Paul Tillich Response to Modern Criticism
INTRODUCTION
The later part of 20th century witness a renewed question of empiricism in philosophy of religion. The question is concerned with what patterns a religious reasoning and religious language should take in determining the existence of God, the belief in God, the reality of a good God and the existence of evil. The approach is championed by logical positivism based on verification principles of ascertain meaning only by sense experience.
The Modern Empiricism as discussed in this paper covers the period of tale end of 1500 AD to the end of 1800 AD, that is 16-19 century. This course explores the themes of Paul Tillich 's philosophical theology, with special attention to his analysis of meaning and its apparent loss in modern society. The course will also evaluate Tillich 's response to the problem of meaninglessness and his effort to interpret the Christian message.
WHAT IS EMPIRICISM?
According to John Scott & Gordon Marshall, empiricism, in philosophy, is “the attitude that beliefs are to be accepted and acted upon only if they first have been confirmed by actual experience”. This broad definition accords with the derivation of the name from the Greek word empeiria, meaning “experience.” Primarily, and in its psychological application, the term signifies the theory that the phenomena of consciousness are simply the product of sensuous experience, i.e. of sensations variously associated and arranged (Andrew M. Colman: 2003:242). It is thus distinguished from Nativism or Innatism. Secondarily, and in its logical (epistemological) usage, it designates the theory that all human knowledge is derived exclusively from experience, the latter term meaning, either explicitly or implicitly, external sense-percepts and internal representations and inferences exclusive of any superorganic (immaterial) intellectual factor. Empiricism is thus opposed to the claims of authority, intuition, imaginative conjecture, and abstract, theoretical, or systematic reasoning
The later part of 20th century witness a renewed question of empiricism in philosophy of religion. The question is concerned with what patterns a religious reasoning and religious language should take in determining the existence of God, the belief in God, the reality of a good God and the existence of evil. The approach is championed by logical positivism based on verification principles of ascertain meaning only by sense experience.
The Modern Empiricism as discussed in this paper covers the period of tale end of 1500 AD to the end of 1800 AD, that is 16-19 century. This course explores the themes of Paul Tillich 's philosophical theology, with special attention to his analysis of meaning and its apparent loss in modern society. The course will also evaluate Tillich 's response to the problem of meaninglessness and his effort to interpret the Christian message.
WHAT IS EMPIRICISM?
According to John Scott & Gordon Marshall, empiricism, in philosophy, is “the attitude that beliefs are to be accepted and acted upon only if they first have been confirmed by actual experience”. This broad definition accords with the derivation of the name from the Greek word empeiria, meaning “experience.” Primarily, and in its psychological application, the term signifies the theory that the phenomena of consciousness are simply the product of sensuous experience, i.e. of sensations variously associated and arranged (Andrew M. Colman: 2003:242). It is thus distinguished from Nativism or Innatism. Secondarily, and in its logical (epistemological) usage, it designates the theory that all human knowledge is derived exclusively from experience, the latter term meaning, either explicitly or implicitly, external sense-percepts and internal representations and inferences exclusive of any superorganic (immaterial) intellectual factor. Empiricism is thus opposed to the claims of authority, intuition, imaginative conjecture, and abstract, theoretical, or systematic reasoning
References: Andrew M. Colman: Oxford Dictionary of Psychology, Oxford University Press, New York, 2003. Bacon, Francis, Viscount Saint &Baron of Verulam: The Nature of Things. Anthony M. Quinton, University of Oxford, 1950 David Hume, A Treatise of Human Nature, (1739) in Encyclopædia Britannica Immanuel Kant: Critique of Pure Reason, in Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopaedia Britannica Student and Home Edition. Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica, 2010. John Locke: An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, vol. 2 Oxford University, England 1690 John Scott & Gordon Marsall: Oxford Dictionary of Sociology, Oxford University Press, New York, 2005. John Stuart Mill, A System of Logic, Ratiocinative and Inductive, (1843) in Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopaedia Britannica Student and Home Edition. Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica, 2010. Radical Empiricism: Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopaedia Britannica Student and Home Edition. Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica, 2010. W.H. Walsh, Reason and Experience (1947); and H.H. Price, Thinking and Experience, 2nd ed. (1969) in Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopaedia Britannica Student and Home Edition. Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica, 2010.