Theology Ethics And Metaphysics

This book reveals a remarkable oddity about the mainstream philosophy of science. While rejecting a noxious relativism, it is unable to ascribe "truth" to scientific theories that also are divorced conceptually from ethics and politics. There is much at stake since these dilemmas have led to a politicized truth whereby "truth" in these areas is often decided ideologically. But the ideology and splintered areas collide head-on with our awareness of ourselves and the world. By relating a world of which we are phenomenologically conscious to a common-sense reasoning, a novel case is made for objective scientific truth, a true causal principle, and the principle's implication of a First Cause. This Cause, as a Creator of Nature, begets moral norms intrinsic to scientific descriptions of our psycho-biological nature since our nature was created as it ought to be; affording a naturalistic ethics that can be as true as the science that informs it. Medicine and its allied sciences are used to illustrate this moral import in terms of a revitalized support of the traditional family -- a perennial norm expressed by the dictum "As the family goes, so goes the state." Thus a state's support of the family exemplifies how normative political claims can be as true as a scientific ethics that informs them. The logical link of ethics to science and politics marks the reasoning implicit in a natural theology common to the major monotheistic religions. And so despite the faults of all organizations, this book suggests one reason why those religions flourished over the ages. Outlasting the Roman Empire and modern ideologies that boasted vainly of reigning to the end of history, the religions address a personal spirituality and fulfill human nature. They render coherent an experienced world where truth coincides in science, ethics, politics, and religion. REVIEW "This book is one of those exceptional works which is both challenging in its philosophical sophistication and edifying in its moral argumentation." The Review of Metaphysics, Sept, 2008, by Tom Michaud Read complete review at link below: The Review of Metaphysics, Vol. 62, #245 (Sep), 2008

This collection of classic works, originally published under the auspices of the Royal Asiatic Society, includes an introduction by Professor Edmund Bosworth, and a preface by Professor Anthony Stockwell. Primary texts include works by F. Rosen, W.F. Thompson, C.E. Sachau, R.A. Nicholson, W.H.T. Gairdner, W.M. Miller and J. Robson, spanning over 100 years of oriental scholarship.

This collection of classic works, originally published under the auspices of the Royal Asiatic Society, includes an introduction by Professor Edmund Bosworth, and a preface by Professor Anthony Stockwell. Primary texts include works by F. Rosen, W.F. Thompson, C.E. Sachau, R.A. Nicholson, W.H.T. Gairdner, W.M. Miller and J. Robson, spanning over 100 years of oriental scholarship.

In Aquinas, Ethics, and Philosophy of Religion, Thomas Hibbs recovers the notion of practice to develop a more descriptive account of human action and knowing, grounded in the venerable vocabulary of virtue and vice. Drawing on Aquinas, who believed that all good works originate from virtue, Hibbs postulates how epistemology, ethics, metaphysics, and theology combine into a set of contemporary philosophical practices that remain open to metaphysics. Hibbs brings Aquinas into conversation with analytic and Continental philosophy and suggests how a more nuanced appreciation of his thought enriches contemporary debates. This book offers readers a new appreciation of Aquinas and articulates a metaphysics integrally related to ethical practice.

This book is dedicated to Edith Stein (1891–1942), who is known widely for her contributions to metaphysics. Though she never produced a dedicated work on questions of ethics, her corpus is replete with pertinent reflections. This book is the first major scholarly volume dedicated to exploring Stein’s ethical thought, not only for its wide-ranging content, from her earlier to later works, but also for its applications to such fields as psychology, theology, education, politics, law, and culture. Leading international scholars come together to provide a systematic account of Stein’s ethics, highlighting its relation to Stein’s highly developed and complex metaphysics. Questions about the good, evil, the rights and ethical comportment of the person, the state, and feminism are addressed. The book appeals to scholars interested in the history of philosophical and ethical thought

This book presents critical engagements with the work of Hent de Vries, widely regarded as one of the most important living philosophers of religion. Contributions by a distinguished group of scholars discuss the role played by religion in philosophy; the emergence and possibilities of the category of religion; and the relation between religion and violence, secularism, and sovereignty. Together, they provide a synoptic view of how de Vries’s work has prompted a reconceptualization of how religion should be studied, especially in relation to theology, politics, and new media. The volume will be of particular interest to scholars of religious studies, theology, and philosophy.

Germain Grisez has been a leading voice in moral philosophy and theology since the Second Vatican Council. In this book, such major thinkers as John Finnis, Ralph McInerny, and William E. May consider issues in ethics, metaphysics, and politics that have been central to Grisez's work. Grisez's reconsideration of the philosophical foundations of Christian moral teaching, seeking to eliminate both legalistic interpretation and theological dissent, has won the support of a number of leading Catholic moralists. In the past decade, moreover, many philosophers outside of Catholicism have weighed carefully Grisez's alternatives to theories that have long dominated secular moral philosophy. This book presents a broad spectrum of viewpoints on subjects ranging from contraception to capital punishment and considers such controversies as the scriptural basis of Grisez's work his interpretations of Aquinas, and his new natural law theory. The collection includes not only contributions from Grisez's supporters but also from critics of his thought, from proportionalist Edward Collins Vacek, SJ, to the neo-Thomist Ralph McInerny. A reply by Grisez, written with Joseph M. Boyle Jr., addresses the issues and viewpoints expressed, while an afterword by Russell Shaw reviews Grisez's pioneering work and conveys a vivid sense of the philosopher's personality. As Grisez's influence grows, this volume will serve as an important touchstone on his contributions to moral and political philosophy and theology.

This collection brings together for the first time most of the work that Robert Merrihew Adams has contributed to the philosophy of religion. The sixteen essays, two never before published, include influential studies on several aspects of the relation between religion and ethics, including a comprehensive discussion of moral arguments for theistic belief, as well as treatments of the existence of God and the problem of evil in light of contemporary ideas about the metaphysics of individuality and modality. Adams defends belief in God from an epistemological standpoint that he characterizes as "skeptical realism."