“You must accept the truth from whatever source it comes.”
--Maimonides
Why Study Philosophy?
Whether a person realizes it or not, his or her thinking has been influenced by philosophers
who lived hundreds or thousands of years ago. Men such as Plato, Aristotle, and
Thomas Aquinas are still having a profound impact on modern philosophy and theology. One can better understand the present
trends in academic circles if the past is better understood. This syllabus is
largely a compilation of class notes and class lectures by Norman Geisler.
Throughout world history, various philosophical worldviews have dominated at different
times. From 600 B.C. to A.D. 400 the religious emphasis was on polytheism (many gods) and henotheism (a super-god like Zeus).
From A.D. 500 to 1500, theism was the dominant religious worldview. Agnosticism was dominant between 1500 and 1900. Atheism
has been the dominant view since 1900. This is evident in the teachings of Darwinian evolution and secular humanism that have
dominated education and other areas of public life.
Of course it would be oversimplification to suggest that there were not groups of people
within each of these time periods that were exceptions to the dominant view in intellectual circles. This syllabus is not
exhaustive. This is really a list of ancient and medieval philosophers of western culture. The section on ancient philosophy
looks at more than two dozen philosophers who helped to lay the groundwork for much of western thought that was to follow. The Pre-Socratic philosophers were polytheistic. They had a difficult time reconciling
their first principle with their view of God.
The section on medieval philosophy only looks at a handful of the most important western
philosophers, though these men are examined in more detail than their ancient predecessors. Many of the questions unanswered
by the ancient philosophers were answered, due largely to the influence of Christianity.
I.
Ancient Philosophy (Pre-Socratic [600 B.C.] through
Plotinus [A.D. 250] )
Several important philosophers preceded the “big three” that have been household
names for more than 2400 years. Few have heard of their names. Fewer still know anything they taught or wrote. Yet, these
individuals set the stage for the teachings of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. The first of these is Thales.
- Thales—founder of Greek philosophy
1. Thales lived c. 640-545 B.C. in Miletus, Iona.
2. He founded Greek philosophy near the time of the destruction
of the Jewish temple (586 B.C.)
3. He had knowledge of science and philosophy.
a. According to Herodotus, he accurately predicted
a solar eclipse in 585 B.C.
b. He constructed an almanac.
c. He introduced the Phoenician practice of guiding
a ship’s course by the constellation Little Bear.
4. Epistemology
a. He asked, “What is the ultimate nature of
the world?”
b. He believed that the Earth was a flat disk that floated
on water.
5. Metaphysics
a. He believed the primary element was water, and
that all things were various forms of that one element.
b. He was polytheistic.
c. He was the first to conceive of the idea of unity
in diversity.
- Anaximander—first Greek evolutionist
1. He also lived c. 640 to 546 B. C. and resided in Miletus, Iona.
2. He was a student of Thales.
3. He constructed a map of the Black
Sea.
4. He used prose to communicate his philosophical theories.
5. Epistemology
a. Anaximander referred to the primary element as
“apeiron” which was infinite in extent and indefinite in nature.
b. Apeiron was the “material cause” of the
universe. He was the first to use the phrase “material cause.”
6. Metaphysics
a. He was the first naturalist. He denied the existence
of all gods and attempted to answer how the world developed naturally.
b. Eternal motion causes many co-existent worlds to come
into being.
c. He taught that man was born from animals of another
species.
- Anaximenes—the airhead
1. He also lived c. 640 to 546 B. C. in Miletus,
Iona.
2. He was a younger associate of Anaximander.
3. There currently exists only a small fragment of a book
he wrote.
4. Epistemology
a. Anaximenes believed that the primary element was
air.
b. He agreed with his predecessors that one could know
things as they are (realism).
5. Metaphysics
a. He believed in innumerable gods from the air which
act as primordial elements. This is similar to the Hindu view of many gods and one ultimate reality.
b. The earth is flat and floats in the air.
- Pythagoras—Founder of Geometry and the
Pythagorean Theorem
1. He lived and taught at the end of the 6th
century in Samia.
2. He founded an ascetic religious society with the goals
of purity and purification.
3. He believed that music, mathematics, and practices of
silence could help tend to the soul.
4. The number “10” had a special religious
significance.
5. He was the first person to use the label “philosopher”
(lover of wisdom).
6. He is best known for the development of what is today
called the Pythagorean Theorem.
7. Epistemology
a. The ultimate reality is numbers. The universe
can be explained in terms of numbers.
b. Things can be understood or known as they are perceived.
8. Metaphysics
a. Pythagorus believed in a form of re-incarnation.
He was a dualist;
he held that the body was imprisoned in the soul.
b. Matter is infinitely divisible.
c. The essence of a thing is determined by its structure
rather than the “stuff” of which it is made.
d. The earth is spherical and is not the center of the
universe.
