DECK B: Religion and the Search for Interiority and 3 Turns to Immanence

sum of all sciences

In the medieval period, since God was still thought to be the foundation of all knowledge, theology was regarded as the “_____”.

Existence is a perfection

The conclusion of Descartes that states that the idea of a perfect being must come from God Himself. It can’t come from: imperfect humans nor a devil/deceiver (as goodness can’t come from evil).

Cogito

• serves as the indubitable basis of all knowledge, where both God and nature are grounded in it.

• the most celebrated philosophical dictum.

transcendence to immanence

What was the shift from the “Where is God?” to “Where is God in me?”

Man-centered + Immanence = Religion

______(Anthropocentrism as the existing worldview) + _____ (Discovery of God) = _____ (Turn to Interiority)

subject, language, experience

The turn to immanence is characterized by what 3 emphasis?

Interiority

The path toward divinity, a journey through the self. Religion not as an escape from the world, but a return to the self.

Self-identity

Contemporary period interiority; What makes us distinct from other humans. The search for uniqueness.

Subjective Turn (Descartes)

3 Turns to Immanence:

• Finding interest in subjectivity, on the “I”, with the  subject gaining knowledge of self in relation to the world.

• Subject as experiencer. 

• God as the guarantor of clarity and distinctness of the cogito as the res infinita and the fundamentum incossum.

creativity and dynamic  will

How do humans become the creator according to Charles Taylor’s Ethic of Poiesis?

Immanence

Discovery of God within. Modern shift from "Where is God?" (transcendent) to "Where is God in me?”

Descartes’ Subjectivist Principle

The thinking self (res cogitans) is established as the foundation of knowledge; redefining Aristotle’s substance-accidents one way relationship (substance as receiver) into that in which the essence of humanity is thought. Created a mind-body problem.

res infinita, res cogitans, res extensa

God as _______ alone exists necessarily; the ____ (mind) and _____(body/nature) depend on Him.

pineal gland

Descartes proposed which part of the brain reconciles the mind-body problem that emerged from his subjectivist principle?

It is the intermediary between the self that knows itself and the self that it will discover.

What is the importance of language?

Analytic Philosophy and Continental Philosophy

What are the 2 kinds of Philosophy of Language that arose from a 20th century concern of meaning?

Designative and Expressive

What are the 2 semantic dimensions of language?

Linguistic  Turn (Charles Taylor)

Understanding the self through language; humans are "self-interpreting animals."

Designative

A word’s meaning points to what it designates (language of the exact sciences). However, it can’t fully capture the fullness of human meaning.

Expressive

A word manifests its meaning by embodying it. Brings intelligibility to experience itself — the more profound dimension of language.

Experiential Turn (Whitehead)

Shifting focus from "being" to "becoming" (Concrescence); replacing substance with relation and experience.

experience

Experiential Turn; At the core of one’s identity is this. Who I am = what are my ______.

Pan-experientialism

The term that means “all is experience”

substance with relation

The goal of Whitehead’s Experiential Turn is to overcome Descartes’ dualism by replace ____ with ____.

Aristotle’s substance-quality concept, the passive perceiver in their accounts of experience, Kant’s phenomenalism

What are the three things Whitehead’s Reformed Subjectivist Principle rejects?

Reformed Subjectivist Principle (Whitehead)

a response to Descartes’ subjectivist principle; Experience constitutes the immediate subject; Concresco Ergo Sum

Concrescence

The process of becoming, the many experiences grow together to become one emergent subject. It is internally determined and externally free in each individual.

internally determined and externally free

The concrescence of each individual is ____ and _____. Can be likened to Aristotle’s potential and actual

Theory of Identity

Theory that states that before our identity is our mirror image. Every identity is a negotiated identity. Proposes subject as totally passive (receiver of stimuli) and totally active (the need to create our own world).

Terminus a quo and terminus ad quem

The subject in the Theory of Identity is both ____ and ____.

Terminus a quo

Latin, “starting point”; Subject is prior to experience (active, creating)

Terminus ad quem

Latin “the end point,”” superject: Subject is posterior/product to experience (passive, formed)

There is no subject prior to experience

What does the terminus a quo and terminus ad quem collectively imply?