COMMENTARY ON ELIZABETH COREY'S INTERPRETATION OF MICHAEL OAKESHOTT

Elizabeth Corey suggests that in order to understand Michael Oakeshott's worldview one should pay special attention to two subjects, religion and aesthetics, and analyze the connection between these two realms and the idea of practical life in general and of politics in particular. Her book provides a sympathetic but also critical conversation with Oakeshott's ideas, ultimately offering us a coherent picture of the place of the religious, poetical, and political in the totality of his thought. Corey persuasively shows that the major ideas of the mature Oakeshott originated in his earlier religious convictions and that his philosophy of aesthetics, contrary to what his critics claimed, fit nicely in the general framework of his thought.     

The secularisation of religious education: humanism,religion and worldview education in the Netherlands in the 1960s

Secularisation is often mentioned as an explanation for changes in worldview education in modern history. Worldview education has become less preoccupied with preaching religious truths and more with developing children’s personal worldviews. However, how secularisation exactly explains these changes is not clear. To get a clearer picture, we analyse developments in the Netherlands in the 1960s and compare these with Britain. Our source material primarily consists of educational, religious and humanist journals. We connect developments in worldview education to secularisation understood in three ways: reduced church attachment, the rise of alternatives to the dominant religion, and the decrease in references to religion in public space. Our findings show that changes in theology, decline in church attendance, professionalisation of academic pedagogy, and the growing popularity of dialogical methods strongly influenced the direction of both religious and humanist forms of worldview education in a similar way.     

The Religion of Genetics in Epistemology and Ethics

In the dialog between genetics and religion, the genetics of religion has received thoughtful attention from the possibility of free will to the evolution of human religious behavior. In this article, the author focuses on the reverse, the religion of genetics – specifically, two aspects of how religion shapes our understanding and use of genetics. If religion is (as often argued) whatever our ultimate concern or worldview is, it gives context and direction for the study and application of genetics. Some of the implications are traced through two examples of interaction with one religion, the varied Christian tradition.     

SCIENCE,RELIGION, AND THE MEANING OF LIFE AND THE UNIVERSE: “AMALGAM” NARRATIVES OF POLISH NATURAL SCIENTISTS

This article deals with phenomena occurring at the interface of the existential, the religious, and scientific inquiry. On the basis of in‐depth interviews with Polish physicists and biologists, I examine the role that science and religion play in their narrative of the meaning of the Universe and human life. I show that the narratives about meaning have a system‐related (“amalgam") character that is associated with responses to adjacent metaphysical questions, including those based on scientific knowledge. I reconstruct the typical amalgam questions of Polish scientists and come to a conclusion about the stability of religious and nonreligious amalgams in this group. Critically referring to the thesis concerning the secularizing impact of science, I conclude that science by itself does not have a destructive effect on Polish scientists’ confidence that life and the Universe are meaningful, but is rather an exacerbating factor of the existing worldview system.     

Visual Technologies, Cosmographies, and Our Sense of Place in the Universe

The first part of this paper surveys the visual technologies that have transformed the modern visual environment and argues for the relevance of their study to an understanding of modernity in general and to the field of religion and science in particular. The term cosmography is adopted for the visual and spatial manifestation of a worldview, and the importance of analyzing and advancing modern cosmography is asserted. In the second part, the focus shifts to one particular challenge presented by modern cosmography: how to represent and find visual meaning in the new range of size scales that have been offered up by the modern scientific worldview. Six strategies for representing and finding meaning in this new expanded picture of the universe are explored.     

Developing theories and models to serve: A manifesto for indigenous psychologists

This article reviews the theoretical foundations of Height Psychology, which proposes that researchers not only do research but act on their ideas to make the world a better place. It is posited that researchers should be passionate humanist whose thoughts propel actions and whose actions propel new thoughts, and they should be engaged change agents who work with communities in defining and solving problems rather than being disinterested scientists who are only interested in creating a body of objective knowledge. This approach is likely to fit the worldview of non‐western psychologists engaged in indigenous psychology, and also allow the development of global psychology that is culturally integrated and not excessively biased toward western or experimental psychology.     

How Science Is a Resource and a Challenge for Religion: Perspective of a Theologian

Religion is characterized by the attempt to create a worldview, which is in effect the effort of worldbuilding. By this I mean that religion aims to focus on all of the elements that make up a person's world or a community's world and put those elements together in a manner that actually constructs a total picture that gives meaning and coherence to life. In this activity of worldbuilding, science and religion meet each other at the deepest level. Science makes a fundamental contribution to this worldbuilding effort and also poses a challenge. There are good grounds for this twofold role of science: (1) scientific knowledge is basic to any worldview in our time, and (2) science and its related technology engender new and often confusing experiences that require inclusion in any worldbuilding.
The challenge of science is that its contribution does not easily accommodate worldbuilding because of the factors of chance, indeterminacy, blind evolution, and heat death that are ascertained through scientific knowledge. Science is a resource for us in that the features of its knowledge can lend actuality and credibility to worldbuilding.
Religion needs science for its worldbuilding if its interpretations are to be credible and possess vivid actuality. Science needs religion because, unless its knowledge is incorporated into meaningful worldbuilding, science forfeits its standing as a humanistic enterprise and instead may count as an antihuman methodology and body of knowledge.     