- Heraclitus—the dark philosopher (esoteric);
flux philosopher
1. He lived c. 540 to 475 B. C. in Ephesus.
2. He taught in an esoteric, prophetic way
3. Epistemology
a. Knowledge is obtained by information gained from
the senses combined with reason.
b. Sense experience demonstrates that everything is in
a state of flux. Everything is a process. “No man steps into the same river twice.”
4. Metaphysics
a. The primary element is fire.
b. He said, “No man steps into the same river twice.”
c. Nothing is in a state of being, but in a state
of becoming.
d. He was the first to write extensively of unity in diversity
and difference in unity.
e. Reality is one and many at the same time (pantheism).
God is the One and is the universal Reason.
f. “There is a universal Logos; all flux is
relative to this Logos.”
g. Heraclitus attempted to be practical and moral in his
philosophy.
- Xenophanes
1. He was a poet who lived 570 to 480 B.C. in Colophon, Iona.
2. He was a disciple of Anaximander.
3. He was reputed as the founder of the Eleatic School.
4. Epistemology
a. Xenophanes used poetry to emphasize unity and
oneness.
b. He hesitated to use the word “knowledge”
from the cosmic explanations.
5. Metaphysics
a. He was a henotheist—believed that there
was a Supreme God who was greater than all other gods and men.
b. The nature of God is eternal, unmovable, unlike mortals
in either thought or form.
c. He attacked the idea of anthropomorphic Greek
gods; he said that horses would paint the form of gods like horses.
- Parmenides
1. He lived 515 to 450 B.C. in Elea, Italy.
2. He was a pupil of Xenophanes and possibly knew Socrates
as a young man.
3. He is the true founder of the Eleatic School.
4. He wrote The
Way of Truth and The Way of Belief or Opinion.
5. Epistemology
a. He Assumed the Law of Non-Contradiction and laws
of thought.
b. Parmenides “introduced the important distinction
between Reason and Sense, Truth and Appearance.”
c. “Knowledge is obtained through a combination
of sense-perception and reason.”
6. Metaphysics
a. “The One is sensual and material. Being,
or the One, is definite, determinate, complete, indestructible, unchangeable, spatially finite and spherical in shape. It
is temporally infinite, having neither beg9nning nor end.”
b. Argument for monism:
1) “There is only one thing in the universe, because
if there were many they would have to differ.
2) There are only two ways to differ, either by being or
non-being (nothing).
3) Things cannot differ by non-being because to differ
by nothing is to not differ at all.
4) Things cannot differ by being because being is that
which they have in common (makes them identical).
5) Therefore there are no differences and no two beings;
there is only one being in the universe, hence, monism.”
c. Premise #4 above is incorrect.
- Zeno
1. He lived c. 490 to 430 B.C. in Elea, Italy.
2. There are no extant writings, but later writers recorded
his “five famous paradoxes.”
3. Epistemology
a. One cannot trust his senses.
b. “True being is found through thought, not sense.”
4. Metaphysics
a. “Motion is an illusion and impossible.”
b. He defended Parmenides monistic materialism.
- Melissus
1. He was a Samian that lived in the 5th century
B.C.
2. He was a student of Parmenides.
3. Epistemology
a. What is perceived by the senses is an illusion.
b. “True being is found through thought, not sense.”
4. Metaphysics
a. Held to the view that Being is infinite in time
and space and is materially perfect as well.
b. Being is unchangeable.
c. There is no pain of grief in the One.
d. Everything is full; there is no void or vacuum.
e. Taught that the Being of the monists is not worthy
of worship since it is “static and cold.”
f. Being is indivisible.
- Empedocles—the four elements philosopher
1. He lived c. 493-433 B.C. in Sicily.
2. He is the first philosopher of which remains a great
deal of information.
3. He was active in politics and contributed to medicine.
4. He wrote On Nature
and Purifications.
5. Epistemology
a. The senses can be trusted.
b. The world of senses is becoming, and gives us a way
to know being.
c. He saw no distinction between thought and perception.
6. Metaphysics
a. All matter is reducible to the four elements of
earth, air, fire, and water.
b. The history of the universe is circular; “there
are periodic world cycles.”
c. “Matter is eternal and indestructible.”
d. Taught re-incarnation.
e. Eros love is a unifying factor in the universe.
f. God is “immediately certain,” but
cannot be proved.
g. Nature reveals God in three levels.
1) Four primary elements are imperishable.
2) “Dualism—love and hate move the corporal
world.”
3) “Monism—the state of unity, sphirous, achieved
by love.”
- Anaxagoras—the “Nous” philosopher
1. He lived c. 500 to 428 B.C. He was born in Clazomenae, Asia Minor and moved to Athens c. 480 B.C. and
eventually settled in Miletus, Iona.
2. Epistemology
a. One cannot trust the senses to understand the
true nature of the world.
b. The Mind (nous) contributes to the understanding of
the world.
3. Metaphysics
a. Being is unchangeable; matter is indestructible.
b. “In everything there is a portion of everything.”
c. He introduced the concept of “nous”
and taught that it has “power over all things, set in order all things, and is present in all living things.”
d. “Nous” is material in nature. It is the
thinnest of all material things.
e. Nous is eternal and sets matter, which is also
eternal, in motion.
