Critique of religion and philosophy
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
Print Book, English, 1978
Princeton University Press, Princeton, N.J., 1978
xxii, 453 pages ; 22 cm
9780691020013, 9780691072302, 0691020019, 0691072302
4759367
Preface to the Princeton paperback edition
Preface to the 1972 edition
Preface to the first edition
[pt.] 1. The philosophic flight. Philosophical psychology
The psychology of truth
Style
The philosopher's dilemma
The philosophic flight
A series of etchings
Hegel and Nietzsche
Why most philosophers cannot laugh
What long aphorisms can mean
Relativity and criticism
[pt.] 2. Positivism and existentialism. Two revolts
Analytic philosophy
Existentialism
Two timeless tendencies
Empiricism as empiricide
Plato's vision of man
The British vision of man
Donnish doubt
Wittgenstein
Wittgenstein and Socrates
Followers
[pt.] 3. Truth, language, and experience. Truth; true and false
The aspiration for truth
Truth and correctness
Truth and meaning, or: how to read a philosopher
Theories of truth
Words and experience
Language and emotion
"Love"
Words as categories
Works of art as categories
Common sense
[pt.] 4. Religion, faith, and evidence. Definition of religion
Religion at the bar
"Subjective" truth
Knowledge, belief, and faith
Faith, evidence, and James
Three types of religious propositions
Recourse to revelation or miracles
Faith and its causes : contra James
Seven causes
Freud and wishful thinking
[pt.] 5. The god of the philosophers. Godless religions
Plato's proof that gods exist
St. Thomas Aquinas
Perfection and the ontological argument
Kant's postulate
Can one prove God's existence?
Pascal's wager. [pt.] 6. God, ambiguity, and theology. God and ambiguity
The ambiguity of dogma
Analogy
Symbols : contra Tillich
Demythologizing and valuations
Contra Bultmann
Gerrymandering
Theology
[pt.] 7. Satanic interlude, or how to go to Hell. Dialogue between Satan and a theologian
Dialogue between Satan and a Christian
Dialogue between Satan and an Atheist
[pt.] 8. Truth in three religions. Religion and truth
Buddhism and truth
Zen Buddhism and truth
Judaism and truth
Jewish and Christian faith
Infidel piety
Liberal Protestantism and truth
Reinhold Niebuhr and truth
A platonic error, reason, and Christianity
Christianity and truth
[pt.] 9. The core of religion. Claims of mysticism
Ineffability
Mysticism as a historical phenomenon
Criteria of mystical experience
The experience of inspiration
Mysticism, inspiration, and religion
Contra Fromm : religion and tragedy
Religion and loyalty
Thomist versus non-Thomist
Loyalty and truth
Religion, aspiration, and the holy
Otherworldliness
Religion and poetry
[pt.] 10. Scriptures and poetry, or how to read the bible. Inexhaustibility
The psychology of interpretation
Explanation
Inconsistencies
Quellenscheidung
The two Mosaic theories
Religion and progress
The gospels and poetry
A Buddhist text
Against eclecticism
[pt.] 11. Reason and eros. Plato as educator
The uncloistered virtue
Kant and Freud
Freud and aspiration
Man's ontological interest
Reason and aspiration
Epitaph
First edition published, New York : Harper, 1958
Includes indexes