The Matter of Religion and Science: Response to Huston Smith

Huston Smith's Why Religion Matters is the culminating reflections of one of the most respected religion scholars of our day. In this work, Smith sees modern society to be in the midst of a spiritual crisis. According to Smith, this crisis has been brought about by the advance of science and the inroads into what Smith calls the traditional worldview. While Smith's work is of some importance, I believe that several of its fundamental claims are mistaken. Smith often does not accurately portray the content of science and frequently conflates the actual practice of science with philosophical scientism. Smith wrongly blames science alone for the decline of religion among Western elites. His claim that all religions can be equivocally described in terms of the traditional worldview is also problematic. Despite this, Smith does have a clear conception of what the issues are in the relation between science and religion. It is my hope that these issues will continue to be taken seriously.     

On the meaningfulness of existence: When life salience boosts adherence to worldviews

We investigated when and how life salience boosts adherence to worldviews. It was hypothesized that, similar to thoughts of mortality, thoughts about a meaningful existence increase adherence to worldviews. Study 1a, 1b, and 1c yielded support for the symmetric effects of life and mortality salience on existential thoughts and worldview adherence. Furthermore, study 2 showed that contemplating life's meaningfulness (versus meaninglessness) increased adherence to worldviews. Study 3 showed increased worldview adherence when contemplating life's meaningfulness (versus meaninglessness), and provided additional evidence that the effect on worldview adherence was mediated by the appraisals of life's meaningfulness. Finally, study 4 suggests that both reflecting on life and mortality leads to more worldview adherence under conditions of meaningful life appraisals. The findings are discussed with respect to research in existential psychology. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Penelhum on skeptics and fideists

Professor Penelhum has argued that there is a common error about the history of skepticism and that the exposure of this error would significantly improve our understanding of a current confusion in the philosophy of religion with regard to the issue of the rationality of religious beliefs. Penelhum considers certain contemporary philosophers of religion such as Plantinga skeptics because he reads Plantinga (for example) as arguing that religious beliefs are properly groundless in virtue of the fact that none of our beliefs have any ultimate grounds, and Penelhum argues that this sort of defense of religious belief is both limited and dangerous for religion. I argue that on the interpretation of ancient skepticism which Penelhum gives ancient skepticism is just what it has often been claimed to be: either practically untenable or incoherent or both. I show that in any case the confusion in philosophy of religion which Penelhum wants to sort out with the help of ancient skepticism is not one of which its alleged proponents are guilty. The views of Plantinga and others who take his line are more complex and powerful than Penelhum's presentation makes them seem; these views do not constitute an acceptance of skepticism but a denial of a certain sort of foundationalism. Contrary to Penelhum, then, I argue that ancient skepticism does not serve as a significant corrective for certain trends in contemporary philosophy of religion.     

SCIENCE AND RELIGION AS LANGUAGES: UNDERSTANDING THE SCIENCE–RELIGION RELATIONSHIP USING METAPHORS,ANALOGIES, AND MODELS

Many scholars often use the terms “metaphors,” “analogies,” and “models” interchangeably and inadvertently overlook the uniqueness of each word. According to recent cognitive studies, the three terms involve distinct cognitive processes using features from a familiar concept and applying them to an abstract, complicated concept. In the field of science and religion, there have been various objects or ideas used as metaphors, analogies, or models to describe the science–religion relationship. Although these heuristic tools provided some understanding of the complex interaction, they failed to address the broad nature of science and religion as well as the multifarious relationship between the two in a sociocultural context. Unlike the previous candidates, the concept of language, including the notions of linguistic worldview, linguistic identity, dialects, power, and bilingualism, offers a unique and comprehensive window through which science, religion, and the relationship between the two are seen with clarity.     

On distinctions

The paper discusses the importance of making distinctions for philosophy of religion. It argues that metaphysics is the philosophical attempt to draw out a system of distinctions that help us to make sense of our life in the world. Metaphysics is not a theoretical or speculative but a practical enter prise. Its task is not to offer ultimate explanations and “explain the world” in terms of its fundamental structure, but provide comprehensive orientation by unfolding a practice of orientation such as everyday life or the life of faith or a religious practice.     