- Diogenes
1. He lived c. 470 to 399 B.C. from Apollonia.
2. He offered one of the first forms of the Teleological
argument for the existence of God.
3. Metaphysics
a. Diogenes views nature as a machine.
b. There is more than one element, but air was the primal
substance common to all elements.
c. Change is impossible without a standard or reference
point. This standard is the “nous” or God.
d. He was a panentheist.
- Leucippus—founder of Atomism
1. He lived during the mid 400 B. C. in Miletus.
2. He founded the Atomist philosophy.
3. He wrote The Great Diakosmos.
4. Epistemology—“The world is known through
a purely mechanical account and explanation of reality.”
5. Metaphysics
a. Leucippus described atoms as indivisible units
which are infinite in number and always in motion. Atoms differ in shape and the space they occupy, not in substance.
b. Everything happens by reason and necessity. There are
no real accidents.
c. The soul is made up of spherical atoms.
d. He did not acknowledge the need for a Necessary Cause
of the universe.
e. He was a pantheist.
- Democritus-Key Atomist
1. He lived c. 460 to 370 B.C. in Thrace. He as head of a school at Abdera.
2. He is the key philosopher in the Atomist philosophy.
3. Epistemology
a. Democritus believed that sense-knowledge is not
true knowledge.
b. He had a mechanical understanding of sensation—that
“images pass through the air and are subject to distortion.
4. Metaphysics
a. He taught that atoms have size and shape, but
no weight.
b. He believed in a soul that existed in living things
as well as dead bodies and rocks.
c. He taught that the Greek gods appeared as god-men
which were personifications of natural phenomena.
5. Ethics—The key to happiness is moral wisdom with
moderation.
- Protagoras—the grammar philosopher and
first ancient relativist
1. He was a sophist that lived c. 481 to 411 B.C. from
Thrace. He also lived much of his time
in Athens.
2. He was a “pioneer in the study and science of
grammar.”
3. He wrote On Truth
and On the Gods
4. Epistemology
a. “There is no reality of the way things are,
independently of the way we talk about it.”
b. He used a dialectical method in teaching that demonstrated
two contradictory views on everything.
5. Metaphysics
a. “Man is the measure of all things, of those
that are that they are, of those that are not that they are not.”
b. He was agnostic about the existence of the gods.
6. Ethics
a. We should not view ethical questions as being
true or false, but as being sounder, or more useful.
b. Protagoras was a relativist.
- Gorgias—the first agnostic
1. Gorgias was a Sophist that lived c. 483 to 375 B.C.
from Sicily. He spent time in Athens.
2. He was a student of Empedocles.
3. He began in philosophy, later renounced it, and devoted
himself to rhetoric.
4. He wrote On Not-being
or Nature.
5. Epistemology
a. He taught that nothing exists, and that even if
it did, it could not be known.
b. If knowledge of being ever existed, it could not be
imparted.
6. Metaphysics—He followed Parminedes argument and
believed that nothing exists.
- Cratylus
1. He lived c. 428 to 348 B.C. in Athens and was an older contemporary of Plato and a disciple of Heraclitus.
2. Epistemology
a. He taught that one could not even step into the
same river once.
b. “The world of sense-perception is a world of flux,
and so not the right subject matter for true and certain knowledge.”
3. Metaphysics—He was not sure that anything existed,
including himself.
- Thrasymachus
1. He was a sophist from Chalcedon
2. Ethics—He believed that “might makes right.”
- Socrates
1. He lived from 470 to 399 B.C. and was a contemporary
of Zechariah and Malachi of the Old Testament.
2. Similarities between Christ and Socrates: Neither Christ
nor Socrates left any writing for us; Both Socrates and Christ died for their beliefs; were highly influential; invested their
lives in teaching others; both used pedagogical techniques trying to draw the truth out of each other; we know of both primarily
through four sources—Aristophanes, Plato, Zenophane and Aristotle, the four gospels.
3. Abandoned natural philosophy (oracle Delphi
told him that he was the wisest of all men) He focused on moral philosophy. He fought in a war; tried and convicted for not
worshipping the gods of Athens and for corrupting their youth.
4. “He was tried and convicted for not worshipping
the gods of Athens and of corrupting the youth.” He
was sentenced to death. Before taking the hemlock he had the women and children dismissed.
5. Epistemology
a. He deduced universal concepts from particulars.
b. He rejected the relativism of the Sophists; he “believed
that universal definitions and fixed concepts were attainable.”
6. Metaphysics
a. Aristotle said that Socrates two greatest contributions
to science were his inductive arguments and his universal definitions.
b. He offered a teleological argument for the demiurgos
(God).
c. He sought to find a relationship between the universals
and particulars.
