Dissertations / Theses: 'Essentialism (Philosophy) Philosophy and religion'

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Birkett, Edward John. "The tensions of modernity : Descartes, reason and God /." View thesis View thesis, 2000. http://library.uws.edu.au/adt-NUWS/public/adt-NUWS20030411.100355/index.html.

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Birkett, Edward John. "The tensions of modernity : Descartes, reason and God." Thesis, View thesis View thesis, 2000. http://handle.uws.edu.au:8081/1959.7/399.

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Reason, material objects, God, mind and body are all interrelated in Descartes' philosophy. The misapprehension of one will lead to misunderstandings in all of them. They are bound together by being part of the one God given secure universe. This allows Descartes to put forward the understanding of the universe as being one in which rational science was possible and indubitable certainty achievable. Because they are all organically related in the one meaningful system, the essential natures of these things which Descartes discovers flow into one another in their actual existence in the world. Accepting the picture of the universe as a rational place where certainty is possible, is part of what defines much of modernity as modernity. Since this is one way of ensuring certainty, modernity demands that a thing's essence should reflect its manner of existence. However this leads to modernity demanding of Descartes' philosophy that it reflect this same structure. Modernity then reads Descartes as trying to present such a picture, and consequently finds that Descartes' arguments do not work. Because Descartes' universe is God's universe, he is able to offer to humanity a very strong form of autonomy. But modernity prefers to have a less powerful form of autonomy which is independent of God, but which makes itself a servant to nature and the community of reason. This is a result of the price of entry into the rational universe through Descartes' method of doubt. As a consequence of modernity's reworking of Descartes' understanding of autonomy, and their demand that a thing's essence should exactly reflect its mode of existence, irreducible tensions develop in modernity. These are particularly obvious in the case of the relationship between science, reason and God, and between the mind and the body. This thesis addresses these tensions

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Djukic, George. "Essentialism : Paradise lost /." Title page, contents and abstract only, 1997. http://web4.library.adelaide.edu.au/theses/09PH/09phd626.pdf.

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Logue, Jessica Wollam. "Context and anti-essentialism a thoroughgoing approach /." Related electronic resource: Current Research at SU : database of SU dissertations, recent titles available full text, 2006. http://proquest.umi.com/login?COPT=REJTPTU0NWQmSU5UPTAmVkVSPTI=&clientId=3739.

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Gilon, Odile. "Essentia indifferens: études sur l'antériorité, l'homogénéité et l'unité dans la métaphysique de Jean Duns Scot." Doctoral thesis, Universite Libre de Bruxelles, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/2013/ULB-DIPOT:oai:dipot.ulb.ac.be:2013/210227.

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Ce travail porte sur l'application et l'utilisation par Jean Duns Scot de la théorie de l'indifférence de l'essence, issue du péripatétisme arabe, et se donne pour enjeu d'en comprendre le fonctionnement conceptuel. Solution conjointe aux questions de la constitution ontologique des choses, des rapports entre le langage et la réalité et du mode d'appréhension des notions générales dans l'abstraction, la théorie de l'indifférence de l'essence sert de sous-bassement à la métaphysique de Duns Scot. C'est au moyen de cette théorie qu'il est possible, comme le montre cette recherche, de relire certains grands thèmes de la métaphysique scotiste: la théorie de la nature commune et de l'haeccéité, la connaissance abstractive (cognitio abstractiva), et la théorie de la non identité formelle. Le travail tente surtout de dégager le caractère proprement méthodologique de la théorie des trois états de l'essence (triplex status essentiae), répondant à la question du statut de l'essence indifférente, à celle des prédicats d'ordre supérieur et au problème de la séparation dans l'abstraction.
Doctorat en Philosophie
info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

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Chan, Ka-wo, and 陳嘉和. "What if natural kind terms are rigid?" Thesis, The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong), 2009. http://hub.hku.hk/bib/B41633878.

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Ross, Allison. "Making sense of ʺessenceʺ : a critical examination of the adequacy of the modern philosophical conception of ʺessenceʺ." Thesis, Rhodes University, 2000. http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1002850.

