Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Textbook Wittgenstein Religion and Ethics New Perspectives From Philosophy and Theology Mikel Burley Ebook All Chapter PDF
Textbook Wittgenstein Religion and Ethics New Perspectives From Philosophy and Theology Mikel Burley Ebook All Chapter PDF
https://textbookfull.com/product/the-great-riddle-wittgenstein-
and-nonsense-theology-and-philosophy-1st-edition-mulhall/
https://textbookfull.com/product/the-grace-of-being-fallible-in-
philosophy-theology-and-religion-thomas-john-hastings/
https://textbookfull.com/product/islamic-philosophy-of-religion-
essays-from-analytic-perspectives-1st-edition-mohammad-saleh-
zarepour/
https://textbookfull.com/product/lived-theology-new-perspectives-
on-method-style-and-pedagogy-1st-edition-azaransky/
Debating African Philosophy Perspectives on Identity
Decolonial Ethics and Comparative Philosophy 1st
Edition George Hull (Editor)
https://textbookfull.com/product/debating-african-philosophy-
perspectives-on-identity-decolonial-ethics-and-comparative-
philosophy-1st-edition-george-hull-editor/
https://textbookfull.com/product/the-later-wittgenstein-and-
moral-philosophy-benjamin-de-mesel/
https://textbookfull.com/product/exile-and-otherness-the-ethics-
of-shinran-and-maimonides-studies-in-comparative-philosophy-and-
religion-1st-edition-maymind/
https://textbookfull.com/product/authenticity-interdisciplinary-
perspectives-from-philosophy-psychology-and-psychiatry-godehard-
bruntrup/
https://textbookfull.com/product/language-and-schizophrenia-
perspectives-from-psychology-and-philosophy-1st-edition-
valentina-cardella/
Wittgenstein, Religion and Ethics
In memory of Dewi Z. Phillips (1934–2006), who, in a
Wittgensteinian spirit, encouraged us to seek to do conceptual
justice to the world in all its variety and to recognize that doing so
makes ethical demands of the inquirer.
Also available from Bloomsbury
Notes on Contributors
Acknowledgements
Abbreviations
Bibliography
Index
Notes on Contributors
Summary of chapters
In Chapter 1, ‘The Early Wittgenstein on Ethical Religiousness as a
Dispositional Attitude’, Chon Tejedor discusses some of the shifts in
Wittgenstein’s early thinking on religion and ethics, as he transitions
from the views rehearsed in his Notebooks 1914–1916 to an
altogether different approach in the Tractatus. During this period
Wittgenstein moves away from the view that ethics and religiosity
are conditioned by a transcendental subject and comes to endorse
an understanding of the ethical-religious attitude as non-
transcendental. The attitude, Tejedor argues, is dispositional rather
than emotive: it is bound up in language, thinking and action and
yet, at the same time, ineffable.
Chapter 2, ‘ “The Problem of Life”: Later Wittgenstein on the
Difficulty of Honest Happiness’, sees Gabriel Citron examining
Wittgenstein’s battles with the profound anxiety that can arise in
response to a sense of the radical contingency of everything one is
and everything one cares about. By giving particular attention to
entries in Wittgenstein’s ‘Koder Diaries’ from the 1930s, Citron
discusses the nature of ‘the problem of life’ both as it manifested in
Wittgenstein’s own life and as a universal problem. He also reflects
on how Wittgenstein might respond to questions about whether life
really is as problematically precarious as many of his most self-
revealing remarks seem to presume.
Chapter 3, ‘Wittgenstein and the Study of Religion: Beyond
Fideism and Atheism’, takes as its starting point the observation that
there remains confusion over the implications of Wittgenstein’s work
for the study of religion. On the one hand Wittgensteinians and
sometimes Wittgenstein himself are lambasted as ‘fideists’ seeking to
isolate religion from legitimate critique; on the other hand
Wittgenstein’s naturalistic tendency is said to result in atheism.
