Title: Theism /
Authors: Bowne, Borden Parker,
Date: 1902
Publisher: American book company,
Physical description: xii, 323 pages ; 22 cm.
Language: English
LC classification: B
Contents: Introduction: religion a fact -- Origin of religion -- Theories of origin ambiguous -- They are never explanations of religious fact, but descriptions of its temporal development -- History of religion -- Rational basis of religion -- Logical method -- Method of rigor and vigor -- Practical and teleological basis of belief -- Function of logic -- Logic regulative, not constitutive -- Theism and atheism alike hypotheses to be tested by their positive adequacy of the facts -- 1. The unity of the world-ground -- Kant's criticism of the theistic arguments -- The traditional classification of the arguments abandoned and a starting point found in the fact of interaction -- Verbal explanations of interaction -- Interaction between independent things a contradiction -- The fundamental reality must be One -- 2. The world-ground as intelligent -- Two classes of arguments, inductive and speculative -- Argument from order -- Theism the only explanation of order --^ Source of plausibility of the atheistic explanation of order -- The argument from teleology -- Points to be noted in studying the argument -- Atheistic objections -- Mechanical explanation shown to be empty -- Source of the illusion -- Evolution -- Ambiguity of the doctrine -- Evolution as phenomenal -- The "as-if" objection -- The argument which disproves mind in nature disproves mind also in man -- The argument from finite intelligence -- The argument from epistemology -- Suicidal character of all mechanical doctrines of knowledge -- The basal certainties of knowledge are not things, but persons and experience -- Knowledge implies identity of the laws of thought and the laws of things -- A knowable world necessarily a thought world -- The metaphysical argument -- Idealistic theism the only solution of the problems of thought -- 3. The world-ground is personal -- Agnostic objections -- Impersonal intelligence -- Alleged contradictions in infinite intelligence --^ The contradiction is verbal -- Psychological objections -- Complete personality possible only to the Absolute -- The truth of objections -- 4. The metaphysical attributes of the world-ground -- Unity -- Unity possible only on the personal plane -- Unchangeability -- The self-identity and self-equality of intelligence the only unchangeable -- Omnipresence -- Impossible under the space forum -- Eternity -- Relation of the world-ground in time -- Omniscience -- Possibility of foreknowledge -- Omnipotence -- Relation of God to truth -- The divine will and the divine existence 5. God and the world -- Pantheism -- Quantitative pantheism untenable -- Two conceptions of the finite -- Spirits created -- Untenability of all forms of pantheism -- Reality of the finite spirit -- Theistic conception -- Creation temporal or eternal? -- Present relation of the world to God -- God as ruler of the world -- Man's relation to nature -- Naturalism and supernaturalism -- God as immanent and transcendent -- 6. The world-ground as ethical -- Distinction of metaphysical and moral attributes -- The empirical argument -- Argument from the moral nature -- Argument from history and social structure -- Logic and life -- Optimism and pessimism -- Both optimist and pessimist fall a prey to abstractions -- Apriori discussion futile -- Unpermissible anthropomorphism -- Laws of the system good -- Man's worst woes of his own making -- Only a practical solution possible -- Evil in the animal world -- Ethics and the absolute -- Can the absolute be ethical? -- 7. Theism and life -- Practical argument for theism explained -- Atheism and duties -- Atheism and the moral judgment -- Consistent atheism cannot defend itself against ethical skepticism -- Dependence of ethics on our general theory of the universe and life -- Atheism and the moral ideal -- Atheism and moral inspiration -- Position of the religious nature in modern atheism -- Conclusion.
Notes: "This work is a revision and extension of my previous work, 'Philosophy of theism'"--Pref.
Subject headings (LCSH): Atheism--Controversial literature.; Theism.