Lecture 5: Apologetic methology, cont.; Postmodernity

Question 1

Who developed the categorical imperative?

Answer 1

Kant

Question 2

Define authorial intent.

Answer 2

In order to understand a text, one must get into the mind of the author. The meaning of the text is what the author meant or the author’s intepretation.

Question 3

What did David Hume believe were appropriate sources of truth?

Answer 3

Empirical evidence and mathematical reasoning are the only proper ways of arriving at the truth, not pure reason.

Question 4

What increased in importance during the Renaissance?

Answer 4

The use of reason, and classical sources for philosophy and thought.

Question 5

What increased in importance during the Enlightenment?

Answer 5

Humanity’s importance as the thinking subject.

Question 6

Galileo studied which causes of the universe?

Answer 6

Efficient

Question 7

Define the categorical imperative in a general sense.

Answer 7

Similar to the ‘golden rule’ - only act in such a way that you would want your actions to be generalized.

Question 8

Who said that we must get into the mind of the author in order to understand Scripture properly?

Answer 8

Friedrich Schleiermacher

Question 9

Who split Aristotle’s four causes into science and theology?

Answer 9

Sir Francis Bacon

Question 10

Descartes’ work shifted philosophy from __________ to _________ ?

Answer 10

From metaphysics to epistemology. From the nature of reality to how one can know what is real.

Question 11

What did Kant believe with regard to reason, faith, and how we view the Bible?

Answer 11

All Scripture or claims of goodness must pass the test of reason in order to be believed.

Question 12

What two substances did Descartes believe made up the human being?

Answer 12

The thinking substance and the extending substance (body)

Question 13

How did the Enlightenment evaluate importance in the relationship between God and humanity?

Answer 13

Rather than thinking man’s importance derived from how we fit into God’s activity in history, God’s importance derived from how he added value to humanity’s story.

Question 14

Give the two points of the categorical imperative.

Answer 14

• Actions must be universalizable

- People must be treated as ends in themselves, not means

Question 15

What decreased in importance during the Enlightenment?

Answer 15

Theology and the use of the Bible.

Question 16

How does dialogical apologetics address reason and the noetic effects of sin?

Answer 16

It acknowledges that sin distorts our perception of reality, but rationality is part of us being created in God’s image and reality will force itself to be accepted.

Question 17

How did Galileo influence scientific thinking?

Answer 17

His focus on experimentation with quantifiable results became the standard for scientific research.

Question 18

Who believed that we cannot ever really experience objects as they are, only their properties, and that causality is an unsupportable tenet?

Answer 18

David Hume

Question 19

Give four key characteristics of the enlightenment and modernity.

Answer 19

• Reason
• Autonomy (human)
• Mechanistic view of the universe
• Progress (belief in)

Question 20

Who said “knowledge is power”?

Answer 20

Francis Bacon

Question 21

Define cogito ergo sum.

Answer 21

“I think, therefore I am.” Descartes started with the one foundation that he could not doubt, then used it to build a philosophy around.

Question 22

Who believed the mind begins as a blank slate?

Answer 22

John Locke

Question 23

What did Bacon believe science could be used for?

Answer 23

To regain life as it existed in the Garden of Eden. Science could help humanity overcome the effects of the fall.

Question 24

Bacon believed that science must be what?

Answer 24

Practical. Science should manipulate nature rather than try to understand nature.

Question 25

Who said “I think, therefore I am”?

Answer 25

Rene Descartes

Question 26

What decreased in importance during the Renaissance?

Answer 26

The power of the church.

Question 27

What did Kant believe with regard to our observation of objects?

Answer 27

We are involved in the knowing of objects and influence what we see. An uncrossable divide exists between the object as it exists and the object as we perceive it.

Question 28

For Kant, where did knowledge of God reside?

Answer 28

Knowledge of God is noumenal, and so we cannot really understand God.

Question 29

Define postmodernism.

Answer 29

Postmodernism can be seen as an intellectual movement or collection of cultural phenomena that celebrates the individuality of viewpoints and approaches reason with skepticism.

Question 30

Where does dialogical apologetics focus?

Answer 30

On the person of the skeptic him/herself.

Question 31

What individual and which movement does authorial intent stem from?

Answer 31

Schleiermacher and Romanticism