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The idea that some sub-set of the properties of an object captures what it is to be that thing i.e. that it has an essence which is there to be discovered and about which we can be mistaken - is a commonsense assumption that we use all the time. However, philosophers of this century have regarded the realism about essence with skepticism, arguing that we impose essences on things by the way we define our concepts as opposed to discovering them. Essences are supposedly characteristics of our concepts rather than of objects in the world. This was the orthodox view until a group of philosophers of language developed the theory of direct reference. They claimed that proper names and certain other words refer non-connotatively which entails that the real properties of objects are crucial to the establishment of the reference of such terms. It can be shown that the properties involved in reference determination must be all and only the necessary properties of those objects. This discovery has been taken to mark the rehabilitation of the notion of essence, with an object’s essence being taken to be that set of properties which it must have in all possible worlds in which it exists. I will argue that the theory of direct reference is correct up to the point at which it assimilates the necessary properties of objects to their essences. I will show that the set of an object’s necessary properties cannot fulfill the role reserved for the concept of essence in metaphysical hypotheses concerning the nature of objects. I will go on to show that a sub-set of a thing’s necessary properties can fulfill this role and I will suggest that we identify the members of this sub-set by testing their ability to furnish the kinds of explanations we expect from essences. I will demonstrate how this can be done using the Aristotelian idea that the notion of essence is required in order to explain how it is that objects can persist through change.

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Mackie, P. "How things might have been : A study in Essentialism." Thesis, University of Oxford, 1987. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.234316.

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Cameron, Jonathan. "Some philosophical refections on the "essentialist" v/s "constructivist" debate as it stands to the philosophical analysis of mystical experience." Thesis, University of Aberdeen, 2010. http://digitool.abdn.ac.uk:80/webclient/DeliveryManager?pid=165861.

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‘Essentialism’ and ‘constructivism’ are two epistemological perspectives that have been used in the philosophical analysis of mystical experience. ‘Essentialism’ attempts to establish mystical experience as a distinct category of experience, cutting across cultural boundaries. ‘Constructivism’ attempts to establish mystical experience as unique to its various cultural contexts. The two viewpoints are variously held in opposition. ‘Constructivism’ often appears as something of an assumed perspective and is rarely, if ever, defended (in any depth) by the individuals whose views it apparently represents. Recent ‘essentialist’ thinkers (‘non-constructivists’) have taken issue with this tendency to assume ‘what is to be proved’, and have reasoned in attempts to establish ‘constructivisim’ as inappropriate to certain experiences that appear to be found recurring in reports of mystical experiences across cultures. However, those analyses have been concerned to recommend their own (‘essentialist’ / ‘non-constructivist’) position and have, therefore, operated with a certain amount of bias, despite elements of commendable intent. Indeed it is in virtue of these commendable elements i.e. by exploring the epistemological assumptions of authors who attempt to make mystical experience culture specific, that ‘essentialists’ posit and provide justification for the classification of ‘constructivism’ as a distinct philosophical approach to the data of enquiry. ‘Constructivists’ (so-called), on the other hand, tend to emphasise the importance and role of context in their discussions, and in some cases reject the classification of their views as particularly ‘constructivist’. The thesis examines the reasonable defensibility of ‘nonconstructed’ mystical experience from three perspectives: ‘essentialist’, ‘constructivist’ and ‘contextualist’ – outlining considerations for anyone approaching the material via each, and addressing the relevant issues of diversity at tension between these recognisable philosophical viewpoints.

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Deng, Duen-Min. "A theory of essence : an Aristotelian notion reconstructed." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 2013. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.607781.

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Fulfer, Katherine N. "The concept of "woman" feminism after the essentialism critique /." unrestricted, 2008. http://etd.gsu.edu/theses/available/etd-04202008-093433/.

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Thesis (M.A.)--Georgia State University, 2008.
Title from file title page. Christie J. Hartley, Andrew I. Cohen, committee co-chairs; Andrew Altman, committee member. Electronic text (70 p.) : digital, PDF file. Description based on contents viewed August 1, 2008. Includes bibliographical references (p. 68-70).

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Spinelli, Nicola. "Husserlian essentialism revisited : a study of essence, necessity and predication." Thesis, University of Warwick, 2016. http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/79543/.

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Husserlian Essentialism is the view, maintained byEdmundHusserl throughout his career, that necessary truths obtain because essentialist truths obtain. In this thesis I have two goals. First, to reconstruct and flesh out Husserlian Essentialism and its connections with surrounding areas of Husserl's philosophy in full detail – something which has not been done yet. Second, to assess the theoretical solidity of the view. As regards the second point, after having presented Husserlian Essentialism in the first two chapters, I raise a serious problem for it in Chapter 3. In the remainder of the thesis I endeavour to solve the problem. In order to do so, I propose to amend both Husserl's theory of essence and his theory of predication. The bulk of the emendation consists in working out an account of essence and an account of predication that do not presuppose, or in any way imply, the claims that: 1) for a universal to be in the essence of an object, either the object or one of its parts must instantiate the universal; 2) for a universal to be truly predicated of an object, either the object or one of its parts must instantiate the universal. These claims, notice, apart from being what gets Husserl in trouble, are well entrenched not only in Husserl's, but in most theories of essence and predication (at least in those that feature universals). It is thus interesting to see what an alternative option may be – even regardless of the Husserlian setting in which I work it out.

