Monday, May 17, 2021

PhD: Twitter quote 82

PhD: Twitter quote 82

Photo from Facebook


Edited from PhD

John S. Feinberg Sovereignty Theodicy/Defence: Eight Ways God Could Eliminate Evil (PhD Edit) 

Twitter version I

Eight Ways God Could Eliminate Evil: First, God could eliminate the problem of evil by annihilating humankind. Feinberg (1994: 130). 

Twitter version II

Feinberg points out that this would contradict God’s intention to create humanity. Feinberg (1994: 131).

Twitter version III 

Re: criticisms of Flew & Mackie, a critic could suggest that God need not annihilate humanity but could have simply created it differently or caused persons to act differently as in a far more moral fashion, more of the time.

Twitter version IV

From a Reformed, Calvinistic perspective for this Kingdom to be inhabited by human beings as God created them there is first a period of time, the duration only known by God, for which the problem of evil exists. 

Twitter version V

To destroy humanity would also end all of God’s plans for a completed Kingdom of God. Feinberg (1994: 131).

2010 Theodicy and Practical Theology: PhD thesis, the University of Wales, Trinity Saint David, Lampeter 


May 17, 2021 

My PhD theory and conclusion, which offered a bit of thesis originality, is that human beings in Jesus Christ with the use of compatibilism will eventually have greater spiritual maturity than Adam and Eve did prior to a fall from God (Genesis 1-3). It would also appear that God ultimately prefers human beings, as they will be in the culminated Kingdom (Revelation 20-22), over persons in a different scenario that would have never freely chosen to disobey God. Perhaps in that case as well, fallen human beings, with the applied atoning work of Jesus Christ that are justified (imputed righteousness) and sanctified, and in Christ's resurrection, eventually resurrected to perfection (1 Corinthians 15, 1 Thessalonians 4, connects to 2 Thessalonians 2, Revelation 20-22), would have the type of spiritual maturity God requires within his culminated Kingdom of God.


ERICKSON, MILLARD (1994) Christian Theology, Grand Rapids, Baker Book House. 

FEINBERG, JOHN S. (1994) The Many Faces of Evil, Grand Rapids, Zondervan Publishing House. 

FLEW, ANTONY (1955) ‘Divine Omnipotence and Human Freedom’, in Antony Flew and A. MacIntrye (eds.), New Essays in Philosophical Theology, London, SCM, in Paul Edwards and Arthur Pap (eds.), A Modern Introduction To Philosophy, New York, The Free Press.

FLEW, ANTONY (1955) ‘Theology and Falsification’, in Antony Flew and A. MacIntrye (eds.), New Essays in Philosophical Theology, London, SCM, in Paul Edwards and Arthur Pap (eds.), A Modern Introduction To Philosophy, New York, The Free Press. 

FLEW, ANTONY (1983)(1996) ‘The Falsification Challenge’, in Antony Flew and A. MacIntrye (eds.), New Essays in Philosophical Theology, in Michael Peterson, William Hasker, Bruce Reichenbach, and David Basinger (eds.), Philosophy of Religion, Oxford, Oxford University Press. 

FLEW, ANTONY, R.M. HARE, AND BASIL MITCHELL (1996) ‘The Debate on the Rationality of Religious Belief’, in L.P. Pojman (ed.), Philosophy, The Quest for Truth, New York, Wadsworth Publishing Company. 

FLEW, ANTONY AND A.MACINTRYE (1999) ‘Philosophy of Religion’, in Alan Richardson and John Bowden (eds.), A New Dictionary of Christian Theology, Kent, SCM Press Ltd.

MACKIE, J.L. (1955)(1996) ‘Evil and Omnipotence’, in Mind, in Michael Peterson, William Hasker, Bruce Reichenbach, and David Basinger (eds.), Philosophy of Religion, Oxford, Oxford University Press. 

MACKIE, J.L. (1971)(1977)(2002) ‘Evil and Omnipotence’, in The Philosophy of Religion, in Alvin C. Plantinga, God, Freedom, and Evil, Grand Rapids. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company.

Friday, May 14, 2021

PhD: Twitter quote 81

PhD: Twitter quote 81

Toward the Fraser River, today 


Edited from PhD

John S. Feinberg Sovereignty Theodicy/Defence: Eight Ways God Could Eliminate Evil (PhD Edit) 

Twitter version I

Eight Ways God Could Eliminate Evil: Fourth, Feinberg postulates God could have made human beings in such a way that they had desires, but never immoral ones. Feinberg (1994; 132). 

Twitter version II

If superhuman beings were given significant freedom, and they did rebel against God, perhaps their potential for evil could be even more severe than the potential for evil in our current situation because of the greater intellect. Feinberg (1994; 132).


2010 Theodicy and Practical Theology: PhD thesis, the University of Wales, Trinity Saint David, Lampeter

May 14, 2021

If human beings were more like fictional, for example, Thor, Superman and Wonder Woman, many people having existed for thousands of years, a human fall could have very well occurred with problems of evil at the more spectacular level of what can be read and observed in the fictional worlds of Marvel Comics and DC Comics and their films. This opposed to problems of evil at a present levels in our actual reality.

