Critique of Religion and Philosophy

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Princeton University Press, Jun 16, 2020 - Philosophy - 480 pages

From one of the major figures of twentieth-century intellectual life, an incisive critique of faith and reason in the secular age

Originally published in 1958, Critique of Religion and Philosophy is Walter Kaufmann’s luminous appraisal of the orthodoxies of his day. Although he was a philosopher first and foremost, Kaufmann was not immune to the wellsprings from which religion originates, considering it to be among the most vital and radical expressions of the human intellect. In this panoramic and uniquely personal book, he tests the limits of faith and reason in our secular age. Kaufmann discusses topics ranging from positivism and existentialism to language, scripture, and Eros, and shares his views on thinkers such as Plato, Aquinas, Kant, Bultmann, Niebuhr, and Freud. Challenging, playful, and disarmingly honest, Critique of Religion and Philosophy is as bold and provocative as when it was first published.

 

Contents

Philosophical psychology
1
The psychology of truth
4
Style
6
The philosophers dilemma
7
The philosophic flight
9
A series of etchings
10
Hegel and Nietzsche
11
Why most philosophers cannot laugh
13
Faith evidence and James
114
Three types of religious propositions
120
Recourse to revelation or miracles
124
contra James
129
Seven causes
132
Freud and wishful thinking
134
THE GOD OF THE PHILOSOPHERS 43 Godless religions
137
Platos proof that gods exist
139

What long aphorisms can mean
14
1o Relativity and criticism
17
POSITIVISM AND EXISTENTIALISM 11 Two revolts
20
Analytic philosophy
22
Existentialism
26
i4 Two timeless tendencies
31
Empiricism as empiricide
34
Platos vision of man
37
The British vision of man
41
Donnish doubt
47
Wittgenstein
52
2O Wittgenstein and Socrates
56
Followers
60
TRUTH LANGUAGE AND EXPERIENCE 22 Truth True and false
62
The aspiration for truth
63
Truth and correctness
66
How to read a philosopher
69
Theories of truth
74
Words and experience
78
Language and emotion
79
Love
82
Words as categories
85
Works of art as categories
91
Common sense
93
RELIGION FAITH AND EVIDENCE Definitions of religion
100
Religion at the bar
104
Subjective truth
107
Knowledge belief and faith
108
St Thomas Aquinas
143
Perfection and the ontological argument
162
Kants postulate
166
GOD AMBIGUITY AND THEOLOGY
173
The ambiguity of dogma
181
contra Tillich
189
Demythologizing and valuations
196
Contra Bultmann
206
Gerrymandering
219
Dialogue between Satan and a Theologian
228
Dialogue between Satan and a Christian
243
6o Dialogue between Satan and an Atheist
255
Buddhism and truth
261
Judaism and truth
268
Jewish and Christian faith
278
Infidel piety
285
Reinhold Niebuhr and truth
296
A Platonic error reason and Christianity
303
Christianity and truth
311
SCRIPTURES AND POETRY OR How
369
Quellenscheidung
377
Religion and progress
388
A Buddhist text
396
Against eclecticism
405
Freud and aspiration
416
1OO Epitaph
431
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About the author (2020)

Walter Kaufmann (1921–1980) was the Stuart Professor of Philosophy at Princeton University, where he taught for more than thirty years. His many books include Nietzsche: Philosopher, Psychologist, Antichrist and The Faith of a Heretic (both Princeton).

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