7. Ethics
a. He sought to find a universal ethical norm related
to conduct.
b. Socrates “investigated piety and impiety, just
and unjust, courage and cowardice.”
c. He came up with a method of asking questions to
bring out the correct answers. This later became known as the Socratic Method. He acted as a “midwife to the mind.”
- Plato
1. He was born in Athens
to a distinguished family and lived c. 428 to 348 B.C. He was a disciple of Socrates.
2. He founded the Academy in Athens
around 388 B.C. as the first European University.
3. He wrote many important books of which he is best known
for Republic.
4. Epistemology
a. He believed in universal forms.
b. His theory of forms is that basis of all knowledge.
c. Knowledge is divided into four levels.
d. He believed that knowledge is not sense-perception.
e. Knowledge is attainable and will correspond with
what is real.
f. True knowledge is knowledge of the universal.
g. Humans are born with innate ideas that can be drawn
out.
h. He used the cave analogy to illustrate reality.
5. Metaphysics
a. “There is a Supreme Mover (World Soul) which
is a god.”
b. There is a Demiurgos (World Former) which is also a
god.
c. God is eternal, but finite, limited by chaos.
Chaos is also eternal.
d. Creation occurred ex
materia rather than ex nihilo.
e. Plato did not call the agathos God.
f. The Forms (ideas) that come from the Form are
not inherent in the Mind of God.
g. Plato was a dualist—that the soul is a prisoner
to the body. The soul pre-existed the body and undergoes many reincarnations.
h. He answered Parmenides problem—that being is one.
He said that being differs from another in its relative degree of non-being. “Things differ from each other by negation.”
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1.
Demiurgos e 2. agathos e 3.
ideos e 4. chaos e 5. cosmos |
|
The demiurgos (Former) looks at the agathos (Form)
that overflows into the ideos (form) which informed the chaos (formless) which formed into the cosmos (formed.)
|
6. Ethics
a. “To know the Good is to do the good.”
“Virtue is knowledge, and virtue is teachable.”
b. “The highest good of man is the true development
of man’s personality as a rational and moral being, the right cultivation of his soul, the general harmonious well-being
of life.”
c. “The distinct virtues are unified in prudence
or the knowledge of what is truly good for man and of the means to attain that good.”
- Aristotle
1. He lived 384 to 322 B.C.
He was born in Thrace, and entered
Plato’s Academy at the age of seventeen where he studied for over twenty years. Alexander the Great was his pupil.
2. Wrote many important books. His influence is felt today
in many regards.
3. Epistemology
a. He believed that humans were not born with innate
ideas, but were blank slates.
b. Humans are born with an innate ability to reason, to
“think causally and unitarily.”
c. He used the logical syllogism of deductive reasoning.
d. Knowledge and ideas are attained by means of the senses.
4. Metaphysics
a. “Change is passing from potentiality to
actuality.”
b. There are four types of causes—two intrinsic and
two extrinsic.
|
Intrinsic causes |
Extrinsic causes |
|
Formal
cause |
Efficient |
|
Material
cause |
Final |
c. He believed in the unity of the soul and the body
even though the body does not survive death.
d. He gave a Cosmological argument. God is an uncaused
Cause (unmoved Mover).
e. Like Plato, he believed that God is eternal, but
not infinite. He also taught that creation was ex materia. Matter is eternal.
f. God is not personal or loving.
5. Ethics
a. The good (that for which everything else is done)
for man is related to happiness.
b. The two kinds of good are “good by reason of another
and good in itself.”
c. There are two kinds of virtues:
|
Intellectual Virtue |
Moral Virtue |
|
Philosophic
wisdom |
Liberality |
|
Understanding |
Temperance |
d. Virtuous acts avoid the extremes of defect or excess.
“The right is ‘the Golden Mean’ which is halfway between existing extremes.”
- Epicurus
1. He lived from
341 to 270 B.C. and established his own Athenian school c. 307 B.C.
2.
He wrote about 300 works.
3.
Epistemology
a. He believed that
data gained by the senses are true and that to question them is to make life impossible.
b. He referred to this theory of knowledge as “canonic.”
4.
Metaphysics
a. He was
an atomist and materialist.
b. Everything possible
is somewhere "actual" since there is an infinite supply of atoms that are arranged in every possible combination.
c. He believed in
innumerable, material gods that are like mankind in appearance.
5.
Ethics
a. “The
good like is only attainable by the philosopher.”
b. The pleasant
life is attained by living virtuous—a life of justice, temperance, and courage.
- Pyrrho
1. He lived c. 360 to 270 B.C.
2. Epistemology: He was a skeptic—“Human reason
cannot penetrate to the inner substance of things; we can only know how things appear to us.”
3. Metaphysics—“Ultimate reality cannot be
known.”
- Marcus Tullius Cicero
1. He was a Roman orator who lived c. 360 to 270 B.C.
2. Epistemology--skepticism
3. Metaphysics—defended the existence of God using
nature.
4. Ethics
a. Using knowledge to guide human affairs is the
highest human achievement.
b. “Moral concepts proceed from our nature.”