Interrogating the assumptions underlying these interpretations, I
aim in the chapter to clarify existing debates and make space for a
reinvigorated utilization of Wittgenstein’s ideas. I argue, first, that
the charge of ‘Wittgensteinian fideism’ conflates two distinct
principles – one acceptable to Wittgensteinians, the other not – and
second, that Wittgenstein’s invocation of instinctive aspects of
human life threatens to undermine faith only if one begins with an
unnecessarily secularized conception of the natural. The chapter
ends with remarks on the terrifying (and wondrous) phenomenon of
radical epistemic contingency that Wittgenstein’s approach
highlights.
In Chapter 4, ‘Wittgenstein, Kierkegaard and Chalcedon’, Rowan
Williams reflects both sympathetically and, at times, with a critical
eye upon the various remarks in which Wittgenstein refers either
directly or indirectly to the Christian gospels. Drawing connections
between these remarks and Wittgenstein’s thinking about ethics and
aesthetics, Williams considers both the similarities between
Wittgenstein’s and Kierkegaard’s thought and the ways in which
each of these thinkers helps to identify the error of treating the
divinity of Christ as being merely one further ‘item of information
about him’. Coming to see Christ as truly divine as well as truly
human – as stated in the Definition of Chalcedon – involves not
perceiving an additional fact in the world, but undergoing a
transformation of, as Wittgenstein puts it, one’s entire ‘system of
reference’ (CV 64e).
In Chapter 5, ‘On the Very Idea of a Theodicy’, Genia
Schönbaumsfeld brings the themes of religion and ethics vividly
together by highlighting the moral implications of a pervasive
assumption in contemporary analytic philosophy of religion, that it
makes sense to try to justify the ways of God to humankind by
devising a theodicy. Arguing that this assumption is erroneous,
Schönbaumsfeld contends that theodicies worsen rather than
alleviate the purported ‘problem of evil’. In addition to
conceptualizing God in unduly anthropomorphic terms, theodicies
turn out to be morally pernicious on account of their efforts to
vindicate the existence of evil and suffering. Schönbaumsfeld thus
proposes that instead of constructing putative theoretical
justifications for the state of the world, the lesson should be learnt
from Wittgenstein that the solution to the ‘problem of evil’ lies in the
‘vanishing of the problem’, and from Kierkegaard that faith consists
not in excusing the world’s predicament but in accepting it in a
joyous spirit.
Chapters 6 and 7 closely complement each other, with Chapter 6,
‘Wittgenstein, Analogy and Religion in Mulhall’s The Great Riddle’,
comprising a sustained examination by Wayne Proudfoot of key
themes from recent work by Stephen Mulhall, some of which are
reiterated and developed further by Mulhall himself in Chapter 7. Of
the issues that emerge out of Mulhall’s engagement with
Grammatical Thomist theology, notable among those that Proudfoot
illuminates and perceptively questions are: first, the idea that
austere nonsense may be motivated by a refusal to assign available
kinds of sense to language about God; second, the contention that
the analogical projection of words into new contexts is guided not by
rules but by a natural projective trajectory; and third, the relation
between philosophy and theology. All of this is not only apt to
prompt further thinking about the issues themselves, but also
helpfully sets the scene for the subsequent chapter.
In Chapter 7, ‘Riddles, Nonsense and Religious Language’, Stephen
Mulhall, after summarizing the distinction that he, following Cora
Diamond, draws between riddles and great riddles, fruitfully explores
the relation between his own concerns and certain of those
articulated in Rowan Williams’ Gifford Lectures, which were
published in 2014 under the title The Edge of Words. A first or even
a second glance at Williams’ book may suggest an antagonism
between, on the one hand, Williams’ conception of God-talk as a
mode of representation and, on the other hand, Mulhall’s insistence
that such talk is radically discontinuous with both descriptive and
representational discursive practices. Ultimately, however, Mulhall
sees a significant consonance between Williams’ willingness to
endorse certain versions of negative theology and his own
contention that great riddles, far from being solvable, serve to open
up a space in which we are called to ‘absolutely or unconditionally
cede control of our speech and forms of living’.
