Philosophies and Figures Flashcards
What is Idealism?
Idea that all that exists is in the life of the mind. The phenomenal world is the projection of our consciousness
Immanuel Kant
Dates: 1724-1804
Knowledge not from the outside in, but from the inside out. We impose our mental categories on outside experiences.
We can know the phenomenal realm (things as they appear to us) but not the noumena realm (things as they are in themselves: God, spirituality).
- At the same time, Kant wanted to leave room for religion. The self has an inner sense, the moral law within. The is practical reason, not pure reason
- A response. God has spoken and we know him. He speaks in general revelation and special revelation
Rationalism
Theory that bases everything on universal principles of innate reason. Absolute certainty the legitimate form of knowing. Emphasis on logic
- Proponents: Descarte, Kant (though Kant believed that reason cannot go beyond the phenomena)
Empiricism
All knowledge comes only from sensory experience.
- Proponents: John Locke, David Hume, George Berkeley
Modern Philosophy
Time in philosophy in the 17th-19th centuries that saw the rise of empiricism and rationalism
Post-Modernism
Later 20th century way of thinking that is skeptical towards ideas of the Enlightenment. Promotes relativism
Plato and Platonism
5 cen BC philosopher
- Believed that the One (It/god) is the ultimate principle, the ideal. All else is less real.
- The knower can become merged with the One.
- Liberation from the body sought in a sense
Parminides
Early philosopher who believed that the only reality is ideas. All projection of ideas, no material.
Paraclites
All in flux. Constant change
Stoics
All reality was one and material.
- All reality is material and also divine
-Whole world and heaven are the substance of God.
- Valued indifference and lack of emotion
Epicureans
- Sought liberation from fear.
- Reality consists of randomly swerving atoms and the void
- gods did not care for the world.
- Happiness about maximizing pleasure and minimizing pain
Philo of Alexandria
Dates 25 BC-50 AD
- Interpreted the Scriptures in a Platonic manner.
- God is the One, the Supreme person. He is the origin and source`
Neo-Platonism
- Ammonius Saccas known as the founder of Neo-platonism.
- He taught Plotinus and Origen
- Taught that matter was close to non-being. Created by demiurge.
- “Ascent to the One is descent to your self” Contemplation and Mediation become more important.
Gnosticism
- Means “to know”
- Radical separation of the body and the soul. World is evil.
Perennial Philosophy
-The idea that all religions have core areas of agreement, which was a big tenet of Hermeticism
- Still influential to this day, as people like Kant call it “pure religion”
Pantheism
Everything is God
Panentheism
The view that God transcends the world, yet God and the world exist in mutual dependence. “If I did not exist, God would not exist either.”
Epistemology
Deals with how we know things.
Univocity of Being
Everything that truly exists is one
Rene Descarte
Dates: 1596-1650
“I think, therefore I am”
- Everything else to be doubted except the self
- A early rationalist philosopher
Analogical Approach to God
Analogy between us and God, but not the same. God reveals himself via analogy. We can know God as he speaks to us.
-Creaturely knowledge is a copy (analogue) of divine knowledge. It is similar and dissimilar
Archetypal and Ectypal Knowledge
Archetypal is original, ectypal is a copy
Duns Scotus
13th century theolgian who beleived that some of our knowledge must coincide univocally with God’s knowledge. The difference between man and God is quantitative as opposed to qualitative
Gordon Clark and CH Henry on Knowledge
Both believed that for us to have genuine knowledge of God, there must be an ontological link between God and us. We have univocal knowledge
Karl Barth
-1886-1968 Swiss Theologian
- Neo-orthodox figure who reacted against much liberal thought
- Believed that God is completely transcendent and that the only way he can communicate to us is by Christ. Denied natural theology
Hegel and Hegelianism
German Philosopher
- Beleived that all of reality is rational. Can know God in his inner being
- Believed that the Absolute Spirit realizes itself in the historical process of synthesis, antithesis, and thesis
- Monistic thinker. All reality is one
Schliemacher
Dates: 1768-1834….
- Romantic Theologian, who said that we cannot know God rationally but that we can experience him by looking within
- About intuition rather than knowledge
- A response to the Enlightenment in many ways. Wanted to help moderns to believe
Origen
Early Christian philosopher influenced by Plato.
- Believed that general and special revelation could not be separated.
- Likely a universalists
David Hume
Empiricist philosopher. Believe things purely on instinct and habit
- Natural laws predict what normally happens
- All miracles are false.
Secularlism
Idea that we have moved from superstition to the era of science, rationalism, and progress.
Enlightenment
Prioritized reason above all. Rationalist in their thinking.
- Believed in the inner autonomy of reason.
- Truth not historically based.
George Berkley
Dates: 1685-1753
- Idealist philosopher who believes that all that exists are ideas in the mind. Things only exists as they are perceived
Romanticism
- 18th-19th century movement
- Truth is in constant flux.
- Emotive rather than rational.
- Inner autonomy of feeling.
- A response to the rationalism of the enlightenment.
Soren Kierkegaard
- 1813-1855
- Can’t really know God. About experience and reaching the leap of faith.
- The way to have authenticity is by having a crisis of the law.
- Almost an antithesis between God and Man.
Humanism
A movement that came about during the Renaissance that put emphasis on the human realm.
- A big focus on the humanities
Secular Humanism
An almost religious like view of man, as they are seen to not need God. Focus on reason, naturalism, etc