- Lucretus
1. He was a Roman that lived c. 99 to 55 B.C.
2. He developed a philosophy of history.
3. Epistemology—materialism
4. Metaphysics—He was a naturalist that believed
that nothing can come out of nothing.
- Epictetus
1. A moral activist who lived a. A.D. 50 to 130 that founded
a school of Stoicism.
He was lame.
2. Epistemology—All humans have certain “primary
conceptions” and “moral intuitions” on which they can build.
3. Metaphysics—“All events should be viewed
as God’s gifts.”
4. Ethics—Man is basically good. Education can help
to produce “unerring moral judgment.”
AA.Justin Martyr
1. He was born a pagan, and later became a Christian
after studying Greek philosophy. He was martyred in Rome c.
A.D. 164.
2. He was a Christian rationalist. He considered
philosophy to be at the very heart of Christianity and related to the Logos.
3. Every man has implanted within him the seed
of reason (logoV). See John
1:1-9.
4. He contended that Socrates, Heraclitus, and
other Greek philosophers were really Christians, since they lived according to reason and believed in the logos.
5. He held that not all philosophy was good.
6. He believed that Christianity is superior
to even the best of ancient philosophy. His trust was in Christ, not any philosopher.
7. Those philosophers were contradicted themselves
on the more important points, were not living according to reason.
BB.Clement of Alexandria
1. He moved to Alexandria
c. A.D. 202, probably from Athens, with a Platonic type of
Christianity. Like Martyr, he was also a rationalist.
2. He compared the philosophy of the Greeks
to the Law of the Hebrews as a schoolmaster, paving the way for Christ. He seems to believe that Plato and other Greeks were
inspired.
3. He did believe in the superiority of the
Christian Scriptures over the writings of the philosophers and that any truth found in Greek philosophy originated from God.
4. He credited the Hebrew Scriptures as the
primary source of truth the Greeks possessed. He wrote,
I know thy teachers, even if thou woulds’t
conceal them. You have learned geometry from the Egyptians, astronomy from the Babylonians; the charms of healing you have
got from the Thracians; the Assyrians also have taught you many things; but for the laws that are consistent with truth, and
your sentiments respecting God, you are indebted to the Hebrews.
5. He believed that philosophy alone will not
suffice.
6. He believed that faith was superior to reason.
CC.Tertullian
1. He lived in the second century.
2. He opposed rationalism and said that there is no likeness
between the Christian and the philosopher. He referred to the philosophers as the “patriarchs of all heresy.”
3. We wonder because we believe, not believe because we
wonder.
4. Once a
person believes, he should use reason to examine the grounds of his faith.
5. Those truths which are arrived at by human reason are
corrupted by philosophy.
Clement of Alexandria felt no fear of philosophy; Tertullian did and, consequently, one emphasized it
and the other deemphasized it. Neither systematized it well with their faith, although both made attempts. Clement’s
attempt tended to overstress reason at the expense of revelation, and Tertullian’s attempt efforts to sacrifice philosophy
on the altar of “irrationality.” With their two extreme positions, they bequeath the problem to the more systematic
minds of the Middle Ages, such as Augustine and Aquinas.
DD.Plotinus
1. He lived A.D. 205 to 270.
2. He was a neo-Platonist; he revived Platonic dualism.
3. He wrote the Enneads.
4. Metaphysics
- There is a hierarchy of Being in the universe beginning with this One Being from which the other four emanate. Here is the order
|
The
One a Nous a The World Soul a Matter a Evil |
|
The One gives rise to the Nous (Mind) when it
reflects inward. When the Nous reflects inward it gives rise to other minds. When it reflects outward it gives rise to the
World Soul. When the World Soul reflects outward it gives rise to matter which is almost nothing. There is a movement from
unity to diversity, good to less good, and real to less real.
|
Here is a brief description of each:
- The One—Absolute Unity. It is the ultimate source of
all things. It is beyond reason. It is absolutely simple (indivisible). It is
beyond being and cannot be known.
- Nous—This is where the duality begins. The Nous (mind)
emanates from the One. Creation is ex deo.
Self-consciousness is attained by flowing out and looking within. All
other minds are contained within the Nous.
- World Soul—This is the result of the Nous reflecting outward. The Nous causes living souls to exist
through the World Soul. Soul gives rise to other souls as it reflects inward. Soul is more diverse than Nous.
- Matter—Soul gives rise to matter when it reflects outward. Matter is the most diverse of all beings. It is almost nothing. It is not evil, but is the least good.
- Evil—This is the realm of non-being. “Evil is when there is no being (good) to divide.”
Further explanation:
- The essential difference in any two things is found in a comparison of the degree of unity. This became
an alternative to Parmenides view—that being was pure and simple without degrees or kinds
- The move downward is conscious.
- One moves from external to internal, from internal to eternal
- You become at one with the universe when you discipline yourself by turning from the external world (asceticism)
and turn to the inner man. Ultimately it will require a leap of faith (a point of no knowledge—leap into the absurd).
