Dialogue on Faith and Reason

 

Phil and Sophy–that’s Phil and Sophy–are talking about faith and reason in this ongoing YouTube playlist. They’re leaving out a lot of Aquinas and some other guys. But they’re doing a great job covering topics like empiricism, the Verification Criterion of Meaning, Hume, Kant, William James, Augustine, Alvin Plantinga, C. S. Lewis, and more. Here’s the first bit:

There’s a new video out every week and 25 videos are up or scheduled now. They’ll probably finish somewhere around January.

Published in Religion & Philosophy
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  1. Mark Camp Member
    Mark Camp
    @MarkCamp

    I would be very interested to know what this series has to say.  My economics studies have recently taken me back to philosophy, in particular Kant and the Empiricists.

    Both the medium chosen by the producers, and their regard for the intelligence of the student repel me from partaking of it.   But if there is a serious, respectful written version of the content I would definitely like to read it.

    • #1
  2. Saint Augustine Member
    Saint Augustine
    @SaintAugustine

    Mark Camp (View Comment):

    I would be very interested to know what this series has to say. My economics studies have recently taken me back to philosophy, in particular Kant and the Empiricists.

    Both the medium chosen by the producers, . . .

    Yeah, these cartoons aren’t for everyone.

    . . . and their regard for the intelligence of the student repel me from partaking of it.

    Sorry. I don’t follow.

    But if there is a serious, respectful written version of the content I would definitely like to read it.

    Check back with me later in case I can think of a useful hodgepodge of written versions.

    • #2
  3. Mark Camp Member
    Mark Camp
    @MarkCamp

    Saint Augustine (View Comment):

    M

    Yeah, these cartoons aren’t for everyone.

    . . . and their regard for the intelligence of the student repel me from partaking of it.

    Sorry. I don’t follow.

    I meant that they appeared to have a condescending attitude toward the viewer.

    But if there is a serious, respectful written version of the content I would definitely like to read it.

    Check back with me later in case I can think of a useful hodgepodge of written versions.

    That would be great.

    Details: why I’m interested.

    I’ve been studying Austrian economics. Something drew me back to “Human Action”, Mises’s masterwork, in particular to his exposition of the epistemological foundation of economic science.  I read it a few years ago.  I had a mixed reaction at the time to the epistemology, and decided to leave it aside and hope that when he got to economics per se later in the book,  I would synch in.  I did.

    Me and philosophy.

    I studied philosophy, physics, and philosophy of science at university before switching to electrical engineering.  Artificial intelligence was the avocational link between philosophy and engineering.   Economics was the vocational motivation: it turns out engineering pays better, and I had to win over a prospective father-in-law, a Col. USA (ret) who took a dim view of metaphysics.

    It was through the Austrian philosopher Hans-Hermann Hoppe that I reconnected with epistemology.  I’ve now come to appreciate that Mises had the same distrust of metaphysics that I was left with after college, but that epistemology shorn of metaphysics actually made a lot of sense.

    Hoppe regarded Mises as the completer of Kant.  He says that in the Action Axiom, Mises was providing the world with the glue between synthetic and a priori knowledge that Kant seemed to grasp but never quite wrote down in a way that made sense.  That humans act is a synthetic and a priori truth.  (Hoppe says that Kant sounded like an Idealist when he broached the subject.)

    Hoppe and Mises demolished, or claimed to, empiricist economics (but not empiricist physical science!). That is why I have a renewed interest in the defense of empiricism.

     

     

    • #3
  4. Henry Castaigne Member
    Henry Castaigne
    @HenryCastaigne

    Mark Camp (View Comment):
    Both the medium chosen by the producers, and their regard for the intelligence of the student repel me from partaking of it. But if there is a serious, respectful written version of the content I would definitely like to read it.

    Would you prefer they write with ink quills or would you compromise for something as vulgar as a printing press?

    What’s wrong with exploring new mediums as long as you don’t disrespect the ideas.

    • #4
  5. Saint Augustine Member
    Saint Augustine
    @SaintAugustine

    Mark Camp (View Comment):

    Saint Augustine (View Comment):

    M

    Yeah, these cartoons aren’t for everyone.

    . . . and their regard for the intelligence of the student repel me from partaking of it.

    Sorry. I don’t follow.

    I meant that they appeared to have a condescending attitude toward the viewer.

    They don’t.

    Is this because it’s a cartoon? I think this guy uses cartoons mostly because he likes cartoons.

    But if there is a serious, respectful written version of the content I would definitely like to read it.

    Check back with me later in case I can think of a useful hodgepodge of written versions.

    That would be great.

    I’ll try to keep the notification marked unread. Maybe I can get back to you from the compy.  Not a chance on this here smartphone.

