Posts Tagged: philosophy

February 27, 2010

Jackass Starves Between Two Haystacks

jackass

You’ve heard of Occam’s Razor, right? It’s a philosophical concept that when used judiciously is supposed to facilitate rational decision making in situations wherein two or more choices or theories or whatever present themselves as competing alternatives. Basically, Occam’s Razor advances the idea that the less complicated explanation or action is the best one. There is no need, according to this principle, to seek a more complicated answer if a simpler one indeed exists. Sounds pretty solid, right? Well, it’s supposed to be simple, but some seem incessant on making a lot of things more complicated than they need be. Why? Who really knows?!? Read more…

February 26, 2010

The Better Man

So, which is the better man? The religious man who fulfills ethical duties to ward off fears planted within him by a sidewalk preacher’s threats of eternal damnation, in effort to save himself, or the non-religious man who fulfills ethical duties under the power of his own free will and thought-laden conscience because he is compelled to satisfy what he perceives to be his personal responsibilities? Which of the two is truly the better man?

October 5, 2009

Pitching Parabola: Parables of Kierkegaard

Soren Kierkegaard

Kernels and Shells: To what may The relation of God and the world be compared? This is the question which led Soren Kierkegaard toward the following parabolic expression:

“If two men were to eat nuts together, and the one liked only the shell, the other only the kernel, one may say that they match one another well. What the world rejects, casts away, despises, namely, the sacrificed man, the kernel – precisely upon that God sets the greatest store, and treasures it with greater zeal than does the world that which it loves with the greatest passion.” Read more…

October 4, 2009

Emerson Divinity School Address

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Delivered before the Senior Class in Divinity College, Cambridge, Sunday Evening, July 15, 1838, by American essayist, philosopher, and poet, Ralph Waldo Emerson.

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In this refulgent summer, it has been a luxury to draw the breath of life. The grass grows, the buds burst, the meadow is spotted with fire and gold in the tint of flowers. The air is full of birds, and sweet with the breath of the pine, the balm-of-Gilead, and the new hay. Night brings no gloom to the heart with its welcome shade. Through the transparent darkness the stars pour their almost spiritual rays. Man under them seems a young child, and his huge globe a toy. The cool night bathes the world as with a river, and prepares his eyes again for the crimson dawn. The mystery of nature was never displayed more happily. The corn and the wine have been freely dealt to all creatures, and the never-broken silence with which the old bounty goes forward, has not yielded yet one word of explanation. One is constrained to respect the perfection of this world, in which our senses converse. How wide; how rich; what invitation from every property it gives to every faculty of man! In its fruitful soils; in its navigable sea; in its mountains of metal and stone; in its forests of all woods; in its animals; in its chemical ingredients; in the powers and path of light, heat, attraction, and life, it is well worth the pith and heart of great men to subdue and enjoy it. The planters, the mechanics, the inventors, the astronomers, the builders of cities, and the captains, history delights to honor. Read more…

October 3, 2009

The Theologian’s Nightmare

Bertrand Russell

The Theologian’s Nightmare by Bertrand Russell, English philosopher, logician, mathematician, historian, and social critic, from: Fact and Fiction (1961), a collection of Bertrand Russell’s essays that reflect on the books and writings that influenced his life.

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The eminent theologian Dr. Thaddeus dreamt that he died and pursued his course toward heaven. His studies had prepared him and he had no difficulty in finding the way. He knocked at the door of heaven, and was met with a closer scrutiny than he expected. “I ask admission,” he said, “because I was a good man and devoted my life to the glory of God.” “Man?” said the janitor, “What is that? And how could such a funny creature as you do anything to promote the glory of God?” Dr. Thaddeus was astonished. “You surely cannot be ignorant of man. You must be aware that man is the supreme work of the Creator.” “As to that,” said the janitor, “I am sorry to hurt your feelings, but what you’re saying is news to me. I doubt if anybody up here has ever heard of this thing you call ‘man.’ However, since you seem distressed, you shall have a chance of consulting our librarian.” Read more…

September 16, 2009

The Modern Charge of Postmodern Relativism

Modernism and Postmodernism?

Postmodernism is often branded as meaningless relativism. This is especially true as far as most Christian conversation in the West is concerned because of the blurry western religious propensity towards propositional truth, absolutism and total objectivity. In most cases, however, the shallow branding of postmodernism as relativistic is performed with zero/little understanding of very important issues, such as: 1. Postmodernity’s over-arching skepticism concerning meta-narratives; 2. Modernity’s deep dependence upon metanarratives for its perceived truth; 3. The myth of total objectivity; 4. Conceptual presuppositions concerning reason and knowledge (e.g., reason itself existing independently from one’s context and cultural constraints). Reducing postmodernism to relativism without actually understanding postmodernism – or modernism – is unfortunate, to say the least. Read more…