This was Kirkegaard 600 years early. But for what reason should we ever give up reason.
- This is also the philosophical basis for the New Age movement. The
object of this faith is to reach the mystical union with the One.
- 1 John says to love not the world. But to think that the world is drinking and smoking and theaters and
card-playing is missing the point. Abstaining from these things will not make me spiritual. This is legalism. The lust of
the flesh and the eyes and the pride of life are within me, not external.
- Plotinus says that you look at creation and cannot learn anything about God.
- He believed in an extrinsic causal relationship--the effect is nothing like its cause. (as opposed to intrinsic
causal relationship--creation and the Bible are similar to God.
- Plotinus’ influence on his successors:
a. Medieval Christianity—Proclus-mysticism
and asceticism
b. Religious language–the via negativa-knowing God by negation
c. Spinoza–the father of modern rationalism
and pantheism, and anti-supernaturalism. The view held by Einstein. He is the fountain head of higher criticism of the Bible.
d. Immanuel Kant—agnosticism.
e. Hegel—emanationalism.
f. Existentialism—God is reached by a leap
of faith.
g. Wittgenstein—acognosticism: non-cognitive God-talk.
The real truth of God is beyond words. This also leads to existentialism. The Bible just tells us how we should think about
God, not precisely the nature of God.
h. Whitehead—processism-God is progressively growing
i. John Dewey—meliorism-the world is
getting better
II. Medieval Philosophers
It is difficult to underestimate the influence
that these philosophers had on the world of their day, and indirectly, the modern world.
With the light of the New Testament as a guide, these philosophers were able to reconcile the problems of the Greeks
and come up with a philosophy that consistently viewed ultimate reality with God. The first of these men is St. Augustine.
A. St. Augustine
1.
He lived from A.D. 354 to 430.
2.
Augustine’s Proofs for God:
3.
Cosmological Argument (Confessions 11, 4)
a. The universe changes.
b. Whatever changes has a cause.
c. Therefore, the universe has a cause.
4.
Argument from changing forms (On Free Will, 16, 44)
a. There are changing forms in this world.
b. All change is measured by what is changeless.
c. Hence, there is a changeless Form beyond this
world.
5.
Epistemology
a. “Disjunctives—world is either
one or many, finite or infinite, temporal or eternal.”
b. “The senses give a trustworthy report
of what they perceive.”
c. Three things we know for sure are: “we
exist, we think, we love our existence.”
d. Interiorism—“Truth dwells in
the inward man.”
1) independent
truths cannot be caused by changing and dependent sensations (external stimuli).
2) “Truth
cannot be caused by the individual mind” which is ruled by truth. “Truth is public to all minds.”
3) Since truth
transcends the individual and is immutable, “it must be caused by an immutable Mind (God).”
6.
Metaphysics
a. Augustine taught
that God was immaterial, self-existent, simple, immutable, and eternal.
b. Augustine taught
that evil is a privation of good. God is absolutely good, and only created good things. Free will is a good thing. Free will
is the source of evil. Nothing that exists is totally evil (totally privated).
7.
Influence of Augustine:
a. Positive: He was the dominant influence on basic orthodox Christianity and on Christian philosophy of history.
b. Negative: Major influence on baptismal regeneration, inspiration of the Apocrypha, Amillennialism, and celibacy.
He also influenced late Christian monasticism, anthropological dualism, later rationalism (innate ideas).
c.
He influenced Anselm and Aquinas theologically.
B.
Maimonides-“Moses”
1. He lived A.D.
1135 to 1204. He was born in Spain. He
left, due to persecution, and lived in Morocco, Israel,
and settled in Egypt. He was a physician,
mathematician, and philosopher.
2. He was the
most influential figure in Medieval Jewish philosophy.
3.
His world-view was Aristotelian. He was a religious rationalist.
4. His major contribution
was the Mishneh Torah, a code of Jewish law.
5. His philosophical
writings influenced the non-Jewish world. His contemporary, Thomas Aquinas, sometimes quoted him. So do many western and Muslim
thinkers of today.
C. Thomas Aquinas
1. He lived around
A.D. 1200. He is considered by many as the greatest systematic theologian of all times.
2.
He was influenced greatly by Aristotelian logic.
3. He is often
misunderstood by evangelicals. Contrary to the opinion of some, his teachings did not give rise to modern humanism; Francis
Schaeffer is wrong about Thomas Aquinas.
4. Thomistic View
of First Principles
a. All knowledge is based on first principles
(otherwise there would be no basis for knowing).
b. All first principles are self-evident (true
in themselves without reference to anything else).
c. There are five basic first principles
of knowledge.
1) Principle of non-contradiction (B is not
non-B).
2) Principle of identity (B is B).
3) Principle of excluded middle (either B or
non-B)
4) Principle of causality (non-B can’t
cause B)
5) Principle of finality (Being acts for and
end B)
5.