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Merklinger, Philip M. "Philosophy, theology, and Hegel's Berlin philosophy of religion, 1821-1827." Thesis, University of Ottawa (Canada), 1991. http://hdl.handle.net/10393/7593.

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Chan, Ka-wo. "What if natural kind terms are rigid?" Click to view the E-thesis via HKUTO, 2009. http://sunzi.lib.hku.hk/hkuto/record/B41633878.

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Heyes, Cressida J. "'Back to the rough ground!' : Wittgenstein, essentialism, and feminist methods." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 1997. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk2/ftp02/NQ36981.pdf.

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Kanaris, Jim. "Bernard Lonergan's philosophy of religion." Thesis, McGill University, 2000. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=36772.

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Describing Bernard Lonergan's relation to philosophy of religion is tricky business, with complications arising on different levels. To begin with, he does not use the term as it is usually understood in the field of the same name. Moreover, he addresses the same issues as philosophers of religion, but under the guise of philosophy of God or natural theology. Finally, he understands idiosyncratically the issue of religious experience, which is now a specialized category in philosophy of religion called upon to support formally rational statements for or against theistic belief. This central issue in Lonergan is further complicated by the fact that his idiosyncratic understanding of (religious) experience plays different roles in his thinking about God and religion. In this study I flesh out the dynamics of these various components, their interrelationships, and their function from early to late development.
My point of departure is a period in Lonergan's thought where he attributes more to the influence of religious experience in our thinking than at any time prior in his career. In chapter 1 I pursue some reasons that have been given for the tardiness of his response, intimating its nature and what it meant for his controversial "proof" for God's existence. Something of a detour is taken in chapter 2 since discussion of the concept of religious experience in Lonergan must grapple with what he means by experience in general. I decipher three senses to the term integral to his concept of consciousness that I distinguish from a contemporary model, that of David Chalmers. Since Lonergan is emphatic about distinguishing consciousness from its concept I trace this aspect of his philosophical claim against the background of Kant and Hegel, his main dialogue partners on the question. In chapter 3 I return to the specifically religious dimension of the notion of experience in the early Lonergan. Here I track the development of his category of religious experience as it moves from the periphery to the explanatory basis of his thought. In chapter 4 the relevant later literature in Lonergan is examined in which is seen the emergence of what is technically philosophy of religion to him. Among the distinctions I introduce is the difference between his model of religion and what he calls his philosophy of religion. Conceiving it historically, I see the former, his model of religion, as the departure point for what in his philosophy of religion he sets out to accomplish. They are related, of course, but not one and the same thing. To avoid confusion with the field of the same name, I recommend that we refer to his philosophy of religion as it is literally, as a philosophy of religious studies, distinguishing it firstly from his philosophy of God and secondly from his model of religious experience.
Besides providing an unprecedented comprehensive understanding of Lonergan's philosophy of religion, outlining the matter this way also aids in identifying precisely what are the points of contact between Lonergan's thoughts on God and religion and the issues presently discussed by philosophers of religion. The conclusion offers an example of this at the level of "philosophy of," the formal component of Lonergan's philosophy of religion in the generic sense in which I understand it. It represents steps toward a larger project, which I adumbrate in the appendix.

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Wetherbee, James M. "An analysis of Plantinga's ontological argument." Theological Research Exchange Network (TREN), 1987. http://www.tren.com.

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Miller, Bryan Temples. "Under Pressure from the Empirical Data: Does Externalism Rest on a Mistaken Psychological Theory?" Digital Archive @ GSU, 2007. http://digitalarchive.gsu.edu/philosophy_theses/27.

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The tradition of semantic externalism that follows Kripke (1972) and Putnam (1975) is built on the assumption that the folk have essentialist commitments about natural kinds. Externalists commonly take the body of empirical data concerning psychological essentialism as support for this claim. However, recent empirical findings (Malt, 1994; Kalish, 2002) call the psychological theory of essentialism into question. This thesis examines the relevance of these findings to both essentialism and semantic externalism. I argue that these findings suggest that these theories fail to reflect folk beliefs about natural kinds and folk natural kind term usage. This leads me to propose an alternative thesis-- the Ambiguity Thesis-- that is better able to accommodate the existing body of empirical data.

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Hurl, Ronald H. "The philosophy of the new evangelization and Etienne Gilson's notion of Christian philosophy." Online full text .pdf document, available to Fuller patrons only, 2004.

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Stahlberg, Benjamin B. "Spinoza's philosophy of divine order." Related electronic resource: Current Research at SU : database of SU dissertations, recent titles available full text, 2009. http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/syr/main.

