God

Christian God

Epistemology of God

• Ockham warned that rational philosophy cannot presume to define a being that transcends the empirically based intellect
• DescartesDescartes
  Rene Descartes
  
  Background Info
  
  1596-1650
  educated at Univ of Paris
  Catholic Christian
  not an academic
  
  
  
  
  wrote [[Descartes, Meditations of First Philosophy]] from a [[Rationalism
  rationalistic]] perspective
  
  
  
  
  claims he is making a whole new start in philosophy
  D. arrived at a certain and evident knowledge of the truth. He wants to see if he can persuade others by the same method that he himself used.
  ... affirmed God's existence through reason, but was unconvincing to HumeHume
  David Hume
  
  Wrote [[Hume, Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding]]
  Wrote a History of England
  
  Bkgrd Info
  
  1711-1776
  Scottish
  studied law at 15, did not like it
  self-taught in philosophy
  published "Treatise of Human Understanding" at age 28
  
  thought it would make him a rock star like Newton.
  received little attention
  ReidReid
  Thomas Reid
  Reid, Inquiry & Essays
  
  Bkgrd info (copied fr. Kate)
  
  important figure in the Scottish Enlightenment (18th century)
  Presbyterian Minister
  age 16, MA from University of Aberdeen
  age 21, licensed preacher for Church of Scotland
  age 27, entered Ministry
  age 54, wrote Inquiry into the Human Mind
  he was called to the University of Glasgow to replace Adam Smith as Professor of Moral Philosophy
  Common sense = “The most important use of the term “common sense” in R... & KantKant
  Kant
  Wrote [[Kant, What is Enlightenment?]]
  Man's primary problem isn't sin; it's that he doesn't have the freedom to reason & be enlightened (??)
  
  Background
  
  came from Prussia, wrote under Frederick the Great
  Kant - a rationalist who wants to confine reason to the bounds of experience
  
  reason is bound by the condition of possible experience; cannot reason about unexperienced things
  so, we can't reason a/b God crating the world because we didn't experience it
  
  
  ... were the only philosophers who took him seriously
  
  
  
  
  His Philosophy
  What was in the air
  
  the rationalism and dedu... and KantKant
  Kant
  Wrote [[Kant, What is Enlightenment?]]
  Man's primary problem isn't sin; it's that he doesn't have the freedom to reason & be enlightened (??)
  
  Background
  
  came from Prussia, wrote under Frederick the Great
  Kant - a rationalist who wants to confine reason to the bounds of experience
  
  reason is bound by the condition of possible experience; cannot reason about unexperienced things
  so, we can't reason a/b God crating the world because we didn't experience it
  
  
  ...
• can God be known through experience and/or reason, or can we only know (about) him through faith?
  • maybe God is thinkable, but not knowable KantKant
    Kant
    Wrote [[Kant, What is Enlightenment?]]
    Man's primary problem isn't sin; it's that he doesn't have the freedom to reason & be enlightened (??)
    
    Background
    
    came from Prussia, wrote under Frederick the Great
    Kant - a rationalist who wants to confine reason to the bounds of experience
    
    reason is bound by the condition of possible experience; cannot reason about unexperienced things
    so, we can't reason a/b God crating the world because we didn't experience it
    
    
    ...

Greek Deities

• based in myth
• myth crossed over into history (Odyssey)
  • the gods had real impact in people's lives
• trying to understand the world; gods created order