Faith and Reason
· Aquinas was a strong Calvinist. He taught that people believe
in God because He is cause. Reason is never the basis for faith. Authority is the basis of faith. Reason can be used in support
of evidence. One should use reason to demonstrate the probability of faith.
· Reason that God exists, never reason to believe in God. Belief “that” is different than belief
“in.” Belief “that” always precedes belief “in.”
· Marriage illustration: One can believe that a person exists and will make a good mate. However, marriage
does not become a reality until the commitment is made at the altar.
· Presuppositionalists are right when they say one cannot reason a person into believing in God. Thomism teaches
“look before you leap.” Presuppositionalism teaches “leap before you look.”
· There is a difference between perceiving something and receiving something. You can prove something to someone
and still not persuade them to believe.
6. Epistemology
· The predicate is reduced from the subject, not deduced from the subject with a first principle according
to Aquinas. Once you understand the predicate and the subject, you will “see” it as a self-evident truth. Something
is self-evident if it reducible to a first principle. “Every contingent being is caused.” This statement is not
self-evident at first, but after some analysis, it becomes apparent.
· The central premise of Thomism is: “The act in the order in which it is act is unlimited and unique
unless it is co-joined with passive potency.”
”Passive potency” equals capacity. Active potency is power.
God is pure actuality with no potentiality at all. There is nothing in God that is not fulfilled.
· Angels are simple beings like God. Angels are also actualized. They cannot be saved after their rebellion,
because they cannot change. The only change they can have is accidental (growing in size or mental capacity) or substantial
(to come into or cease to exist).
· God is pure “I am-ness.” Aquinas believed that he was pure Augustinian. It is of God’s
essence to exist. He is pure being. What can you give to the being that has everything? He cannot change. He needs nothing.
All we can give Him is worship.
· In heaven, we will have all the knowledge that is possible for us to have. What we strive for on earth we
will find rest in heaven. Great athletes can make something difficult look easy. There will be no effort left in heaven. This
is Aquinas’ view.
· Aquinas taught the analogy concept of God. You cannot give what you do not have. You cannot produce what
you do not have. Creation is similar to God in its actuality. Creation is different than God in its potency. Creation must
be different because God is infinite and creation is finite.
7.
Metaphysics of Aquinas
· He gave the only satisfactory answer to Parmenides
1.
Parmenides wrongly assumes that being is univocal.
2. Being
is analogous (similar) because it is composed of existence (act) and essence (potency). So there are different kinds of being.
a. God is being pure and simple and simple.
b. All other beings are composed of act/potency.
1). God alone is pure Act.
2). Angels are actualized potentialities with no change in being.
3). Humans are progressive actualized potentialities that are changing
· Parmenides’ argument works when one tries to compare two infinite beings. If they are identical in
every way, then they are one. However, two finite beings that are identical in every way, except that they have different
atoms, are still two separate beings. God is infinite. He is pure Act, without
Form or Matter.
· Aquinas taught the Cosmological and Teleological arguments.
· God cannot create another God just like Himself. God is eternal, uncaused, uncreated, and necessary. It
is a logical contradiction to suppose that God could create another Necessary Being. Every
creature is dependent or contingent. The moment you come to be, you have the possibility to cease to be. By Him all things
consist. Aquinas’ Cosmological argument is vertical (how the universe is being supported/ held together right now).
Pure act needs no cause. Only God is pure act. He did not deal with the Kalam argument (cause/effect).
· “Why is there something rather than nothing at all?” is one of the greatest of all philosophical
questions.
· Creation—God did no create the world out of Himself (ex deo). He is not made up of parts, therefore,
He cannot take part of Himself and create. He is simple. He could not take his whole self and create a universe or else it
would be identical to himself. Neither did he create with pre-existing materials (ex materia). He created ex nihilo.
· Aquinas incorrectly denied the Kalam argument and thought that there could have been an infinite number
of moments (in theory). Yet he agreed with the Bible that in practice, it did not occur that way according to Genesis. Matter,
space, and time were created together. Matter was not created in time. Only God and eternity was ontologically prior to the
moment of creation? Nothing was chronologically prior to creation.
· The universe is dependent on God for its existence. God is the sustaining cause of the universe. This is
the contingency argument of the cosmological argument (vertical). The horizontal argument is the Kalam argument which is related
to the originating cause of the universe.
· The soul and body are inter-penetrating. There is an overlap. They are not divisible in to two distinct
parts. Some, like Louis Sperry Chaffer believe that only the soul bears the image of God. Others believe in monism, like the
Adventists, the Jehovah’s Witness, F.F. Bruce. With monism, God must recreate at the resurrection. The old body will
remain in the grave. This is anthropological heresy.
· Aquinas taught a unity view of man. He also believed that right after conception, that God created a new
soul. Augustine held to a Traducian view. Geisler believes the creationist view of Aquinas is problematic because of the sin
nature problem.
8. Miscellaneous
Facts about Aquinas
· Aquinas’ world was dominated by a pantheistic view of God (neo-platonism)
· He referred to Aristotle as “the philosopher” and Ambrose as “the commentator.”
