Philosophy of Religion

Philosophy of religion is the philosophical examination of the central themes and concepts involved in
religious traditions. It involves all the main areas of philosophy: metaphysics, epistemology, logic, ethics
and value theory, the philosophy of language, philosophy of science, law, sociology, politics, history, and
so on.

1. The Field and its Significance

The philosophical exploration of religious beliefs and practices is evident in the earliest recorded
philosophy, east and west. In the west, throughout Greco-Roman philosophy and the Medieval era,
philosophical reflection on God, or gods, reason and faith, the soul, afterlife, and so on were not
considered to be a sub-discipline called “philosophy of religion.” The philosophy of God was simply one
component among many interwoven philosophical projects.

2. The Meaningfulness of Religious Language

3. Religious Forms of Life and Practices

Wittgenstein launched an attack on what has been called the picture theory of meaning, according to
which statements may be judged true or false depending upon whether reality matches the picture
represented by the belief. This understanding of truth and beliefs—which is similar to the
correspondence theory of truth in which the statement “God exists” is true if and only if God exists—
seemed to Wittgenstein to be misguided. It gives rise to insoluble philosophical problems and it misses
the whole point of having religious beliefs, which is that the meaning is to be found in the life in which
they are employed. By shifting attention away from the referential meaning of words to their use,
Wittgenstein promoted the idea that we should attend to what he called forms of life.

4. The Concept of God

4.1 Philosophical Reflection on Divine Attributes

Most philosophy of religion in the west has focused on different versions of theism. Ancient philosophy
of religion wrestled with the credibility of monotheism and polytheism in opposition to skepticism and
very primitive naturalistic schemes. For example, Plato argued that the view that God is singularly good
should be preferred to the portrait of the gods that was articulated in Greek poetic tradition, according
to which there are many gods, often imperfect and subject to vice and ignorance. The emergence and
development of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam on a global scale secured the centrality of theism for
philosophical enquiry, but the relevance of a philosophical exploration of theism is not limited to those
interested in these religions and the cultures in which they flourish. While theism has generally
flourished in religious traditions amid religious practices, one may be a theist without adopting any
religion whatever, and one may find theistic elements (however piecemeal) in Confucianism, Hinduism,
some versions of Mahayana Buddhism, as well as in the religions of some smaller scale societies. The
debate over theism also has currency for secular humanism and religious forms of atheism as in
Theravada Buddhist philosophy. Consider first the philosophical project of articulating theism and then
the philosophy of divine attributes.

4.1.2 Eternity

This view is sometimes referred to as the thesis that God is everlasting.

4.1.3 The goodness of God

All known world religions address the nature of good and evil and commend ways of achieving human
well-being, whether this be thought of in terms of salvation, liberation, deliverance, enlightenment,
tranquility, or an egoless state of Nirvana.

4.2 God's Existence

In some introductory philosophy textbooks and anthologies, the arguments for God's existence are
presented as ostensible proofs which are then shown to be fallible.

4.2.1 Ontological arguments

There is a host of arguments under this title; all of them are based principally on conceptual, a priori
grounds which do not involve a posteriori empirical investigation.

4.2.2 Cosmological arguments

Arguments in this vein are more firmly planted in empirical, a posteriori reflection, but some versions
employ a priori reasons as well.

4.2.3 Teleological arguments

These arguments focus on characteristics of the cosmos that seem to reflect the design or intentionality
of God or, more modestly, of one or more powerful, intelligent God-like agents.

4.2.4 Problems of evil

According to panentheism, God is immanent in the world, suffering with the oppressed and working to
bring good out of evil, although in spite of God's efforts, evil will invariably mar the created order.

5. Religious Pluralism

In the midst of the new work on religious traditions, there has been a steady, growing representation of
non-monotheistic traditions. An early proponent of this expanded format was Ninian Smart, who,
through many publications, scholarly as well as popular, secured philosophies of Hinduism and
Buddhism as components in the standard canon of English-speaking philosophy of religion.

Smart championed the thesis that there are genuine differences between religious traditions. He
therefore resisted seeing some core experience as capturing the essential identity of being religious.
Under Smart's tutelage, there has been considerable growth in cross-cultural philosophy of religion.
Wilfred Cantwell Smith also did a great deal to improve the representation of non-Western religions and
reflection.
 Social Philosophy

a.) Nature and scope of social philosophy

A branch of philosophy that deals with social problems, especially those issues pertaining to
social values. A sound social philosophy is the need of the day to tackle many a problem, which
faces the society such as inequality, injustice, oppression etc. Social philosophy is touched by
social life implying social relations, family, marriage, institutions and the new trends, ideals
values, thinking and living pattern.

