Curing the philosopher's disease : reinstating mystery in the heart of philosophy / Richard H. Jones.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Jones, Richard H., 1951-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Knowledge, Theory of.

Mysticism.

Philosophy.

Religion.

Science.

Physical Description:

vi, 297 pages ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Lanham, Maryland : University Press Of America, [2009]

Summary:

Curing the Philosopher's Disease is a philosophical examination of the mysteries surrounding the foundations of science, philosophy, and religion. Much of Western philosophy, and science is discussed in order to see our epistemological and metaphysical situation. The love/hate relation philosophers have with mystery is explored, as are the contributions of reductionists and antireductionists, postmodern relativists and critical realists, naturalists and the religious, and theologians and mystics. The thrust of the arguments affirms that there are limits to what philosophy, science, religion, and mystical experiences can tell us about reality. By acknowledging that some questions may be unanswerable and understanding the importance of that fact even as the answers remain ambiguous, our true situation in the world is revealed. Mystery should be reinstated as a basic feature when we reflect upon the nature of what we know and who we are. Mystery frames all of our claims to fundamental knowledge, and we must accept that it will remain a permanent fixture. Thus, the importance of mystery needs to be reaffirmed today, during an era when the fullness of reality is often ignored.

Contents:

1 Exploring Mystery 1

Puzzles Versus Mysteries 2

Modern Philosophy and Mystery 4

Types of Mysteries 5

Mystery and Explanation 8

Affirming Mystery 9

2 Philosophy 11

Skepticism 12

Words and Reality 16

Modernity 17

Immanuel Kant's Transcendental Realism 18

The Twentieth Century 21

Metaphysics 23

Beingness 25

Consciousness 28

The Philosopher's Disease 35

3 Postmodernism and Critical Realism 43

Postmodernism 44

Postmodernism and Mystery 48

Critical Realism 49

Problems for Postmodernists 57

The Problem for Realists 59

The Case for Realism 62

Where Do We Stand? 66

4 Science 71

Science, Wonder, and Mystery 72

Types of Scientific Mysteries 74

The Metaphysics of Science 75

Causation and Determinism 77

Naturalism 78

An Ordered Cosmos 79

Objectivity 80

Why Does Science Work? 81

Laws and Theories 84

Models 86

What is Matter? 87

The Smallest Scale of Things 90

The Largest Scale of Things 94

Theories of Everything 100

Complexity 104

Emergence 106

Life 112

Conscious Beings 114

Biological Evolution 117

The Limits of Science 121

5 Explaining the Universe 129

"Why is There Something Rather Than Nothing?" 130

The Cosmological Argument 131

Limitations of the Cosmological Argument 132

The Unconvinced Naturalists 135

The Problem of Infinite Regress 135

"Self-Existence" 137

The Principle of Sufficient Reason 139

The Natural Universe 140

ASustainer 141

Can the Dispute be Resolved? 143

The Intractable Why-Mystery Remains 145

The Teleological Argument 147

The Anthropic Principle 149

The Naturalists' Response 150

Evolution 152

Natural Suffering 156

Is There Fine-Tuning? 162

Multiple Words 164

The Alternatives: Multiple Worlds or a Designer 167

The Problems for Theists 169

The Mystery of the Order of Things 175

"The Mind of God" 176

The Problem With Any Ultimate Explanation 181

6 Religion 189

Transcendental Realities 190

The Naturalists' Response 190

Science and Meaning 194

Religion and Mystery 196

The Question of Creation 198

Suffering and Death 200

History 202

Morality 204

Is There a "Meaning of Life"? 208

The Transcendent and Language 210

Is Knowledge of the Transcendent Possible? 214

Theology and Mystery 215

The Demise of Mystery Today 218

Problems of a Transcendental Mystery 220

Between Mystery and Religion 225

7 Religious Experiences 237

Types of Religious Experiences 237

Revelations 239

Mysticism 241

Mindfulness and the Depth-Mystical Experience 242

Reality 244

Depth-Mystical Knowledge 249

Constructivism and the Claim to Mystical Knowledge 251

Is There Mystical Knowledge? 252

Mindfulness and Language 255

The Depth-Mystical Experience and Language 257

Paradox 259

Mysticism and Mystery 262

Conflicting Claims and the Limits of Conceptions 264

The Thrust Against Mystery 265

8 Reviving Mystery 271

The Centrality of Mystery 272

Philosophy's Role 276

Living Without Answers 277

How Much Skepticism? 279

Humility 281.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [285]-292) and index.

ISBN:

076184810X

9780761848103 9

OCLC:

443095395