce, is now extant only in Chinese. This compendia, encyclopedic in scope, defines the doctrinal positions of the orthodox Sarvāstivādins based in Kaśmīra, who subsequently came to be known as the Vaibhāṣikas. The central thesis of the school is sarvāstivāda or sarvāstitā (/sarvāstitva), which claims that all “dharmas”—fundamental realities or real entities of existence—sustain their unique intrinsic natures throughout the three periods of time. That is, whether future, past, or present, a dharma’s intrinsic nature remains the same, even though its mode of existence (bhāva) varies. This thesis was vehemently challenged by the Vibhajyavādins (Distinctionists) who denied the reality of the past and future dharmas. The reverberation of this “Sarvāstivāda-versus-Vibhajyavāda” controversy can be observed to have generated decisively significant doctrinal implications throughout the history of Buddhist thoughts. The Savāstivāda school was also known as Hetuvāda, a “school which expounds on causality.” Kātyāyanīputra (c. 150 bce), often regarded as the effective “founder” of the Sarvāstivāda school, was credited with the innovation of a theory of sixfold causes, of which the coexistent or simultaneous causality was the most important legacy. For the first time in human history, he systematically articulated a form of causality in which the cause and its effect coexist simultaneously. This theory contributed importantly to Buddhist doctrinal development, particularly its epistemology. Mahāyāna Yogācāra had embraced it from their very inception, finding it indispensable for the establishment of many of their fundamental doctrines, including “store consciousness” (ālaya-vijñāna) and “cognition-only” (vijñaptimātratā).

scholarly journals Natural language corpus semantics: the Free Choice controversy

2004 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 197-218 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kjell Johan Sæbø
Keyword(s):  
Natural Language ◽  
Free Choice ◽  
Methodological Issue ◽  
Objective Measure ◽  
Formal Semantic ◽  
Recent History ◽  
Text Corpora ◽  
History Of Research ◽  
History Of ◽  
Language Corpus

This paper addresses the methodological issue of what data can safely be disregarded in the quest for a good analysis of a given semantic phenomenon. I argue that as there is no objective measure for this, making the temptation to adjust the terrain to the map hard to resist, it is strongly advisable to make use of text corpora in formal semantic research. I illustrate this argument by considering in some detail the recent history of research on Free Choice items.

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