4D RL as Non-Cognitive and Symbolic Flashcards
What was Paul Tillich’s book called?
• Dynamics of Faith
At a basic level, what did Tillich argue?
• That faith is the stage of being ultimately concerned
- Maslow: talked about a hierarchy of needs e.g. food, shelter, warmth
- Tillich: stated that we have spiritual concerns e.g. cognitive, aesthetic, social, political
• “Man’s ultimate concern must be expressed symbolically”
• “The language of faith is the language of symbols”
According to Tillich, what are the six characteristics of symbols?
1) Point to something
2) Participate in the reality to which they point
3) Open up levels of reality that are otherwise closed to us
4) Cannot be produced intentionally - they grow out of the unconcsious
5) Unlock dimensions of our soul that correspond to dimensions of reality
6) They grow and die - they grow when the situation is ripe
Tillich: “Why can [man’s ultimate concern] not be expressed directly and properly?”
- “Everything which is a matter of unconditional concern is made into a God.
- “If the nation is someone’s ultimate concern, the name of the nation becomes a sacred name and the nation receives divine qualities which far surpass the reality and functioning of the nation.
- “The nation then stands for for and symbolises the true and ultimate, but in an idolatrous way.”
According to Tillich, what is God?
- A fundamental symbol of ultimate concern
* Entirely non-cognitive and evokes a response at the deepest emotional level
What does Tillich say that symbols of faith are closely linked to?
• Myth
What did John Randall want to explore?
• How religious language carries meaning and knowledge and how this form of communication differed/similar to other disciplines e.g. science
Give three characteristics of symbols according to Randall.
- Rich in meaning
- Interpreted in myriad ways
- Meaning can change ∵ society/priorities/understanding of ourselves changes
What did Randall concentrate on?
• Communication that gives believers the greatest insights into common belief
According to Randall, what were the three methods of communication that give the greatest insights into common belief?
- Historical issues of conflict between religion and science is largely resolved
- Relationship between religion and philosophy, esp. Ancient Greeks - philosophy = central in recog. twin pillars of faith + reason
- Natural science, esp. post-Enlightenment; it reveals the workings of the world/universe; these developments of rational thought are no threat to religion; r. ideas of Middle Ages needed to develop alongside discoveries brought from science
According to Randall, what is key to understanding what it means to be religious?
• Religious experience
- It is a common form of symbolic language representing the things that give people their identity
According to Randall, what is the role of worship, prayer and ritual?
- Unify people
- Give people a shared identity
- Give people a common vision
According to Randall, how is religion not independent of man’s secular knowledge?
• It demands “careful observation and description, explanation, reflective understanding and intelligent criticism”
How does Randall show that all religious beliefs are mythology?
- Religious symbols do not hold truth of factual statements or empirical sciences or any other realist-based rational discipline
- The coherence theory of truth accepts anti-realism in regard to theological propositions
Finish this quote by Randall: “All ideas of God […] are”…
• “without exception religious symbols […] they perform what is primarily a religious function. They are employed in religious experience, and serve to carry on the religious life. They are techniques, instruments, in terms of which ritual and the other religious arts are conducted.”
What does Randall say that religion gives humans?
- Valuable insight into what it means to exist as a being within the universe
- He did not believe that r. provided additional truths about the world/man/God, but led to an enhanced view of the experience of existence
- “It is like art […] furnishes no supplementary truth, but it does open whole worlds to be explored.”
According to Randall, what is the primary function of religious symbols?
• To be a revelation of truth
- They are complex to articulate. He acknowledged his work with Tillich in developing the function
How does Randall distinguish between a sign and a symbol?
• Sign
- Provokes the same human response as another thing for which it could stand as a kind of surrogate or substitute
- “it stands for something other than itself: it is always a sign of something else.”
• Symbol:
- Not representative. Provokes the same human response from those that see or use it
- Does not stand for something other than itself
- “function in various ways in both intellectual and the practical life.”
What does Randall say that scientific symbols do?
• As they are cognitive, they provide factual knowledge about the empirical world
What does Randall say about artistic/religious symbol?
- They are non-cognitive, and engender an emotional response.
- No empirical knowledge is gained
What word, beginning with ‘m’, does Randall say that religious symbols are?
• Motivators
- They lead those influenced to forms of action
- Responses are shared due to the nature of the symbol and identity of the community that share it
- Able to communicate qualitative/shared experiences, but are often difficult to put into words
- Power of the symbol evokes feelings of shared experience
According to Randall, there is a parallel between religious symbols and what?
• Platonic ideas
- Rather than telling us something, they make us see it; it is not otherwise apparent
- Instruments of revelation about power as possibilities in the world
Give a challenge to symbolic language that Randall recognises.
• It is inherently non-cognitive
- Does not provide empirical or objective knowledge
- At odds with conclusions of Vienna Circle + subsequent logical positivists
- It is not verifiable, falsifiable, analytic, synthetic, or mathematical ∴ meaningless
Give a challenge to symbolic language that Tillich recognises.
• Tillich recognises that symbols change over time - non-static (but this did not deter him from believing that symbolic lang. = meaningful)
• Others: if the meaning of a symbol changes, you are also altering the association of that symbol from the cultures it is linked to.
- What insight can a symbol provide if its meaning changes over time?
- How adequate is it at providing the necessary spiritual insight if the context of the symbol changes
- E.g. Swastika: formerly a symbol of universal peace, perverted into a symbol of hatred