Thursday, May 13, 2021

PhD: Twitter quote 80

Photo: 20200909_162047_HDR 2 

PhD: Twitter quote 80

2010 Theodicy and Practical Theology: PhD thesis, the University of Wales, Trinity Saint David, Lampeter

Edited from PhD thesis

Theists and atheists debate the problem of evil, (1991)(1999) and it is safe to state that no particular theodicy will ever be accepted by all theists and atheists, (1991)(1999) or even acknowledged as logical or reasonable by all critics. (1991)(1999). I see no conclusive reason to abandon theodicy as an intellectual practice. 

Twitter version

Theists and atheists debate the problem of evil, (1991)(1999) and it is safe to state that no particular theodicy will ever be accepted by all theists and atheists. (1991)(1999).

ERLANDSON, DOUG (1991) ‘A New Perspective on the Problem of Evil’, in Doug Erlandson PhD Philosophy, Reformed.org, Orange County, Covenant Community Church of Orange County. http://www.reformed.org/ 

SWINBURNE, Richard G. (1999) ‘Theism’. in Alan Richardson and John Bowden (eds.), New Dictionary of Christian Theology, Kent, SCM Press Ltd. 

Tuesday, May 11, 2021

Logical positivism

Photo: IMG_20191025_1738594 

Logical positivism 

SZUDEK, ANDY & TORSLEY, SARAH (2018) The Little Book of Philosophy, Landau Cecile (Ed), London, DK Publishing.


Preface

I received my first COVID-19 vaccination today, the Moderna vaccine. My body has not reacted much at all. I suppose after my several 'bionic eye' injections with the 27 gauge needle, my body 'figures' the tiny Moderna needle and injection are not even worth reacting to...

SZUDEK, ANDY & TORSLEY, SARAH (2018) The Little Book of Philosophy, Landau Cecile (Ed), London, DK Publishing.

Rudolph Carnap

Note the different titles for similar works translated from German to English. The text under review is compiling the information and I am adding as many relevant references as my research finds.

In The Modern World section there is an entry entitled Logic is the scientific ingredient of philosophy. (155)

Logic is the scientific ingredient of philosophy is quoted from Rudolph Carnap (1891-1970). (155)

Rudolf Carnap (1891-1970), AustrianAmerican philosopher. trans. by Max Black, K. Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co. (1934). Unity of Science, p. 22.


Cited 

[LSS] 1934a [1937], Logische Syntax der Sprache, Vienna: Springer. Translated by Amethe Smeaton as The Logical Syntax of Language, London: Routledge, 1937.

1934b, “Theoretische Fragen und praktische Entscheidungen”, Natur und Geist, 2: 257–260. 

1934c [1987], Die Aufgabe der Wissenschaftslogik, Vienna: Gerold. Translated as “The Task of the Logic of Science”, Hans Kaal (trans.), in Unified Science, Rainer Hegselmann and Brian McGuinness (eds.), Dordrecht: Reidel, 1987, 46–66. doi:10.1007/978-94-009-3865-6_3 

1934d [2004], “On the Character of Philosophic Problems”, W. M. Malisoff (trans.), Philosophy of Science, 1(1): 5–19. German original “Über den Charakter philosophischer Probleme” published in R. Carnap Scheinprobleme in der Philosophie und andere metaphysikkritische Schriften, T. Mormann (ed.), Hamburg: Meiner, 2004, 111–127. doi:10.1086/286302 (en)
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The Little Book of Philosophy continues...

The German born Carnap in 'The Philosophical Language as the Universal Language of Science (1934)', suggests that philosophy's proper function, and its primary contribution to science is analysis and clarification of scientific concepts and ideas. (155).

Carnap reasoned that metaphysical issues were meaningless because the metaphysical cannot be proved empirically. (155). The text then explains that 'logical positivism'  accepts only empirical statements as true. (155).

archives search positivism 

Blackburn writes that within philosophy this view holds that the highest or only form of knowledge can be known through sensory perception. This is a version of empiricism. It focuses on optimism from the hopes of science and originated in the 19th century and relates to evolutionary and naturalist theory. Blackburn (1996: 294). 

Bryman explains that within social research and statistics, positivism advocates the use of methods of natural sciences for the study of social reality and beyond. This concept can include only knowledge confirmed by the senses. Bryman (2004: 11). Logical positivism, which is also known as logical empiricism, accepts empiricism, but also allows for the power of formal logic to describe the structures of permissible inferences. Blackburn (1996: 223). 

Richard A. Fumerton notes that some positivists have allowed for the idea that a proposition can be meaningful if it is likely to be true. Fumerton (1996: 445-446). Fumerton presents that a strict positivism leads to a rejection of religious and moral philosophy. Fumerton (1996: 445). 