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Raley, Kristin Nicole Blashfield Roger K. "Essentialist beliefs about homosexuality structure and implications for prejudice ; a replication of Haslam and Levy, 2006 /." Auburn, Ala., 2008. http://repo.lib.auburn.edu/EtdRoot/2008/SUMMER/Psychology/Thesis/Raley_Kristin_2.pdf.

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Chetelat, James Pierre. "Hegel's concept of religion." Thesis, McGill University, 2008. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=18726.

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In this dissertation I explore how Hegel conceives of the practice of religion. Religion for Hegel cannot be the relationship between humans and a transcendent being, since, as I argue, Hegel's God is not a being of the transcendent sort, but reason as Idea and spirit. Nor does Hegel primarily understand religion as feeling or immediate experience of the divine. According to Hegel, religion involves knowledge of the truth in the form of representation, and I discuss the truths that in his view are common to all religions, as well as the principle that he thinks guides the development of the various determinate religions that culminate in Christianity. But, first and foremost, religion for Hegel is cultus or practice in which a person overcomes her own particularity in a radical manner and identifies completely with the universal, objective standpoint. By overcoming her particularity, the person recognizes that her own interests lack absolute value, and she is willing to abandon them entirely for the sake of what the universal requires of her. The highest form of the cultus for Hegel is full participation in Sittlichkeit, or the social and cultural life of modern Protestant Europe. In the cultus, a person achieves freedom, the goal of religion and the highest value in Hegel's philosophy. I argue that freedom for Hegel is independence vis-à-vis the world in both an active and a passive sense. As active, freedom is the autonomy that a person possesses when she acts rationally or follows the ethical norms that are a necessary moment of being free. As passive, freedom is the independence that a person gains when she is no longer attached to her particular interests and is accepting of circumstances in which her desires are not met. But for Hegel the norms of freedom also allow and require that a person continue to engage fully in the world and actively pursue her own particular interests, since such activities play a necessary role in being free. In my
J'explore dans cette thèse la manière dont Hegel conçoit la pratique religieuse. Pour Hegel, la religion ne saurait être une relation entre un être transcendant et les humains puisque, ainsi que je le démontre, le dieu hégélien n'est pas un tel être transcendant mais plutôt la raison en tant qu'Idée et esprit. Il n'est pas non plus question pour Hegel de comprendre la religion comme le sentiment ou l'expérience immédiate du divin. Selon lui, la religion implique une connaissance de la vérité sous la forme d'une représentation. Mon propos à cet égard est de cerner les vérités qui, de son point de vue, sont communes à toutes les religions, et d'identifier le principe qui, selon lui, préside au développement des diverses religions déterminées qui culminent dans le christianisme. Mais, d'abord et avant tout, la religion est pour Hegel un culte ou une pratique par laquelle une personne surmonte de manière radicale sa propre particularité et s'identifie complètement au point de vue universel et objectif. En surmontant sa particularité, cette personne reconnaît que ses intérêts sont dépourvus de valeur absolue et accepte de les abandonner entièrement pour se soumettre aux exigences de l'universel. Selon Hegel, la forme la plus élevée du culte est une participation pleine et entière à la Sittlichkeit, ou à la vie sociale et culturelle de l'Europe protestante moderne. Le culte permet à celui qui y participe de parvenir à la liberté, but de la religion et valeur ultime dans la philosophie hégélienne. J'argumente que la liberté est pour Hegel une indépendance, tant active que passive, vis-à-vis du monde externe. En tant qu'elle est active, la liberté est l'autonomie qu'une personne possède lorsqu'elle agit rationnellement ou qu'elle se conforme aux normes éthiques qui constituent un moment nécessaire de son être-libre. En tant qu'elle est passive, la liberté est l'indépendance qu'une personne atteint lorsqu'elle s'est$

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Hurl, Ronald H. "The philosophy of the new evangelization and Etienne Gilson's notion of Christian philosophy." Theological Research Exchange Network (TREN) Access this title online, 2003. http://www.tren.com.

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Snider, Kathryn. "From real essences to the feminine imaginary : critiques of essentialism in feminist theory in North America in the 1980's." Thesis, McGill University, 1994. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=26330.

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The polemical debate, within feminist theory in North America, in the 1980s, around essentialism is the central focus of this thesis.
In particular, this work attempts to critically examine the notion of essentialism, the resistance to accepting a feminine "essence," and the loosely defined and employed terminology surrounding this field of inquiry. In accomplishing these objectives I draw upon, and critique, the more recent work elaborated around theorizing with/through the "body."
Aspects of feminist theory which are examined as contributive towards the above aim are an analysis of the explicit, and implicit, dangers of accepting or discarding essentialism, and an analysis of the inherent ontological and philosophical tenets that function within this present discourse.
It is maintained that by addressing the issue of essentialism, the relationship between subjectivity, identity, and gender, within feminist theory, will be liberated from further constraining propositions.