Religion and Science in Taiwan: Rethinking the Connection

The author draws upon his experience in teaching courses in religion and science in Taiwan, as well as more traditional sources in the history of Chinese religions and the history of science in China, to discuss the relationship of religion and science in contemporary Taiwan. Various aspects of Chinese and Taiwanese understandings of both science and religion are discussed. It is suggested that the nexus for the science-religion dialogue does not lie in a doctrine of creation, which is noticeably absent in Buddhism and most Chinese religions, but rather in the human person who seeks personal health and wholeness, right relations with fellow human beings, and harmony with the cosmos. The author notes that many of these ideas are not unique to China and Taiwan and that in considering other cultures, our understanding of our own culture is enriched.     

NATURE, REALITY, AND THE SACRED: A MEDITATION IN SCIENCE AND RELIGION

Abstract. Many scientists now recognize the participation of the knower in the known. Not many admit, however, that scientists rely upon intuitions about reality commonly attributed to philosophy and religion: that sensory experience relates us to an order in nature congruent with our minds and of value congruent with our fulfilled being. Nature has disclosed itself to scientists—albeit fragmentarily—as power, life, order, and unity or meaning. In science these remain limit questions, raised but unanswered. In the unity of these qualities, assumed by science, the sacred begins to appear. Addressing the limit questions, not only of scientific but of human experience, is the province of philosophy and religion.     

庄子僧肇人生观比较研究——基于道家哲学与佛教中国化关系的研究

庄子与僧肇的人生观分属传统道家哲学和大乘佛教哲学,两者之间有本质的差别,庄子在人生价值取向上主要追求的是个体精神自由,僧肇则继承了大乘佛教“自觉觉他”、度化众生的理想。两者不同的人生价值追求在处世观、理想境界、理想人格等方面均有相应的体现。由于大乘佛教本身具有关注现实人生的特征,加上僧肇有意识地吸收融合老庄玄学的思想内容,因此,僧肇人生观中的共同点也是多方面的。僧肇哲学站在般若中观学说的立场上,承续了魏晋玄学的理论主题和体用一如的思维意向,并从思想理论的许多方面对两种思想资源进行了融通,在推进魏晋玄学向前发展的同时,对佛教的中国化和中国哲学的发展趋势具有导向作用。     

Psychoanalysis,religion, philosophy and the possibility for dialogue: Freud,Binswanger and Pfister

Abstract

This article considers the longstanding disciplinary tensions between psychoanalysis, religion, and philosophy. It argues for a cross-disciplinary understanding of human experience by examining the relationship of Sigmund Freud to his two Swiss colleagues, Ludwig Binswanger and Oskar Pfister. In contrast to Freud's avowed atheism and pronounced ambivalence on philosophy, Binswanger and Pfister both professed a strong religious sensibility and philosophical outlook. The article juxtaposes their theoretical divergences on religion and philosophy with personal interactions and correspondence. The relationship of Freud to Binswanger and Pfister is instructive for understanding the historical and contemporary interaction of psychoanalytic theory and practice with other disciplines and diverse viewpoints. The dialogical spirit that connects the three protagonists constitutes a critical engagement with learning and is essential to psychoanalysis today.     

Frank Ebersole on Wittgenstein and Pictures in Philosophy

How do we get into trouble in philosophy, and what do pictures have to do with it? This article addresses Frank Ebersole's thoughts on (Wittgenstein's remarks on) pictures in philosophy. It identifies the puzzlement generated for Ebersole by what Wittgenstein says and also considers some puzzling aspects of Ebersole's own renderings of pictures. It distinguishes between the philosophical picture and the pictorial form in which it may be crystalized and shows how philosophy's reliance on situationally disembedded grammatical stories (pictorial or not) leads us into trouble. Accordingly, responding to such trouble consists not in recovering the picture, in the sense of a single “object” or image we had before our mind's eye, but in—what is better described as Ebersole's strategy of—supplying a grammatical example (pictorial or otherwise) to go with our thinking, an example that makes what we think and say clear to ourselves.     

DIVINE ACTION IN THE WORLD (SYNOPSIS)

The following is a synopsis of the paper presented by Alvin Plantinga at the Ratio conference on The Meaning of Theism held in April 2005 at the University of Reading. The synopsis has been prepared by the Editor, with the author's approval, from a handout provided by the author at the conference. The paper reflects on whether religious belief of a traditional Christian kind can be maintained consistently with accepting our modern scientific worldview. Many theologians, and also many scientists, maintain that the idea of divine intervention is at odds with the framework of natural laws disclosed by science. The paper argues that this notion of a ‘religion/science problem’ is misguided. When properly understood, neither the classical (Newtonian) picture of natural laws, nor the more recent quantum mechanical picture, rules out divine intervention. There is nothing in science, under either the old or the new picture, that conflicts with, or even calls in to question, special divine action, including miracles.