A view that combines the need for empiricism as a method of finding truth and allows for non-empirical rational philosophical propositions that are also considered a form of truth, because the rational philosophical propositions are logical and cannot be reasonably contrasted by superior counter propositions, would be a view that would work with a Christian worldview. 

Perhaps a more adaptable form of logical positivism could offer this reasonable compromise position between empirical science and related views and philosophy of religion and theology. 

Rationalism is the view that unaided reason can be used in finding knowledge without the use of sense perception. Blackburn (1996: 318). 

Christian theology uses philosophical reasoning, and a priori knowledge in deducing the existence of God, and this could be considered a form of rationalism and some logical positivists could accept rationalism in conjunction with an acceptance of empirical science. A priori knowledge can be known without the use of sensory experience in the course of events in reality. Blackburn (1999: 21). 

A posteriori knowledge can be known through the use of some sensory experience, and if something is knowable A posteriori it cannot be known A priori according to Blackburn. Blackburn (1996: 21). 

John Kent states positivism is a philosophical position belonging to the empirical view according to which humankind can have no knowledge of anything but phenomena, and that is only what is apprehended by the senses empirically. Kent (1999: 454). The concept would be that positive knowledge is associated in particular with the sciences as in things must be observed and there is no questioning of knowledge beyond. Kent (1999: 454). Therefore other fields such as theology and metaphysics would be regarded as speculation. Kent (1999: 454). 

The term 'positivism' was introduced by French socialist Saint-Simon (1760-1825) and noted by his student Auguste Comte (1798-1857). Comte held that the highest or only form of knowledge is the description of sensory phenomena. Blackburn (1996: 294). This being the empirical. He held to three stages of human belief the theological, the metaphysical and the positive. It is a version of traditional empiricism. Blackburn (1996: 294). 

BLACKBURN, SIMON (1996) Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy, Oxford, Oxford University Press. 

BRYMAN, ALAN (2004) Social Research Methods, Oxford, Oxford University Press. 

FUMERTON, RICHARD A. (1996) ‘Logical Positivism’ in Robert Audi (ed.), The Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.

KANT, IMMANUEL (1781)(1787)(1998) Critique of Pure Reason, Translated and edited by Paul Guyer and Allen W. Wood, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. 

KANT, IMMANUEL (1781)(1787)(1929)(2006) Critique of Pure Reason, Translated by Norman Kemp Smith, London, Macmillan. 

KANT, IMMANUEL (1788)(1997) Critique of Practical Reason, Translated by Mary Gregor (ed.), Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. 

KANT, IMMANUEL (1788)(1898)(2006) The Critique of Practical Reason, Translated by Thomas Kingsmill Abbott, London, Longmans, Green, and Co. 

KANT, IMMANUEL (1791)(2001) ‘On The Miscarriage of All Philosophical Trials in Theodicy’, in Religion and Rational Theology, Translated by George di Giovanni and Allen Wood, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. 

KENT, JOHN (1999) ‘Positivism’, in Alan Richardson and John Bowden (eds.), New Dictionary of Christian Theology, Kent, SCM Press Ltd. 

WEIRICH, PAUL. (1996) ‘Comte, Auguste’, in Robert Audi (ed.), The Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.

encyclopedia.com 

Cited 

The periodicals edited by Saint-Simon, L’industrie (1816–1818), Le politique (1819), L’organisateur (1819–1820), and Du systeme industriel (1821–1822), are often catalogued by libraries under Saint-Simon’s name. Manuel 1962 describes them as appearing intermittently, in part to evade the rules of censorship applied to serial publications, but chiefly because Saint-Simon found it difficult to raise the money necessary to publish them.

1807 Introduction aux travaux scientifiques du dix-neu-vième siècle. Paris: Scherff. 

(1813a) 1876 Memoire sur la science de l’homme. Volume 40 of Oeuvres de Saint-Simon et d’Enfantin. Paris: Dentu. 

1813b Travail sur la gravitation universelle. Paris. → No publisher given. 

(1825) 1952 New Christianity: Dialogue. Pages 81-116 in Saint-Simon, Selected Writings. Edited and translated by F. M. H. Markham. Oxford: Blackwell. → First published in French. A new French edition was published in 1943 by Aubry. 

Henri de Saint-Simon: Social Organization. New York: Harper, 1964. → Also published in 1952 by Macmillan under the title Henri de Saint-Simon: Selected Writings. 

Oeuvres de Claude-Henri de Saint-Simon. 6 vols. Paris: Éditions Anthropos, 1966. → Volumes 1-5 reprinted from Oeuvres de Saint-Simon et d’Enfantin, 1865— 1878. Volume 6 reprinted from other works. 

Oeuvres de Saint-Simon et d’Enfantin. 47 vols. Paris: Dentu, 1865–1878. → Saint-Simon’s writings are in Volumes 15, 18-23, and 37-40. 

Selected Writings. Edited and translated with an introduction by F. M. H. Markham. Oxford: Blackwell, 1952.

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Auguste Comte First published Wed Oct 1, 2008; substantive revision Tue May 8, 2018: Bibliography