May 19th 2015 Ch2 How Religion Began to be Studied

Philosophical Approach
Philosophy (Philia love + Sophia wisdom)
o The love or pursuit of wisdom
o In the West, this pursuit has centered on the use of logical
reasoning as its method
o Western academic
See rational thought as the most acceptable technique
for the acquisition of wisdom
o Eastern and also in the past western
Regarded as deriving from the full compass of human
abilities
o Nowadays in the West, those non-logic-centered techniques are
often considered to belong to a religious lifestyle.
o The separation between religion and philosophy began during
the period of Enlightenment (18th century, also was a post
Renaissance movement)
o In Western, many people still use religion as a singular term,
which means the Christian one alone. Completely ignoring the
Eastern religion
Ignorance of the diversity of religion
o In Eastern, there is no distinct words for religion or philosophy.
They use term, darshana, which conjoins them
Darshana viewpoint, perspective, or worldview
o Philosophical approach to the study of religion, that is, the love
of and pursuit of wisdom, has been present in all human
cultures throughout history.
Early Greek Thinkers
o Both Western and the Eastern philosophers articulated similar
ideas in the concept of the yogas, cycles of time in which the
quality of life and morals progressively deteriorate
o The Greek philosopher Anaximander introduced the concept of
apeiron, the undifferentiated or limitless. The opposite things
like hot and cold can interact with each other to create fullness
and eventually come back to the ultimate, the uncaused cause.
o Daoist philosophers in China also presented a similar idea of
which the all dualities (Yin and Yang) emerged and to which they
returned.
o Aristotle introduces the term Metaphysics aka First Philosophy
Ontology
Study of being existence
Theology
The study of God, the gods, or the divine
The Universal Science
Study of the first principles, primary or axiomatic
ideas about the world or how we acquire
knowledge or wisdom.
Western philosophy through the Middle Ages
Modern Western philosophy
Religion and modern science
Philosophy in the East
Philosophy of religion