· Everyone wrote on the commentary of Peter Lombard for their thesis projects in the 13th century.
· Aquinas wrote before the teaching of the infallibility of the Pope and the veneration of Mary, etc.
· Aquinas was a Calvinist. He wrote that a person can only have faith because God gives them their faith.
He also wrote that a person can only be saved by faith, not by works.
· Before Vatican II, Catholics greatly respected and studied Aquinas. After Vatican II, they dumped him for
a phenomenological approach promoted by the pope.
· Aquinas followed Augustine—basis for faith is on God’s authority. The arguments are not the
reason for faith, but they support your faith.
· He believed that man was depraved and that human reason alone was not enough to convince a person of their
need for salvation. God’s existence is provable by using reason. However, this is not the same as believing in God.
It is mysterious to say that Christ has two natures, but not contradictory. Sometimes faith goes beyond reason, but never
against it.
· Four Laws:
Eternal
Law—the mind of God
Natural law—rational
creatures participating in eternal law
Human
law—particular application of natural law to local communities
Divine
Law—the revelation of God’s mind to humans through revelation
- No one has ever written a systematic theology even close to that of Summa Theologica. He also wrote many great exegetical commentaries.
See chart that summarizes
Aquinas’ view of God, angels, and humankind.
III. Important Philosophical Concepts Related to Analogy:
A. All words or descriptions about God must be univocal, equivocal, or analogical:
1.
Univocal—entirely the same
2.
Equivocal—entirely different
3.
Analogical—similar
B. Ontology--Being is one of the three above. Only one of these three views can be correct.
1. If every being
in the universe is entirely the same (univocal), then there is only one being—monism. This was the view of Parmenides
and was refuted by Aquinas.
2. If being is totally
different than non-being . . . or if every being is entirely different (equivocal), then there is only one being also (monism)
3. The only other
possibility is for there to be similar beings—an analogy of beings. Either analogy or monism is true.
C. Epistemology
- Univocally of concepts—Staitus and Occum
- Analogy of judgments (Aquinas was correct)
- Good is that which is desirable for its own sake. One cannot say that God is good and a person
is good in the equivocal way. The concept can be the same, but the judgment is different. One can say that both God and a
person are good in the analogical way. Concepts used of God and man must be univocally
defined. When the Bible states that humans should be holy even as God is holy, this analogical concept must be in mind. The word “as” implies similarity.
- Basis of analogy is the creator-creature relationship. God is pure act and He made something
that is actual. Act communicates act. There must be a similarity between creation and Creator. It is impossible to create
non-being. He could not create a being just like Himself (infinite). He had to create being similar to Himself.
- Some say that one cannot argue from effect to cause, but it is possible. Christians argue from general and special revelation (effect) to cause.
- A stone is like God in that it is being. It exists. It is even used as a metaphor of God in
the Bible.
D. Kinds of analogy:
- Extrinsic-either cause or effect does not possess
the characteristic; The cause produces what it does not possess.
- Intrinsic-both cause and effect possess the
characteristic properly; Aquinas believes this: Being causes being.
- The proper analogy is intrinsic rather than extrinsic. God really is good, b/c He causes good.
- Analogy between God and things is essential, not accidental. We are talking about an efficient
cause, not an instrumental cause. Ex., the relationship between my mind and my book.
This is efficient, intrinsic cause. There is an accidental, instrumental
cause between the pen and the book.
- There is a necessary relationship between an efficient cause and its effect. The material nature
of the effect can influence the outcome. (The sun hardens clay and softens wax.)
Conclusion
God is like the world in that He is the intrinsic, efficient cause. He is unlike the
world in that He is not the instrumental or extrinsic cause of the world. Do mosquitoes resemble malaria? No. The malaria
parasites contain the DNA identical to malaria. Mosquitoes are the extrinsic cause. (See 4 causes in Aristotle). A hammer
breaking the mirror—the hammer is the instrumental cause. The person hitting the mirror produces the motion; he also
has the thought in his mind to break the mirror—two similarities.
Everything
that could not be must be ultimately dependent on something that could not not be (a necessary being). This must be an indivisible
(simple) being. One cannot tear something apart that has no parts. God has no boundaries.
God
is Being. God is knowledge. Everything else has knowledge. God is good. Things
have goodness. God is love. Creatures have love.
The
theistic God must true. Humans are changing beings. They come to be and change through time. One could not change if one did
not have the potential to change. A person could be something else; a person can become something else. No potentiality can
actualize itself. Therefore, there must be a pure actuality. Infinite regression is impossible. As pure Act, God is the First
Cause.
Why
does something exist that could not be rather than nothing at all? This question is adequately answered by the Christian philosophers.
The Greek philosophers fell short in this account. It can be said that the Greeks gave the world a valuable foundation on
which to build knowledge. There heresies should be dismissed, but should not overshadow their contributions. The Christian philosophers were able to reconcile their Ultimate Reality with their view of God.
