Ebook The Coherence of Theism (Clarendon Library of Logic and Philosophy), by Richard Swinburne
By soft data of guide The Coherence Of Theism (Clarendon Library Of Logic And Philosophy), By Richard Swinburne to check out, you might not need to bring the thick prints all over you go. Any type of time you have going to review The Coherence Of Theism (Clarendon Library Of Logic And Philosophy), By Richard Swinburne, you could open your gizmo to read this e-book The Coherence Of Theism (Clarendon Library Of Logic And Philosophy), By Richard Swinburne in soft data system. So easy and rapid! Reviewing the soft file e-book The Coherence Of Theism (Clarendon Library Of Logic And Philosophy), By Richard Swinburne will give you simple method to check out. It could also be quicker due to the fact that you could review your e-book The Coherence Of Theism (Clarendon Library Of Logic And Philosophy), By Richard Swinburne almost everywhere you want. This on the internet The Coherence Of Theism (Clarendon Library Of Logic And Philosophy), By Richard Swinburne can be a referred publication that you could enjoy the option of life.
The Coherence of Theism (Clarendon Library of Logic and Philosophy), by Richard Swinburne
Ebook The Coherence of Theism (Clarendon Library of Logic and Philosophy), by Richard Swinburne
The Coherence Of Theism (Clarendon Library Of Logic And Philosophy), By Richard Swinburne. Change your practice to put up or squander the time to just chat with your pals. It is done by your everyday, do not you really feel burnt out? Currently, we will reveal you the extra behavior that, really it's an older habit to do that could make your life much more certified. When feeling bored of constantly talking with your close friends all downtime, you could locate guide entitle The Coherence Of Theism (Clarendon Library Of Logic And Philosophy), By Richard Swinburne and after that read it.
Obtaining guides The Coherence Of Theism (Clarendon Library Of Logic And Philosophy), By Richard Swinburne now is not sort of hard means. You can not only opting for book store or collection or borrowing from your good friends to read them. This is a very basic method to exactly obtain the publication by online. This online e-book The Coherence Of Theism (Clarendon Library Of Logic And Philosophy), By Richard Swinburne can be among the options to accompany you when having extra time. It will not lose your time. Think me, guide will reveal you brand-new point to read. Simply invest little time to open this on the internet book The Coherence Of Theism (Clarendon Library Of Logic And Philosophy), By Richard Swinburne as well as read them any place you are now.
Sooner you obtain guide The Coherence Of Theism (Clarendon Library Of Logic And Philosophy), By Richard Swinburne, faster you could delight in reading the book. It will certainly be your count on keep downloading guide The Coherence Of Theism (Clarendon Library Of Logic And Philosophy), By Richard Swinburne in provided web link. In this method, you can actually make an option that is offered to get your personal book on-line. Below, be the very first to obtain the e-book qualified The Coherence Of Theism (Clarendon Library Of Logic And Philosophy), By Richard Swinburne and be the initial to know exactly how the author indicates the notification as well as expertise for you.
It will believe when you are going to select this book. This inspiring The Coherence Of Theism (Clarendon Library Of Logic And Philosophy), By Richard Swinburne book can be checked out completely in certain time depending on how frequently you open and read them. One to remember is that every e-book has their own manufacturing to obtain by each reader. So, be the excellent viewers and be a far better person after reading this book The Coherence Of Theism (Clarendon Library Of Logic And Philosophy), By Richard Swinburne
This book investigates what it means, and whether it is coherent, to say that there is a God. The author concludes that, despite philosophical objections, the claims which religious believers make about God are generally coherent; and that although some important claims are coherent only if the words by which they are expressed are being used in stretched or analogical senses, this is in fact the way in which theologians have usually claimed they are being used. This revised edition includes various minor corrections and clarifications.
- Sales Rank: #1537883 in Books
- Published on: 1993-04-29
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 5.38" h x .76" w x 8.44" l, .85 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
- 328 pages
Review
"Swinburne's revised edition is indeed a pleasure.... It is also good to see that [the] Clarendon Press have produced a relatively cheap paperback, for which students will certainly be grateful."--Heythrop Journal
About the Author
Richard Swinburne is at University of Oxford.
Most helpful customer reviews
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful.
As advertised.
By William Hamlett
As advertised, in great condition and the price was right. Bought for my sons philosophy class.
13 of 14 people found the following review helpful.
Superb!
By A. Customer
Richard Swinburne came highly recommended to me. Yet, after reading this book, I can say that he has greatly exceeded my expectations. I found Swinburne's argumentation to be clear, concise, and in many cases interesting. But not easy. There were several parts of his book which I had to read, and re-read, in order to fully understand his line of thought, which I expected.
