Week 24: Critical Encounters (Weeks 24-28) Reason vs Religion

Dr Rachel Scott

Problems with binary oppositions?:

• Oversimplify complexity of world

• Perpetuate power imbalances and legitimise discrimination

• Arbitrary and culturally defined

Bell Hooks: (1952-2021) “It seems to me that the binary opposition that is so much embedded in Western thought and language makes it nearly impossible to project a complex response” (1994)

Topics for Block 4:

• Reason/Religion

• Masculine/Feminine

• East/West

• Human/Animal

• Mind/Body

What is Religion:

• Religion is that which “can be defined in terms of ‘transcendence’” (Charles Taylor, A secular Age 2007)

• Religion is "systematic thought that orients human existential experience to metaphysical powers through external, culturally accepted forms”

Substantive:

• Focus on the essence of religion

• Religion as a philosophy independent from our lives

• Religious belief in the transcendental and the supernatural

Functionalist

• Focuses on the social, cultural and psychological functions of religion

Religion and Reason in The Enlightenment:

• European philosophical movement (c. 1715-89)

• Focuses on:

  • Autonomy of universal human reason

  • Political need for religious tolerance

  • Needs to fulfil one’s potential as a human and maximise one’s own interests

  • The need to separate church and state

  • The values of democracy, liberty, and freedom of expression

Immanuel Kant (1724-1804)- vision of the public sphere through the rational autonomy of the individual

“Enlightenment is man’s emergence from his self-incurred immaturity. Immaturity is the inability to use one’s own understanding without the guidance of another.” (Kant)

What is Secularism?:

• The belief in the importance of keeping religious and state institutions separate. It is often accompanied by the belief that political decisions should not be influenced by religious beliefs or practices.

Are we Post-secular?:

Philosopher Jurgen Habermas suggests that we might be living in a ‘post-secular’ society for the following reasons:

• Increasing awareness of global religious conflicts

• Increasing influence of religious institutions in ethics and politics

• Presence of different religious communities

A ‘New Enlightenment’?

• Is the Enlightenment ‘universal’?

• “We must never forget that the Enlightenment is an event, or a set of events and complex historical processes that is located at a certain point in the development of European societies.” (Michel Foucault, ‘What is Enlightenment?’ 1983