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Levene, David Samuel. "Religion in Livy." Thesis, University of Oxford, 1989. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.305051.

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Robert, Dominique 1950. "Humane bioethics : medicine, philosophy, religion and law." Thesis, McGill University, 2001. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=31531.

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This thesis is about the content and concerns of each of four disciplines pertaining to the field of bioethics: medicine, philosophy, religion and law. Emphasis is put on the human values each reflects in patients' lives. A last chapter is dedicated to patients' narrative in order to bring a practical perspective to the discussions of the previous chapters. The four essential human values interconnecting among the four disciplines are: the patients' need for authority, the need for protection, the existential questioning about the meaning of life, and the fear of death.

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Crowder, C. G. "Belief, unbelief and Wittgensteinian philosophy of religion." Thesis, Swansea University, 1993. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.636328.

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The interpretations of religious belief associated with philosophers in the Wittgensteinian tradition are widely misunderstood, as are the corresponding - but less well-known - interpretations of atheism. Instead of being a theory about autonomous 'language games', the Wittgensteinian approach is, in fact, a means of securing perspicuous representations of the relations between language and human practices; and the discourses of belief and unbelief are as rooted in our natural and cultural histories as any others. Foundationalist philosophers of religion isolate the discourses of belief and unbelief from human lives, both in describing the conflict between belief and unbelief and in attempting to arbitrate between the two. Assuming that metaphysical theism and atheism are fundamental to belief and unbelief, they advance a cognitivist and propositionalist analysis of both phenomena which is sometimes incoherent, and almost always impoverishing. Similarly, assuming that the conflict between belief and unbelief is a 'factual' one, they advocate ways of resolving it which betray a misunderstanding of the character of the conflict as it occurs in the lives of believers and atheists. The design argument, past and present, is a case in point: natural theology and natural atheology prove to be alike in misrepresenting perspectives upon the world as inferences drawn from it. Hume's Dialogues demonstrate the sheer irrelevance of the latter to the conflict between belief and unbelief, and compel us to reflect upon that conflict in different ways.

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Wodzinski, Phillip David. "Kant's Doctrine of Religion as Political Philosophy." Thesis, Boston College, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/2345/987.

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Thesis advisor: Susan Shell
Through a close reading of Immanuel Kant's late book, Religion within the Boundaries of Mere Reason, the dissertation clarifies the political element in Kant's doctrine of religion and so contributes to a wider conception of his political philosophy. Kant's political philosophy of religion, in addition to extending and further animating his moral doctrine, interprets religion in such a way as to give the Christian faith a moral grounding that will make possible, and even be an agent of, the improvement of social and political life. The dissertation emphasizes the wholeness and structure of Religion within the Boundaries of Mere Reason as a book, for the teaching of the book is not exhausted by the articulation of its doctrine but also includes both the fact and the manner of its expression: the reader learns most fully from Kant by giving attention to the structure and tone of the book as well as to its stated content and argumentation. The Religion provides the basis not only for a proposed reenvisioning of the basis of existing religious creeds and practices, but along with this a devastating critique of them in particularly moral terms. This, however, is only half of what constitutes Kant's political philosophy of religion; Kant goes beyond the philosophical analysis of the social-political context of religion and pursues, alongside this effort, a political presentation of philosophy which is intended to relieve the reader's anxieties concerning the tension between philosophy and political life that it is in the interest of the partisans of the church-faith to encourage
Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2009
Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
Discipline: Political Science

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Wellington, R. A. "The Problem of Doctrinal Decidability| Methods for Evaluating Purorted Divine Revelations." Thesis, Oklahoma State University, 2017. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=10272232.

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The plethora of contrary doctrines pertaining to salvation, among the variety of religions in the world today, creates a problem for the sincere investigator who seeks to find out if there is such a thing as salvation and, if there is, how to be saved. These contrary doctrines are problematic to the degree that the sincere investigator is unable to evaluate the probability of some of these doctrines over others. In order to aid the sincere investigator with this problem, I explore methods for evaluating doctrines that purport to affect one?s salvation.

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Pulleyn, Simon Paul. "Prayer in Greek religion." Thesis, University of Oxford, 1993. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.239396.

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Walker, William. "Creation in Santal tribal religion and Christian faith : a study in comparative religion." Thesis, Queen's University Belfast, 1994. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.241493.

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Powell, Michael R. "A course in modern Christian philosophy." Theological Research Exchange Network (TREN), 1996. http://www.tren.com.

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Handley-Schachler, Iain-Morrison. "Achaemenid religion, 521-465 B.C." Thesis, University of Oxford, 1992. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.357523.