Swinburne's task is to discover whether or not Theism is coherent. He concludes that it (probably) is. He doesn't argue that it's true per say merely that the Theist can not be charged with holding incoherent views. The book is split into three separate sections. In the first, Swinburne goes about defining what it means for something to be `coherent' and `incoherent.' He argues that a statement is incoherent if it entails a self-contradictory statement. He also argues that the easiest way to find a statement to be coherent is if that statement entails another statement which is coherent. He spends the rest of section 1 describing religious language--i.e. whether language describing God is used equivocally, univocally, or analogously. Throughout the book Swinburne maintains that we can describe God using words (such as "love" and "good") in their `mundane' senses without (always) appealing to analogy.
In section 2, Swinburne argues for a `contingent' god. He looks at eight different characteristics that Theists have typically used to describe God--an omnipresent spirit, free and creator of the universe, omnipotent, omniscient, perfectly good, a source of moral obligation, eternal, and immutable. He goes through each and argues first, that such notions are in fact coherent, and second such notions can be successfully defended against critiques. The bulk of the book takes up this portion. Perhaps what I found most interesting was how he indicated how several of these characteristics (for example, omnipotent and omniscient) entailed other characteristics (omnipresent spirit).
In the final section, Swinburne argues for the notion of a necessary being. He first lists different criteria for something to be necessary. Then he sees how these criteria apply to God's existence, and God's possession of these characteristics. He concludes that in order for a Theist to express what he normally expresses when saying that "God exists" the Theist must use some terms in a slightly analogous way. And since, it's not clear which terms are being analogously, and to what degree the question of coherence cannot (ultimately) be removed from the question of whether or not Theism is true. All in all, I highly recommend Swinburne's book as a fascinating read and a great defense of the coherency of theism.
This book is the first of his trilogy, the next book being "The Existence of God" and concluding with "Faith and Reason."
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful.
THE FIRST VOLUME OF SWINBURNE'S FAMED "TRILOGY" DEFENDING THEISM
By Steven H Propp
Richard G. Swinburne (born 1934) is Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at the University of Oxford; he has written many other books such as Is There a God?, The Existence of God, Faith and Reason, Was Jesus God?, etc.
He wrote in the Introduction to this 1977 book, "this book... is concerned solely with the central core of theistic belief, that God exists, that there is a God. It is not concerned primarily with whether this belief is true or with whether we can know that it is true or with whether we can know it to be true, but with the prior questions of what it means and whether it is coherent... It will, however, reach the conclusion that the question of the coherence of the belief that there is a God cannot altogether be separated from the question of the truth." (Pg. 1)
He admits, "If the terms in the definition of God are to be understood in the analogical senses I cannot prove for certain that claims that there exists such a God are or are not coherent. I can only indicate the considerations which are relevant to showing their coherence or incoherence. My main conclusion will be that we only have good grounds for supposing such claims coherent if we have good grounds for supposing them true. Whether we do have such grounds is a question that lies outside the scope of this book." (Pg. 5)
He explains, "This book is designed to argue the issues with considerable rigor and thoroughness... these qualities ... are needed in a context where men are familiar with any of the arguments of modern analytic philosophers relevant to these issues. They are needed too where we are trying to be a clear as possible about the meaning of the central doctrines of theism..." (Pg. 6) Later, he clarifies, "In general I have assumed in this book so far that it is one thing to show the coherence of a supposition and another to show its truth. If, unfortunately, we have to rely on an indirect argument for coherence, the only evidence we have of coherence is also evidence of truth." (Pg. 49)
About the analogical senses of words used in theology, he states, "theology... is in no way unique in this. Science does so, and I shall shortly illustrate this from Quantum Theory. One can also readily conceive of men other than professional scientists giving words analogical senses in order to describe phenomena which evade normal description..." (Pg. 62) Later, he notes, "I shall seek to establish that some creedal claims are coherent, that others can be coherent only if words are being used in analogical senses, but that purported direct proofs that they are or that they are not coherent in the latter case, fail." (Pg. 71)
He summarizes, "the full claim which I consider... is that there exists eternally an omnipresent spirit, free, creator of the universe, omnipotent, omniscient, perfectly good, and a source of moral obligation... we may understand the words in which it is expressed in their mundane senses... so long as `omnipotent' and `omniscient' are understood in ways more restricted than their etymology would suggest. If this is done, the claim is a coherent one... If, however, [a theist] insists on understanding the words in the senses other than those which I specify, I argue that the claim is not coherent." (Pg. 98)
He suggests, "the theist's claim that there is an omnipresent spirit who has free will and is the creator of the universe is to be understood as follows: (a) there is an individual X who is an omnipresent spirit and the creator of the universe, (b) everything that X does, X does intentionally, (c) no agent or natural law or state of the world or other causal factor in any way influences X to have the intentions on which he acts, that is to choose to act as he does." (Pg. 145)
