Alongside the three transcendentals, the Good, the True and the Beautiful, we might set the three taboos: politics, religion and sex. This goes back a long way; the Royal Navy prohibited discussion of politics, religion or women at the officers mess going back to early in the 19th century. I'm not sure of the current etiquette in this area. Here at the Music Salon we avoid politics with the single exception of when politics threatens to invade the world of music and the fine arts. But I would like to just put a toe onto the dangerous waters of religion.
I recently had a discussion with two colleagues about religion. I'm afraid I rather heatedly pronounced that in my view this whole climate crisis was nothing but an ideological scam and it was "insane" for Germany, for example, to deindustrialize its economy trying to achieve net zero carbon dioxide. I will mercifully spare you the details. One of my colleagues, both of whom are very committed Christians, retorted that in her view it was equally insane not to accept Jesus Christ into one's life. Woo-hoo, that energized the discussion!
At one point, I made the slightly excessive claim that religion was nothing but a "category error" a technical term in philosophy taken from The Concept of Mind, a work of analytic philosophy by Gilbert Ryle. It is a category error to extend the idea of a personal deity to the universe. Well, maybe, maybe not. My real point was that the idea of an all-powerful, all-knowing God is simply beyond our ken.
But the truth is that my colleagues and I really are coming from two different traditions. When I am not engaged in an intellectual discussion, I have profound respect for my Christian and Jewish colleagues based on the view that anyone pursuing virtue is to be admired as it is not so easy in this world. I respect the traditions and literature of both those religions and have done a fair amount of reading of both.
I wanted to respond in a more thoughtful manner to the discussion so I got copies of the slim volume published by Hackett of the Five Dialogues of Plato (Euthyphro, Apology, Crito, Meno and Phaedo). I accompanied this by a brief note saying that I both respected and was acquainted with the sources of their beliefs, but wasn't sure that they had much knowledge of the sources of my beliefs.
UPDATE: For some inexplicable reason, I forgot to mention that I gave these copies to my two colleagues--but I guess that was obvious.
It is my understanding that Western Civilization really derives fundamentally from two places: Jerusalem and Athens. For some reason, my early experiences with Christianity were not too inspiring, but over the years I became more and more attracted to Ancient Greece. Judaism gave us monotheism and a profound sense of moral duty while Christianity added the virtues of mercy, love and administration (borrowed from Rome). Sure, that's a grotesque simplification, but bear with me! Athens, on the other hand gave us cosmology, geometry, ethical reasoning, logic, history, aesthetics, comedy, tragedy, democracy, political science and a bunch of other things.
I chose Plato because his dialogues are a wonderful entry to the thought of Ancient Greece and Aristotle is just too difficult.
10 comments:
Heh, cue up Tertullian's notorious "What has Athens to do with Jerusalem?" Augustine thought there was SOME kind of possible connection but the West has people asking what the two have to do with each other and answering in a very firm negative.
But the interaction between Athens and Jerusalem is a generally apt way to put the history of the West whether or not we wade deep into the weeds of theories from the last forty years that all Jewish literature evolved in the wake of Hellenistic occupation from Sheffield and Copenhagen scholarship.
About a century ago the Swiss Reformed theologian Emil Brunner contended in Man in Revolt that Western civilization was equally dependent on Jewish legal traditions, Greek philosophy, Roman jurisprudence and Christian theological reflection on personal ethics. He also contended that if "we" tried to exterminate any one of these four necessary influences we would remove the foundation for the political and personal freedoms the West had been slowly developing for centuries. Brunner, for those who don't already know him, was against both communist and fascist totalitarian regimes (he was Swiss, after all).
I think Emil Brunner had the right of it.
Bryan - do you ever stop to consider that climate science might "simply (be) beyond (y)our ken"? The populist fever that has overtaken the West has unfortunately little regard for science, but that does not mean it (science) is in error.
Yes, indeed Patrick, there are many things that might be beyond my ken!! And I hope to be the first to admit it. I'm just skeptical that the science is settled on this particular issue.
Just out of curiosity, what is the nature of the climate scam? Who benefits? To what end? Because I know a lot of scientists, and I can assure you that no one is getting rich doing climate science; if they want to make money they go work for the oil companies.
Oh god, can't we talk about Swiss Reformed theology instead? Ok, ok. You ask who benefits? There is a pretty simple answer to that: a lot of people benefit (and a lot of other people suffer). These include first and foremost governments, at least initially, because every single climate policy involves more regulation which means more civil servants. This is paid for by more taxes, of course. Oh, and also scientists. There are an awful lot of research grants devoted to climate science because of, you know, that impending crisis. I had Germany in mind when I wrote that sentence and it is a good example. With the best on intentions, I'm sure, but due to excessive fears Germany is killing its industrial base because of extremely high energy costs associated with the transition from coal and natural gas to wind and solar. By the way, wind and solar in Germany in the winter are not only unreliable, they are also very expensive. And Germany also, just a couple of years ago, shut down their nuclear reactors, so they are really in trouble. Who suffers? Poor people who can't afford to heat their homes. People who had jobs until the factory shut down (Volkswagen just shut down three car factories).
The problem I see it is that there are climate models that make predictions about a climate crisis due to increased global temperatures, none of which have come to pass, that have the unintended consequence of ruining economic growth. The UK is also in unbelievable trouble as they are also deindustrializing. And the kicker is that even if these net zero policies can be enacted, it will make no difference because China and India will keep increasing their energy use regardless.
The idea of an all-powerful, all-knowing God IS simply beyond our ken... unless God chooses to reveal himself to us, which he's done through the Bible.
If God is immutable (Psalm 102:25-27, Numbers 23:19) and perfectly just (Deuteronomy 32:4), the Euthyphro "dilemma" is solved.
Without God, isn't the Form of the Good, the True, and the Beautiful beyond our ken as well? How do we know that virtue is objective and unchanging?
I wish I had the theological training to give you a proper response, but I suppose a philosopher might reply that while the Bible might be evidence for many things, it is not actually proof of the existence of God. Mind you, we have Thomas Aquinas' five proofs for the existence of God which are certainly interesting, but I believe that philosophers have had a few quibbles about those as well.
I'm pretty sure virtue exists, and I think it is likely to be objective, but I'm not sure it is unchanging.
Agreed, the Bible does not prove that God exists, nor does it try to. It simply assumes He exists when it begins.
On what basis would you say anything about the existence and/or objectivity of virtue?
Well, on a very simple level, one can either assume that virtue exists or assume that it does not exist. But in the latter case, life becomes rather pointless. Or, you could pursue evil, I suppose. The first sentence of the Nichomachean Ethics is: "Every art and every inquiry, and similarly every action and pursuit, is thought to aim at some good; and for this reason the good has rightly been declared to be that at which all things aim." And all right action aims at virtue.
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