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Bediako, Gillian Mary. "The relationship between primal religion and biblical religion in the works of William Robertson Smith." Thesis, University of Aberdeen, 1995. http://digitool.abdn.ac.uk/R?func=search-advanced-go&find_code1=WSN&request1=AAIU602310.

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This thesis examines the relationship between primal religion and biblical religion in the works of William Robertson Smith on the understanding that it was a central and persisting concern of his career as a Christian scholar and apologist. It is hoped that this work not only contributes to an understanding of Robertson Smith as one who sought to integrate faith with scientific scholarship, but that the issues raised through his perception and discussion of the subject do contribute to the phenomenological reflection on the nature of biblical and Christian faith, and the possible modes of Christian engagement with a religiously pluralist world. The study proceeds on the basis of the view that Smith's perception of primal and of biblical religion, being intimately linked with his European Christian identity and intellectual heritage, cannot be adequately understood without a consideration of two formative influences in European Christian identity and engagement with other peoples and religions-namely, Christendom and the European image of "primitive" peoples and religions. Both of these contributed significantly to a nineteenth century European intellectual and cultural consensus, having an impact upon a wide range of fields of endeavour, including biblical criticism, comparative religion and social anthropology. Their development and impact is the focus of Part I. as a background to their influence on Smith's thought and career. Part II focuses on Smith's early life and work to show the essential continuity between his evangelical and intellectual upbringing and his later concerns. Part III considers Smith's mature works, showing how his apologetic purpose is revealed in the approach and content of each. The Conclusion highlights two key internal difficulties arising from the developmental interpretation of Israelite religion for Smith's understanding of the affinity of biblical religion with primal religion- namely, the location of the Decalogue in Israel's religious development, and the significance of Christ's death as sacrifice. These difficulties suggest that these problems remained unresolved in Smith's writings and indicate an ultimate failure to account for the relationship between primal religion and biblical religion on the basis of a developmental schema. It is a moot point how Smith would have dealt with these problems, had late twentieth century insights into the nature of primal religion and its persisting historical relationship to Christian faith, been available to him.

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Partridge, Christopher Hugh. "Revelation, religion, and Christian uniqueness : an appreciative critique of H.H. Farmer's theological interpretation of religion." Thesis, University of Aberdeen, 1995. http://digitool.abdn.ac.uk/R?func=search-advanced-go&find_code1=WSN&request1=AAIU076884.

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The dissertation is an examination and appreciative critique of H.H. Farmer's theology of religions as this arises out of his writings, particularly his Gifford lectures, Revelation and Religion and Reconciliation and Religion. Not only is this the first comprehensive study of Farmer's theological interpretation of religion and religions, but it is the first study and explication of his unpublished second series of Gifford lectures. The thesis has three broad aims, namely, to explicate and assess: (a) Farmer's theological interpretation of religion: and (b) the arguments he uses for establishing Christian uniqueness in the history of religions. Finally, (c) the overall aim of the study is to demonstrate that Farmer's personalist thought still has much to offer to contemporary theologians and philosophers of religion. Hence, throughout there is dialogue with both those who influenced Farmer, and more recent studies in the theology and history of religions. The first chapter deals primarily with his theology of personal relationships and epistemology. The second chapter examines the nature of religion and the role of reason in his thought. Chapter three turns to his christology and soteriology. Chapter four is a discussion of the seven elements of normative religion which he identifies in Christian worship of God as Trinity. In the fifth chapter his analysis of religious types is explicated and examined. Chapter six is an outline and study of his unpublished second series of Gifford lectures. Finally, in chapter seven various lines of thought are drawn together, critiqued in the light of contemporary discussion, and suggestions are offered as to how Farmer's thought might be developed into a personalist theology of religions.

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Friedman, Randy L. "The reconstruction of religion in classical American philosophy /." View online version; access limited to Brown University users, 2005. http://wwwlib.umi.com/dissertations/fullcit/3174603.

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Ozdemir, Halise. "An Attempt To Understand Humes Philosophy Of Religion." Master's thesis, METU, 2006. http://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/12607086/index.pdf.

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Adams, John David. "D.Z. Phillips and the Wittgensteinian philosophy of religion." Thesis, University of Liverpool, 2008. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.501728.

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Few thinkers familiar with D.Z. Phillips' philosophy of religion would deny that his approach is problematic. What is not often acknowledged however is that it has also been widely misrepresented. The aim of this thesis is to clarify his views where they have been most misunderstood, to identify areas of weakness, and to emphasise the strength of his approach within the philosophy of religion. Much of the thesis concerns the controversies surrounding his adoption of certain terms and phrases from Wittgenstein's philosophical method, and his application'of these within his philosophy of religion.

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Saade, Elie A. "The call to believe and the weak God in William James's philosophy of religion." Thesis, Villanova University, 2017. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=10237760.