He argues, "So to knock theism into a coherent shape, we are faced with the choice of providing a narrower definition of `omnipotence' on which being `omnipotent' is compatible with being perfectly free, or choosing another word to describe the extent of divine power... modern secular understanding of the natural meaning of `omnipotent' suggests that being `omnipotent' is incompatible with being `unable to do evil' and so suggests that we ought to describe the power of a perfectly free being by some other word than `omnipotent'... I suggest that... [God] is omnipotent in the following sense... he is able to bring about the existence of any logically consistent state of affairs x after t... given that he does not believe that he has overriding reason for refraining from bringing about x. Does this limitation of God's omnipotence make his less worthy of worship? Why should it?... Why should the fact that his intentions cannot fail to be realized through interference from causal influences make him any less worthy of worship?" (Pg. 160-161)
More controversially, he asserts, "I conclude that it seems doubtful whether it is logically possible that there should be both an omniscient person and also free men; but that it is definitely logically impossible that there should be an omniscient person who is himself perfectly free---all this given the natural sense of `omniscient' which I delineated [earlier]..." (Pg. 172) He explains, "there exists (now) an omnipresent spirit, perfectly free, creator of the universe, omnipotent and omniscient... The God thus postulated brings about all things which exists (or permits them to exist) and in so doing knows what he brings about and what that will lead to, in so far as he has brought about things which physically necessitate certain effects. Yet to maintain his freedom, he limits his knowledge of his own future choices." (Pg. 178)
He states, "If morality is objective, the naturalistic account of it is correct and morality is based on a set of logically necessary truths. In one discipline... philosophy, it is as easy or difficult to reach agreed results as it is in morals. Yet there is a sufficient amount and kind of agreement over methods and results in philosophy for it to be termed an objective discipline, and its results termed true or false. Therefore morals is also -properly accounted an objective discipline and moral judgements correctly termed true or false. (Pg. 201)
He also proposes, "the theist's only hope for maintaining the inner coherence of his claim that God is timeless and its coherence with others of his claims would be to maintain that many words are being used in highly analogical senses... although a theist would be justified on occasion in using words in an analogical sense, nevertheless too many appeals to analogical senses of words would make sentences in which the words were empty of content... the theist has no need to incorporate the doctrine of the timelessness of God into his theism. He can easily do without it and all the difficulties it brings, and rely instead on the simple and easy coherent understanding of God's eternity which the delineated earlier." (Pg. 221-222)
He summarizes, "The argument... has been that it is coherent to suppose that there exists eternally an omnipresent spirit, perfectly free, the creator of the universe, omnipotent, omniscient, perfectly good, and a source of moral obligation---so long as `omnipotent' and `omniscient' are understood in somewhat restricted senses. Such a being I have called a personal ground of being, and I have argued that there can be only one such being... If the claim of theism is simply that there exists a personal ground of being then, I believe, I have proved this claim to be coherent. However, my proof may not be accepted by all reasonable men... The only way to convince such opponents would be by yet more detailed argument, and the size of this book precludes that. Nevertheless, I hope that I may have convinced many reasonable men." (Pg. 233)
He says, "The duty to worship... arises from a general duty to pay respect to persons of various kinds... there is another and very different reason for worship. For worship of God is public acknowledgement of his existence and rightful sovereignty. It might be urged... that there is a duty on all men to acknowledge at any rate to themselves, perhaps overtly... perhaps even publicly, their most fundamental beliefs. A man owes it to himself and to his fellows to confess his deepest convictions. If that is so then the believer in God has a duty to acknowledge this belief." (Pg. 292)
He concludes, "In this book... We have seen the different things which can be meant when a man claims that there is a God. Some of these doctrines I have shown to be incoherent, and others to be coherent. I have also developed a doctrine... that there is a God who is miniessentially a personal ground of being... This doctrine I have been unable either to prove coherent or to prove incoherent ... However, I also showed that if we had good inductive evidence for the truth of this central doctrine of theism, we would thereby have indirect evidence of its coherence... How ought the theist and atheist to regard this conclusion? ... The atheist's best hope for defeating theism lies ... in attempting to show it false on the evidence of experience. The theist... must believe that his claims are coherent... But if there were a straightforward proof of their coherence, this would mean... that the claims of theism could be spelled out at greater length in sentences, the meaning of which men could grasp fully and understand completely." (Pg. 294-295)
This book, along with the others of Swinburne's "trilogy" (The Existence of God; Faith and Reason) are "must reading" for anyone seriously studying the philosophy of religion.
The Coherence of Theism (Clarendon Library of Logic and Philosophy), by Richard Swinburne PDF
The Coherence of Theism (Clarendon Library of Logic and Philosophy), by Richard Swinburne EPub
The Coherence of Theism (Clarendon Library of Logic and Philosophy), by Richard Swinburne Doc
The Coherence of Theism (Clarendon Library of Logic and Philosophy), by Richard Swinburne iBooks
The Coherence of Theism (Clarendon Library of Logic and Philosophy), by Richard Swinburne rtf
The Coherence of Theism (Clarendon Library of Logic and Philosophy), by Richard Swinburne Mobipocket
The Coherence of Theism (Clarendon Library of Logic and Philosophy), by Richard Swinburne Kindle
No comments:
Post a Comment