Social philosophy is the philosophy of the human society. As society is in constant growth,
innovation in thinking and living categories, new perspectives are to be envisaged to build up a
harmonious world vision, to cope up with the demands and new value understanding. This
flexibility and accommodative nature makes defining social philosophy difficult. There is never a
perfect definition of social philosophy.

The term social philosophy does not have fixed meaning in current philosophical circles. The
social philosophy of my age, in a sense, reflects the agonies and sufferings of the ages and
suggests a way out of them by stressing the ideals of individuals and social happiness.

It is only in recent times, that social philosophy has come to be recognized as a “distinct subject
of study”, different from sociology. Sometimes, it is used as more or less equivalent to “political
philosophy”, that is, to the normative discussion, analytical or substantive of questions about
how society should be organized and also non-normative discussion of what is involved in
having social organization.

Social philosophy, in the ontological sense takes as granted that there is no society without
individual intentional agents. Social philosophy upholds that human development, as a person is
possible only in unison with other fellow human.

Many aspects such as biological (marriage and family) psychological (authentic membership of
social group) and teleological (self- realization, being fully human in society) are taken into
account in understanding the philosophical dimension of society. The inequalities which are
created on the basis of caste, occupation, religion and race may create not only confusions in
the society, but it may lead to chaotic conditions.

Social philosophy emphasizes the social nature of values, “social relations, activities and
attitudes are considered purely as problems, how to seek values conflict with one another in a
given situation, how to choose means of value fulfillment evaluated by society as desirable or
undesirable, whether to conform or deviate from social norms, how to arguments, discard or
modify some values according to the demands of the situation. This is one of the vital needs of
social philosophy.
b. Functions and formulations of social philosophy

The roots of social philosophy, lie in a perceived divergence between how a society has been
functioning, leading it to intermittent crisis and chaos and how it should function with a view to
realizing the ideals of happy social life.

There are two aspects of social life on the one hand “social interaction” between individuals in
virtue of which various relationships get formed, relationships involving communication,
affections, collaborations, exchange, recognition etc. and on the other hand, the “social
aggregation” of individual attitudes and actions in virtue of which various institution get
established. These institutions include common instrumentalists such as language, culture,
group etc. whose essence is t have a made of collective behavior. But the social philosophy
concerns itself both with issues raised by interaction and with questions associated with
aggregation.

On the side of interaction, the main issue in social philosophy is that which divide atomist from
non- atomist. < The atomist holds that the individual human beings do not depend on social
relationships for the appearance of any distinctive human capacities. The non-atomists deny this
believing that is only the experience of social relationships that the human beings comes
properly into his own. >(paki hypertext po itong part)

Social philosophy springs from the awareness of this divergence between existing social order
and normative values. It also tries to get at the social unity of mankind and interprets the
significance of the social aspects of human life in relation to the role and influence of “dharma”
in the making of Indian institutions and that of individualism and liberalism in the making of the
American institutions.

C. Significance and Implications for the Study of social philosophy

Philosophy as distinguished from science, is an effort to view particular object in relation to the
whole within which they are included where as the different sciences study the particular and
the laws of governing their behavior, philosophy studies and interprets the particular facts with
a view discovering their position and importance in the cosmic scheme. In the same way, the
social philosophy seeks to interpret the significance of social life and institutions with reference
to the social unity of mankind.

A social philosophy undertakes such as a study to enquire into thr best possible social
arrangement wherein the highest social ideal of a s “happy man in a happy society” could be
realized. The principles of social philosophy and to their implications for some of the main areas
of social philosophy, is that a good society is in a deep sense for the people who live in it and
that the principles on which it is organized will protect their freedom as autonomous, self-
motivated and self-directing individuals valued as end in themselves.
In brief, the significance and implications of social philosophy may be seen in the following
spheres:

1. Social Life – society consists of groups. It starts with an aggregate of people, which develops
in family, marriage, occupation and other institutions. All of them are influenced by social
philosophy. But the mere congregation of people in a physical area does not make them a
social group. A social group exist when two or more people are in direct or indirect contact
and communication.
2. Cultural Life - “Culture” is one of the most important concepts in social science. It is a
unique possession of man. The study of society or any aspect f it becomes incomplete
without a proper understanding of the culture of that society.
3. Economic Life – Man is not only a social animal; he is also an economic being. Incessantly
engaged in what we known as economic pursuits or activities. These activities are so
multifaceted, varied and complex that they constitute what is known as economy.
4. Political Life – Politics is essentially an ancient and universal experience. The art and science
of political analysis have developed over several thousand years through out many parts of
the world.
5. Field of Education – Education is one of the basic activities of people in all-human societies.
The continued existence of society depends upon the transmission continue. Every society
has its own ways and means of fulfilling this need. “education” has come to be one of the
ways of fulfilling this need.