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The following dissertation argues that James’s will to believe is a call to believe that has at its origin a divine being. The will is not absolute but shaped by the call; however, the caller can also has at its origin the human being who calls God through prayers. On the other side, there is a divine being calling and hearing the calls; this divine being is a weak God, or as James states a finite God; however, I argue that the weakness of God is practical and not ontological. God in himself is omnipotent, thus, his weakness is from a human’s understanding, God does not lack power in himself but he lacks power over us; out of respect to our freedom.

The first chapter discusses the caller and the called, the call is not always a religious call but it can be a human call, it is the human calling another human to live in an ethical community, moreover, the call can be originated from the self toward itself as in the form of a Heideggerian call. However, the call must be answered because it is a genuine option. The second chapter defines religion according to James as an experience related to feelings and differentiates between the first and second hand religion and between the religion of healthy-mindedness and sick souls. The third chapter studies the practical fruits of religion and the four marks of mystical experience. The fourth chapter examines the human answer to the divine call and defines the call to believe as a call to change the world and not a mere call to believe in a set of dogmas. The call to believe is a call to assume responsibilities as individuals and to live a moral and religious life.

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Im, Seungpil. "A study of Kant's "Dreams of a Spirit-Seer" Kant's ambiguous relation to Swedenborg /." [Bloomington, Ind.] : Indiana University, 2008. http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:dissertation&res_dat=xri:pqdiss&rft_dat=xri:pqdiss:3315913.

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Thesis (Ph.D.)--Indiana University, Dept. of Philosophy, 2008.
Title from PDF t.p. (viewed on May 7, 2009). Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 69-07, Section: A, page: 2733. Adviser: Frederick Beiser.

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Oakes, Kenneth Ray. "The positive protest Karl Barth on theology and philosophy /." Thesis, Available from the University of Aberdeen Library and Historic Collections Digital Resources, 2008. http://digitool.abdn.ac.uk:80/webclient/DeliveryManager?application=DIGITOOL-3&owner=resourcediscovery&custom_att_2=simple_viewer&pid=24845.

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Breen, John Lawrence. "Emperor, state and religion in Restoration Japan." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 1993. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.260629.

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McNab, Christopher. "Alterity, religion, and the metaphysics of postmodernism." Thesis, Aberystwyth University, 1998. http://hdl.handle.net/2160/1de393b6-89b1-46ad-91ba-8d5e8ab34276.

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Postmodernism privileges figures of negativity, figures defined under such terms as alterity, absence, aporia and the Other. The ostensible function of these tropes is the disruption of logocentrism through the introduction of the indeterminate. However, by arguing that the 'metaphysics of presence' is all that exists in social communication, alterity can be reinterpreted as a metanarrative trope whose language and function repeat attributes previously defined by theology. Much postmodern fiction, with its indeterminate style, acts like a negative theology by systematically negating other thematic presences in the text in order to present alterity itself as a dominant with final jurisdiction over all areas of language and being. Because of its dominance, this alterity comes to exercise conceptual powers akin to the metaphysical expressions of the divine: ineffability, infinity, omnipotence, atemporality, ethical force. The religious and mystical references that often crowd postmodern fiction, therefore, support alterity's shift from the aporetic to the transcendent. By examining metaphysical alterity in postmodern treatments of character, death, allegory and history, I argue that postmodern literature is a limited theological discourse that questions postmodern pluralism and populism. The reified negative has such a privilege in postmodernism that it creates an aporetic politics that is only capable of representing otherness rather than others. I suggest that this is a 'natural' philosophy for late-capitalism in that it refuses broad social praxis in favour of a value-free market and anti-foundational argument. I set aside Salman Rushdie as someone whose fiction manages to use metaphysics and fragmentation in a non-transcendental manner. Rushdie locates meaning in the dialogue between the metaphysical and the material, rather than an abstracted absence and presence, and thus he is able to portray metanarratives without transcendence or dogmatism. As such, Rushdie shows that postmodernism's insistence on alterity fafls to engage meaningfully with social conditions.

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Rochard, Michelle A. "Kant's philosophy of religion : the relationship between Ecclesiastical faith and reasoned religion." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 1998. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk2/tape15/PQDD_0005/MQ39436.pdf.

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Williams, John Anthony. "Church, religion and secularization in the theology of Christian radicalism, 1960-69 : critical perspectives from the sociology of religion." Thesis, Durham University, 1986. http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/6775/.

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Johnston, Spencer C. "Essentialism, nominalism, and modality : the modal theories of Robert Kilwardby & John Buridan." Thesis, University of St Andrews, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/10023/7820.