    Details: why I’m interested.

    . . . 

    Me and philosophy.

    I studied philosophy, physics, and philosophy of science at university before switching to electrical engineering. Artificial intelligence was the avocational link between philosophy and engineering. Economics was the vocational motivation: it turns out engineering pays better, and I had to win over a prospective father-in-law, a Col. USA (ret) who took a dim view of metaphysics.

    Great stories!

    Hoppe regarded Mises as the completer of Kant. . . . 

    Holy cow. That would be a big deal!

    • #5
  6. Mark Camp Member
    Mark Camp
    @MarkCamp

    Henry Castaigne (View Comment):

    Mark Camp (View Comment):
    Both the medium chosen by the producers, and their regard for the intelligence of the student repel me from partaking of it. But if there is a serious, respectful written version of the content I would definitely like to read it.

    Would you prefer they write with ink quills or would you compromise for something as vulgar as a printing press?

    What’s wrong with exploring new mediums as long as you don’t disrespect the ideas.

    I must have mispoken somewhere: in my view there’s nothing wrong with newness, nor with exploring it, whether its in media or other things.  On the contrary, I think that all improvements depend on newness, and I’m gung ho for improvements.

    • #6
  7. Saint Augustine Member
    Saint Augustine
    @SaintAugustine

    Saint Augustine (View Comment):

    Mark Camp (View Comment):

    Saint Augustine (View Comment):

    M

    Yeah, these cartoons aren’t for everyone.

    . . . and their regard for the intelligence of the student repel me from partaking of it.

    Sorry. I don’t follow.

    I meant that they appeared to have a condescending attitude toward the viewer.

    They don’t.

    Is this because it’s a cartoon? I think this guy uses cartoons mostly because he likes cartoons.

    I reckon it’s time to reveal the shocking truth.  It’s my YouTube channel.  I make the cartoons.

    Why?  Probably because I like cartoons.  I’ve been making up this channel as I go for years.  I rarely know exactly why I do what I do.

    But if there is a serious, respectful written version of the content I would definitely like to read it.

    Check back with me later in case I can think of a useful hodgepodge of written versions.

    That would be great.

    I’ll try to keep the notification marked unread. Maybe I can get back to you from the compy. Not a chance on this here smartphone.

    Until I put together a book (inshallah), I think the best I can do is suggest these Ricochet posts that go over a good chunk of the material.

    • #7
  8. Mike Rapkoch Member
    Mike Rapkoch
    @MikeRapkoch

    I suggest this short video on faith and reason from Bishop Robert Barron:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_4PSgFjtvI

    • #8
  9. Saint Augustine Member
    Saint Augustine
    @SaintAugustine

    Mike Rapkoch (View Comment):

    I suggest this short video on faith and reason from Bishop Robert Barron:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_4PSgFjtvI

    There’s so much good stuff out there. I can contribute a bit because most people don’t know how to read Augustine, William James, or Alvin Plantinga, much less piece them together. But there’s so much I’m leaving out.

    Robert Wood, a wonderful philosophy prof from University of Dallas, has a new book from Wipf and Stock. I expect it’s marvelous.

    • #9
  10. Percival Thatcher
    Percival
    @Percival

    I missed all of these so far. Got some catching up to do.

    • #10
  11. Saint Augustine Member
    Saint Augustine
    @SaintAugustine

    Mike Rapkoch (View Comment):

    I suggest this short video on faith and reason from Bishop Robert Barron:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_4PSgFjtvI

    A good video. It’s amazing how many people are determined to define faith as belief that cannot–cannot, not, NOT–be based on reason or evidence, or overlap with knowledge.

    You have to deny the existence of the first definition in the dictionary, along with the Greek pistis and the Latin fides, and ignore Augustine, Aquinas, and indeed the very meaning of enormous chunks of the Bible–not deny that it’s true, but deny that it means what it means.  You have to conclude that C. S. Lewis, Eliezer Berkovits, Allama Iqbal, Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, and the Dalai Lama do not even come close to understanding–respectively–Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism.

    Sure–most of you know nothing about Berkovits, Iqbal, and Radhakrishnan.  (My posts above, and the playlist itself, can fill in some gaps.)   But seriously–can it be that Lewis and the Dalai Lama do not even come close to understanding Christianity and Buddhism?  Seriously?

    • #11
  12. Saint Augustine Member
    Saint Augustine
    @SaintAugustine

    Mike Rapkoch (View Comment):

    I suggest this short video on faith and reason from Bishop Robert Barron:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_4PSgFjtvI

    “. . . you’ll never know a person on those terms.  If G-d is a person, . . . .”

