Larabelle Adrianne M.

Luntayao

PHILO 25 BC

CORNELL NOTES

PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION (INTRODUCTION PART) DATE: FEB 10,2023

CUES
• Why but not the immediate answer but
the causes the deepest causes
• What is God?
• What is the question?
• How is existence validated?
• Which comes first, after, prior?
NOTES AND EXAMPLES
• This course is considered as philosophy
not a religion course
• Philosophy is the search for the ultimate
causes of being with the aid of the human
intellect alone
• “Ultimate causes” = deepest reason
• “beings” = anything that has existence,
presence, the concept with the
greatest/highest extension
• God is considered to be a being in terms of
concepts or idea
• What-ness= nature of the being; quiddity
essence
• As a search, the course is a finding, a
questioning.
• To answer the question is to approach it
• The focus is God is being, thus, to
approach God as a question is to approach
God as an idea or concept. To conceive of
an idea is to apprehend to understand
• Essence- answers the question, what; the
what-ness
- Quiddity; the nature of the
being
- Is that, without which, the
thing/being ceases to be that
thing/being
- Example: What makes a
manok a manok? (asking for
the essence of a manok)
• Existence- to exist means to stand out.
- Presence
- Existence is not limited to
physical, material reality
- Example: mom will ask you
“please get the kuan from the
kitchen?” (Mom did not
specify what the kuan is)
 • Approaches to the Question
1. Rational Approach-reasoning
➢ A posteriori method (back or
that which comes later)
= Cosmological argument
= Teleological argument
➢ A priori method (before)
= Ontological argument
= Moral Argument
Examples: A posteriori method- I have seen the
dinosaur (The dinosaur that I perceive through the
television, book.)
A priori method- I sense that there is a
dinosaur (knowledge before experience because of
sense perception)
2. Non-Rational Approach
➢ Religious Experience;
Phenomenology

SUMMARY

• Philosophy is the search for the ultimate causes of being with the aid of the human intellect
alone
• Essence- answers the question, what; the what-ness
• Existence- to exist means to stand out.
• Approaches of the Question: Rational and Non-Rational Approach
• Two types of Rational Approach:
- A posteriori (Cosmological and Teleological argument)
- A priori method (Ontological and Moral argument)