Tag: worldview
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An Internal Critique of Physicalism: Freedom and Responsibility
Peter Smith and O.R. Jones begin their discussion of causality and freedom by restating three points to provide a context for their discussion.
…First, it is a deeply entrenched presumption of science that all physical changes are to be explained entirely in terms of physical causes… (252)
Second, we humans belong to the physical world, at least in the sense that there is no more to our make-up than ordinary organic stuff… (252)
Third, we have claimed it as a virtue of our broadly functionalist account of the mind that it allows us to speak of mental states while still
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A Brief Word On The Transcendental Argument For The Existence Of God
Immanuel Kant is known for having coined a term and utilized an argument which is now referred to as transcendental, though it may be traced back even further, having been used in some sense by Aristotle (as one example). Cornelius Van Til, writing from the Continental Tradition in Philosophy, wrote extensively concerning a transcendental argument which is utilized to prove Christianity. Greg L. Bahnsen, a student of Van Til, is best known for having brought the argument, or at least something very much like the argument, into the realm of public debate and for having attempted to clarify it …
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No Place To Stand
People have repeatedly called my attention to three posts by Mitch LeBlanc at www.urbanphilosophy.net wherein he makes a “case against presuppositionalism”. There are reasons I have put off writing anything about them other than not having a great deal of time. The arguments contained in the posts are in fact not what they claim to be (arguments against presuppositionalism), but are arguments against the Transcendental Argument for the Existence of God. The arguments presented do not originate with Mitch at all, a fact he readily admits, but are arguments familiar to many presuppositionalists that have been rehashed. Some of the …
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Warming Up to Presuppositionalism
While the rule seems to be that most non-Christians do not accept Presuppositionalism as a valid form of argumentation (due mostly to misunderstanding it), there are those who have, in my experience, warmed to the idea over time. Case in point, a cyber-friend of mine I will call by the initials “HR”. HR and I have known each other for close to 7 years now, primarily through the medium of a discussion board that he and I frequent. When we first met online, I was just coming up to speed on the Presuppositional approach to defending Christianity. Needless to say, …