Philosophy of Religion (AO1)

Contents:

• Aristotle’s 4 causes

• Prime Mover

• Plato’s theory of forms

• The analogy of the cave

• The topic of metaphysics

• Plato’s view on the soul (separate soul)

• Aristotle’s view on the soul

• The hard problem of consciousness (Chalmers)

• Key concepts in soul, mind, body

• Descartes: cartesian dualism

• Descartes’ conceivability argument

• Leibniz’s Law

• Descartes’ indivisibility argument

• Masked man fallacy

• Substance dualism

• Property dualism

• Behaviourism

• Materialism

• Arguments (observation) - Teleological argument

• Aquinas’ Design argument

• Aquinas’ Fifth way (+others)

• Aquinas + The Archer

• William Paley’s Natural Analogy

• The cosmological argument

• David Hume’s criticisms

• Arguments (reason) - Ontological argument

• Gaunilo’s criticism

• Descartes’ Ontological argument

• Kant’s criticism

• Religious experiences: types + define

• Richard swinburne

• William James

• Conversion experience + examples

• Mystical experience + examples

• Corporate religious experiences + examples

• Verification → Freud

• Verification → Feuerbach

• Verification → Winnicott

• The logical problem of evil

• the evidential problem of evil

• Augustine’s theodicy

• Nature of God + epistemic distance

• The free will defence

• Hick’s ‘soul-making’ theodicy

Aristotle’s Four Causes & Metaphysics

Aristotle’s Four Causes:Method of explaining existence/origin of things + why things have changed etc.

• Material cause - what something is composed of (e.g. materials, substances, parts)

• Formal cause - essence/characteristics of it (e.g. shape, size, extension)

• Efficient cause - cause for existence - who made it

• Final cause - purpose or telos of something

The final cause makes Aristotle’s concept ‘teleological’ - everything may possess a telos separately to its usefulness to humans + the idea that nature has a telos is what informs Aristotle’s overall understanding of the universe

Aristotle’s Metaphysics

• Empiricism focused

• Focused on the physical world + wanted to understand the essence of things and what brought everything into being

• He wants to create a theory which he can apply to explain reality

• Aristotle was fascinated with what the efficient + final cause of the Universe was

• He was unsatisfied with the idea of there being an infinite chain of cause and effect (infinite regress)

• Whatever caused the Universe must be something already at a state of actuality (the universe has transferred from potentiality to actuality)

Prime Mover

• The prime mover: the prime mover is the final cause of the universe which shifts everything from potentiality to actuality

• If everything has a cause, there has to be a cause of everything which is the prime mover

• The prime mover/ unmoved mover is responsible for all the change and movement in the universe

• The prime mover pulls all things towards itself

• it is a static, unchanging being that has no direct presence in the natural world

Plato’s Theory of Forms

The world through the senses is ever-changing + it is difficult to argue that the perception of this world through the bodily senses could guarantee lasting and permanent knowledge.

Despite changing perceptions of the material world, human beings do arrive at generalised concepts and ideas, whether they be ordinary e.g. colours, morals, chairs

• Plato proposes that beyond the ‘world of appearances', there is a world of ‘the Forms’ which is a non-material, unchanging, separate reality from the material that contains the perfect versions of objects, concepts and ideas of which humans observe

• The ‘world of appearances’ is full of imperfect replications of the Forms and altogether is an inferior reflection of the world of Forms, grasped primarily by bodily senses

• Plato contends that the Form of the Good is the highest and most perfect of the Forms - it gives all the other forms their meaning and value, and as such all forms can be understood by their relation to the form of the good.

• Structure of the hierarchy : The Form of the Good (e.g. sun analogy in the Republic) at the top , The higher concepts (justice, beauty etc), Material goods (objects) at the bottom

The Analogy of the Cave (Plato) - Details

• there are many prisoners who are chained in the darkness, facing one way so that they can only see the passing shadows of objects illuminated by a fire behind them

• these prisoners cannot conceive of another world and only know the world of shadows given to them

• one of the prisoners breaks his bonds and begins to see that his ‘real world’ was just caused by the light behind him

• the prisoner with this knowledge gradually makes his way out of the cave up a rugged steep path towards the sunlight at the end and and makes his way outside and sees the real world

• however when the escaped prisoner returned, the other prisoners who are chained up refuse to believe that the world of shadows is not real and dismiss his arguments.

The Analogy of the Cave - Purpose/Intention

• Just as the world of appearances is a pale reflection of the world of forms, so are the shadows a pale reflection of the world outside the cave

• the unchained prisoners’ struggle to escape the cave reflects the intellectual difficulty of rejecting the world of appearances as a source of truth - it involves questioning both oneself and the very foundational beliefs that props up one’s existence

• The sun in the analogy of the cave represents the Form of the Good, and how it is the source of the truth that illuminates all things - the prisoner’s movements towards the sunlight, represents one’s movements towards the Form of the Good

• The dismissive attitude of the other prisoners indicates how the truths present by reason are not easily reconciled with one’s ordinary convictions - Plato through the analogy indicates that the truth altogether is difficult, and many are incapable of the philosophical work needed to get to it.

Key concepts in the Soul, Mind and Body

The soul is not always an easily definable concept - different ideas about an immaterial substance have existed throughout history, and many words such as spirit, or mind, have been used to describe or connote similar ideas

• one important aspect which connects these ideas is the non-physical aspect to human beings - the entirety of the human person cannot be fully described in physical terms

• accompanying such a belief are often separate ideas that the human soul, or mind, is not reliant on physical substance for its existence - the soul/mind could potentially persist beyond the physical death of a person, and is perhaps even immortal

• For many religious people, this is why the idea of a soul is a great importance - it provides a way of understanding how human beings can have a relationship with God beyond death, and how the material world is connected as a whole to an immaterial God

Metaphysics can be divided into three fields:

• Ontology - the nature of beings

• Cosmology - the nature of the universe

• Theology - the nature of God

Metaphysics of Mind

• Metaphysics is about exploring the nature of things

• So metaphysics of the mind is aiming to answer the question ' what is the mind?'

• The concept of the mind is incredibly elusive as we all produce different perspectives

• The soul had religious connotations, something that transcends our bodies and sustains itself after we die

• The mind is used to refer to our thoughts, reasons and actions but there are connotations of self/identity

Plato’s view of the soul