bullet summary: aristotle

the first empiricist, truth is in the worldper genus et diferenciasays knowledge comes from observation and reflectionidentified different types of learningthought alone cannot create full knowledge, sense experience is needed first david hume said change is a scientific curiosityaristotle wanted to know why things change and what they are in themselvesso he described his four …

bullet summary: the falsification debate

the relationship between falsification and religious languageattention mostly on the symposium published in 'new essays in philosophical theology' by antony flew and alisdair macintyre karl popper opposed the assumptions of the vienna circlehe said science method is about proving things wrong, not righthe wanted demarcation, differentiation between the scientific and notscientific method is finding a …

bullet summary: soul, mind and body

are we the sum of our parts? a purely physical being?do we have a body or are we our bodies?are we our consciousness? or our memories? what about dementia?we cannot see our consciousness, so how is it linked with our body?the body takes us space, but we don't like to call is a thingis the …

bullet summary: plato

influenced by Pythagoras and ratioinfluenced by Heraclitus and ideas on change "you cannot step twice into the same stream"written in the the republic rationalist, truth through mind alonebest human quality is reasonpeople only do bad things because of ignorance forms exist before and after objectsexist in the realm of the formssouls are trapped in us …

condensed: the nature of god, free will and eternity

introduction we are mortal beings and our language reflects this. god does not experience this passage of time, so he will not make mistakes or suffer consequences. things decay in time, and god cannot decay. he is timeless and so he is perfect. what can his relationship to us be? we don't necessarily have free …

condensed: problem of evil

introduction there has always been evil and suffering. it is the greatest objection to the existence of god. evil is in human nature, and pain is part of our existence. we are capable of great love and great evil. is there answer that does does not include god’s neglect? a theoretical answer doesn't fit real …

condensed: the nature/attributes of god

intro believers ask questions about their god. the problem is in anthropomorphising god because he is beyond our reality and understanding. to say we know the mind of god is to blaspheme. god's infinite power and unknowability are referenced throughout scripture but we are still curious. but there is no answers to what is meant …

condensed: RL, apophatic and cataphatic

introduction our language is limited when talking about god. we try to capture in the infinite with the finite. god is infinite and location-less, so how can we, finite and space-bound, understand or describe him? do we limit him when we try? if you do define him, you are anthropomorphising him and blaspheming. 'king' or …

condensed: RL, verification and meaning

intro god's unknowability makes it difficult to define him precisely. even saying god 'exists' has many issues. the most radical approach is to say that religious language is meaningless, the approach of the vienna circle, a group of scientists interested in logic. development of logical positivism a.j. ayer discovered the vienna circle's idea and in …

condensed: religious experience

william james william james wrote varieties of religious experience. he broadly defined them as "the feelings, acts and experiences of individual men". he did interviews to see the effects, and argued verification is not crucial because it is important and real to the person. he says they are psychological phenomena like thinking. james and william …