    Hey!  He got the William James insight there!

    Oh, my goodness.  He uses the marriage example.  Also in James.  Kierkegaardian.

    Woo hoo!!!!!

    Good job, Bishop RB.

    • #12
  13. Saint Augustine Member
    Saint Augustine
    @SaintAugustine

    Mike Rapkoch (View Comment):

    I suggest this short video on faith and reason from Bishop Robert Barron:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_4PSgFjtvI

    “Faith is not opposed to reason, though it goes beyond it–just as that trust in another person is not irrational, but it does go beyond reason.”

    Excellent.

    • #13
  14. James Gawron Inactive
    James Gawron
    @JamesGawron

    Aug,

    I am referring to my post “Claire has gone full Kant!” In it I was trying to show that what usually stops us from accepting the overlap of faith & reason is accepting too easily that science is completely “verifiable”. Then, of course, when faced with the unreliability of faith we lose heart.

    At the very core of even physics are the unverifiable postulates of geometry (so I was arguing). There is no way to avoid this. Thus to claim that there isn’t a small core of faith required to do even physics is false. This prepares us for the overlap of faith & reason.

    Kant isn’t easy to pigeonhole because he really runs down the middle of the street shooting both ways. He insists the concepts that allow us to process nature are a priori thus showing that some unverified faith is built into the way we see the world thus we must employ a critique of pure reason. However, he is also very critical of too easily believed proofs of Gd’s existence that will only set us up for a fall. Only at the last Kant make’s his very complicated moral necessity argument for using Gd as a postulate but not as a proof of Gd’s existence.

    Kant can be down right annoying. At best, Kant usually is an acquired taste. However, I find him very useful in navigating our highly nihilistic world. He accepts all of the doubts you have but then shows you that you will be forced to accept some basic beliefs if you want to get anything done.

    Regards,

    Jim

    • #14
  15. Saint Augustine Member
    Saint Augustine
    @SaintAugustine

    James Gawron (View Comment):

    Aug,

    I am referring to my post “Claire has gone full Kant!” In it I was trying to show that what usually stops us from accepting the overlap of faith & reason is accepting too easily that science is completely “verifiable”. Then, of course, when faced with the unreliability of faith we lose heart.

    Right on, right on.

    Phil and I are all over that one.

    At the very core of even physics are the unverifiable postulates of geometry (so I was arguing). There is no way to avoid this. Thus to claim that there isn’t a small core of faith required to do even physics is false. This prepares us for the overlap of faith & reason.

    Right on, right on. I think this analysis is correct.  Not that I can understand it very well.

    Kant isn’t easy to pigeonhole because he really runs down the middle of the street shooting both ways. He insists the concepts that allow us to process nature are a priori thus showing that some unverified faith is built into the way we see the world thus we must employ a critique of pure reason. However, he is also very critical of too easily believed proofs of Gd’s existence that will only set us up for a fall. Only at the last Kant make’s his very complicated moral necessity argument for using Gd as a postulate but not as a proof of Gd’s existence.

    Kant can be down right annoying. At best, Kant usually is an acquired taste. However, I find him very useful in navigating our highly nihilistic world. He accepts all of the doubts you have but then shows you that you will be forced to accept some basic beliefs if you want to get anything done.

    Regards,

    Jim

    I’ve learned to love him.  (Somewhere in this YouTube series Phil’s gonna go over some Kant.)

    • #15
  16. Saint Augustine Member
    Saint Augustine
    @SaintAugustine

    And now we know: It’s a 31-part series.

    Just about to schedule the last one, for January I think.

    • #16
  17. Percival Thatcher
    Percival
    @Percival

    Saint Augustine (View Comment):

    And now we know: It’s a 31-part series.

    Just about to schedule the last one, for January I think.

    I’ve got some catching up to do. I’m at 23 or 24, I think.

    • #17
  18. Saint Augustine Member
    Saint Augustine
    @SaintAugustine

    Percival (View Comment):

    Saint Augustine (View Comment):

    And now we know: It’s a 31-part series.

    Just about to schedule the last one, for January I think.

    I’ve got some catching up to do. I’m at 23 or 24, I think.

    I am honored.

    • #18
  19. Percival Thatcher
    Percival
    @Percival

    Parts 29-31 show up in the playlist, but are marked “Private”. They don’t show up in the Videos section at all.

    • #19
  20. Saint Augustine Member
    Saint Augustine
    @SaintAugustine

    Percival (View Comment):

    Parts 29-31 show up in the playlist, but are marked “Private”. They don’t show up in the Videos section at all.

    I try to do one new video a week.  And I try to stay ahead.

    So those are scheduled for future Mondays.

    • #20
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