In Chapter 8, ‘Wittgenstein and the Distinctiveness of Religious
Language’, Michael Scott investigates why it might be that
Wittgenstein’s ideas about religious language have endured but not
prevailed in the philosophy of religion. Drawing especially upon
Wittgenstein’s 1938 lectures on religious belief and on notes
published in Culture and Value, Scott identifies four key themes in
Wittgenstein’s thinking. By locating those themes in relation both to
the dominant philosophical view of religious discourse – a view that
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
The Project Gutenberg eBook of And miles to go
before I sleep
This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States
and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no
restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it
under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this
ebook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the
United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where
you are located before using this eBook.
Language: English
By WILLIAM F. NOLAN
Murdock remembered how proud his parents had been when he was
finally accepted for Space Training—the only boy in Thayerville to be
chosen. But then, it was only right that he should have been the one.
The other boys, those who failed, had not lived the dream as he had
lived it. From the moment he'd watched the first moon rocket land he
had known, beyond any possible doubt, that he would become a
rocketman. He had stood there, in that cold December of 1980, a boy
of 12, watching the great rocket fire down from space, watching it
thaw and blacken the frozen earth. He had known that he would one
day follow it back to the stars, to vast and alien horizons, to worlds
past imagining.
He remembered his last night on Earth, twenty long years ago, when
he had felt the pressing immensity of the vast and terrible universe
surrounding him as he lay in his bed. He remembered the sleepless
hours before dawn, when he could feel the tension building within the
single room, within himself lying there in the heated stillness of the
small, white house. He remembered the rain, near morning,
drumming the roof, and the thunder roaring powerfully across the
Kansas sky. And then, somehow, the thunder's roar blended into the
deep atomic roar of a rocket, carrying him away from Earth, away to
the burning stars ... away ...
Away.
The tall figure in the neat patrol uniform closed the outer airlock and
watched the body drift into blackness. The ship and the android were
one; two complex and perfect machines doing their job. For Robert
Murdock, the journey was over, the long miles had come to an end.
Now he would sleep forever in space.
When the rocket landed, the crowds were there, waving and shouting
out Murdock's name as he appeared on the silver ramp. He smiled
and raised his hand in salute, standing there tall in the sun, his
splendid dress uniform reflecting the light in a thousand glittering
patterns.
At the far end of the ramp two figures waited. An old man, bowed and
trembling over a cane, and a seamed and wrinkled woman, her hair
blowing white, her eyes shining.
When the tall spaceman reached them they embraced him feverishly,
clinging tight to his arms.
Their son had returned. Robert Murdock had come home from space.
"Well," said a man at the fringe of the crowd, "there they go."
His companion sighed and shook his head. "I still don't think it's right
somehow. It just doesn't seem right to me."
"It's what they wanted, isn't it?" asked the other. "It's what they wrote
in their wills. They vowed their son would never come home to death.
In another month he'll be gone anyway. Back for another twenty
years. Why ruin it all for him?" The man paused, shading his eyes
against the sun. "And they are perfect, aren't they? He'll never know."
"I suppose you're right," nodded the second man. "He'll never know."
And he watched the old man and the old woman and the tall son until
they were out of sight.
*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AND MILES TO
GO BEFORE I SLEEP ***
Updated editions will replace the previous one—the old editions will
be renamed.
1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also
govern what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most
countries are in a constant state of change. If you are outside the
United States, check the laws of your country in addition to the terms
of this agreement before downloading, copying, displaying,
performing, distributing or creating derivative works based on this
work or any other Project Gutenberg™ work. The Foundation makes
no representations concerning the copyright status of any work in
any country other than the United States.
• You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
the use of Project Gutenberg™ works calculated using the
method you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The
fee is owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg™ trademark,
but he has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to
the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty
payments must be paid within 60 days following each date on
which you prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your
periodic tax returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked
as such and sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
Foundation at the address specified in Section 4, “Information
about donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
Foundation.”
• You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
distribution of Project Gutenberg™ works.
1.F.
1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth in
paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you ‘AS-IS’, WITH NO
OTHER WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED,
INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF
MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.