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In the last 30 years there has been growing interest in and a greater appreciation of the unique contributions that medieval authors have made to the history of logic. In this thesis, we compare and contrast the modal logics of Robert Kilwardby and John Buridan and explore how their two conceptions of modality relate to and differ from modern notions of modal logic. We develop formal reconstructions of both authors' logics, making use of a number of different formal techniques. In the case of Robert Kilwardby we show that using his distinction between per se and per accidens modalities, he is able to provide a consistent interpretation of the apodictic fragment of Aristotle's modal syllogism and that, by generalising this distinction to hypothetical construction, he can develop an account of connexive logic. In the case of John Buridan we show that his modal logic is a natural extension of the usual Kripke-style possible worlds semantics, and that this modal logic can be shown to be sound and complete relative to a proof-theoretic formalisation of Buridan's treatment of the expository syllogism.

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Clark, Judith F. "A Deleuzian feminism Philosophy, theology and ethics /." Related electronic resource: Current Research at SU : database of SU dissertations, recent titles available full text, 2006. http://proquest.umi.com/login?COPT=REJTPTU0NWQmSU5UPTAmVkVSPTI=&clientId=3739.

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Beith, Donald. "Passivity in the philosophy of Merleau-Ponty." Thesis, McGill University, 2013. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=116957.

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Modern philosophy, from Descartes and Kant to early articulations of the phenomenological method, is based upon the premise that nature is synthetically established by human consciousness. In his late thinking, Merleau-Ponty rethinks the notion of passivity, a concept he opposes to the pure activity of constituting consciousness, and through which he explains how novel meaning can emerge in nature without being the product of constituting activity. While Merleau-Ponty's early works are systematic studies of human consciousness, and though many interpreters thereby take these works to be premised upon the primacy of consciousness as a constituting activity, I argue that there is a pivotal redefinition of passivity underway throughout his corpus.I explicate Merleau-Ponty's rethinking of passivity by drawing three progressively richer concepts of passivity out of his works: first is a structural passivity through which conscious or vital activities are mediated by an environment, second is a genetic passivity according to which the activities of consciousness and life are formed out of developmental processes, and third is a more radical sense of passivity which generates living activities without itself being a mode of constituting activity. Explaining this notion of generative passivity requires a complex investigation of the temporal structure within which original meaning emerges in life. I explain this temporal "institution" of meaning by studying specific phenomena: animal embryology and growth, as well as human development in childhood and puberty. Based on these studies, I make the case that the notion of generative passivity can uniquely explain the emergence of different forms of meaning in nature.
La philosophie moderne, de Descartes et Kant jusqu'aux premières articulations de la méthode phénoménologique, est basée sur la prémisse que la nature est établie synthétiquement par la conscience humaine. Dans sa pensée ultérieure, Merleau-Ponty repense la notion de passivité, un concept qu'il oppose à l'activité pure de la conscience constitutive, et à travers laquelle il explique la manière dont de sens nouveaux peuvent émerger de la nature sans être le produit d'une telle activité. Puisque Merleau-Ponty tente, dans ses premières oeuvres, d'analyser systématiquement la conscience humaine, une tendance est née parmi ses commentateurs d'interpréter ceux-ci comme étant fondée sur la primauté de la conscience comme activité constitutive. Je soutiens au contraire que tout au long de son corpus, Merleau-Ponty entreprend de redéfinir la passivité. J'élucide la repensée de la passivité chez Merleau-Ponty en soutirant de son oeuvre trois concepts progressivement plus riches. En premier nous trouvons une passivité dite structurelle à travers de laquelle les activités conscientes ou vitales peuvent se déployer dans un environnement qui leur sert de médiateur. En second nous découvrons une passivité dite génétique en fonction de laquelle les activités de la conscience et de la vie se forment grâce à des processus de développement. Finalement nous dévoilons une passivité plus radicale, une passivité dite générative, qui produit les activités vivantes sans étant elle-même une modalité de l'activité constitutive. Pour expliquer ce dernier concept de passivité nous devons effectuer une analyse complexe de la structure temporelle au coeur de laquelle le sens original émerge dans la vie. J'explique cette 'institution' temporelle du sens en étudiant des phénomènes spécifiques tel que embryologie et la croissance animale, et le développement humain à l'enfance et à la puberté. Sur la base de ces études, je soutiens que la notion de passivité générative est la mieux placé pour expliquer l'émergence des différentes formes de sens dans la nature.

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Newman, Deron Scott. "Philosophy as a religious experience in Plato." Thesis, University of Edinburgh, 2000. http://webex.lib.ed.ac.uk/asbtracts/newman01.pdf.

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Myers, Terry Walker. "Religion and morality in the philosophy of David Hume." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 1996. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk2/ftp04/MQ30922.pdf.

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Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Essentialism (Philosophy) Philosophy and religion'

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