Reference no: EM133324054
Questions
1. How can we begin to make the case that Western monotheism and Western skepticism emerge together in the unveiling of what have been called the Abrahamic religions in the Book of Genesis? If you pursue this approach, how can you gain a deepened appreciation of the confluence of Western (monotheism) and Eastern religion (especially Buddhism)? What political implications follow from such a philosophical approach to Western and Eastern religion?
Sub-topics to be addressed in your essay:
a. The presence of negative theology in the Hebrew Scriptures themselves -- e.g., -- the fragmentary character of the beginning of Genesis. The first full-fledged sentence appears in sentence three.
b. The import of the phrase, Na'aseh V'Nishmah -- we will perform we will listen. The primacy of doing over theorizing in monotheism.
c. The structure of negative theological argument -- and its logical -- and theological -- implications.
d. The logical conundrums that negative theological gives rise to -- and their possible resolution.
e. The role of Platonic teaching in the formation of negative theology.
f. The structure of skeptical argument -- and the parallel features that it exhibits in relation to monotheistic argument.
g. Mysticism as the theological and historical successor to negative theology.
h. The theoretical and theological advantages of the term "Ein Sof" over the term "infinite" when talking about the Biblical God.
2. "Because of skeptical idealism -- the underdetermination of words by things -- our whole universe with all of the categories and terminologies that reign within it -- can only be characterized as possibilities, but not as certainties. This teaching which is called skeptical idealism ensures that belief in God enjoys the same ontological status as belief in commonsense entities and scientific ones." Discuss.
3. "An infinite metaphysical distance characterizes our use of the word "God" in relation to what many people take to be the reality of God as typifies our use of the various prosaic terms we utilize in our daily vocabularies in relation to all of the phenomena and objects of the world. Because the world does not certify the validity of any of our conceptualization (we see the world through the prism of our conceptualizations, and not the other way around), the term "God" is as real and as unreal as all of the other terms in our vocabulary. If "god" is no better and no worse than the other terms that we use to engage, investigate, and take inventory of daily reality, there you go, we have it -- belief in God." Discuss.
4. How can God be viewed as a rationalist concept, situated at the apex of an explanatory pyramid of events and phenomena occurring in the world? How and where does the rationalist force of the concept of God break down? How and why even if it wouldn't break down, the project of tracing any rationalist explanation to God would still break down - would still emerge as internally incoherent?
5. Where does the concept of God come from? Is it theological - stemming purely from Revelation? Is it historical - deriving from tradition? Is it rational, propelled in some fashion by rational necessity? Elaborate upon each one of these three alternatives - and indicate which one, if any, is most compelling.
6. Why can't skepticism declare unconditional victory over religious belief? What logical factors intervene to preclude this outcome?
7. How would the overall structure and content of Western theology work to reshape the institution of prophecy in Western religion? What are some of the key factors motivating our revision of the concept of prophecy stemming from the nature of Western religion?
8. How would you resolve the metaphysical puzzle surrounding the concept and practice of repentance? How do you deal with the factor that repentance involves a reversal of the normal time sequence? It represents a movement from future to past -- rather than from past to future. How do the philosophical approaches and strategies of Ludwig Wittgenstein and Elizabeth Anscombe help us resolve this question?