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In locating friendly fire in contemporary philosophy of religion, D.Z.Phillips shows that more harm can be done to religion by its philosophical defenders than by its philosophical despisers. Friendly fire is the result of an uncritical acceptance of empiricism and Phillips argues that we need to examine critically the claims that individual consciousness is the necessary starting point from which we have to argue: for the existence of an external world and the reality of God; that God is a person without a body, a pure consciousness; and that to assent to a religious belief is essentially to assign a truth value to a proposition independent of any confessional context. When these products of friendly fire are avoided we arrive at a new understanding of belief, trust, the soul, and refuse to say more or less than we know about the realities of human life in the service of religious apologetics.
List of contents
Contents: Preface; Philosophical method and friendly fire; The Cartesian circle of friends; Propositioning the friends; Must truths tally?; Saying scripture; On trusting intellectuals on trust; Who'll save the soul?; Saying more than we know; Saying less than we know; Index.
About the author
D.Z. Phillips is Danforth Professor of Philosophy of Religion, Claremont Graduate University, USA and Emeritus Professor of Philosophy, University of Wales, Swansea, UK.
Summary
In locating friendly fire in contemporary philosophy of religion, D.Z. Phillips shows that more harm can be done to religion by its philosophical defenders than by its philosophical despisers. Friendly fire is the result of an uncritical acceptance of empiricism, and Phillips argues that we need to examine critically the claims that individual consciousness is the necessary starting point from which we have to argue: for the existence of an external world and the reality of God; that God is a person without a body, a pure consciousness; and that to assent to a religious belief is essentially to assign a truth value to a proposition independent of any confessional context. When these products of friendly fire are avoided, we arrive at a new understanding of belief, trust and the soul, and refuse to say more or less than we know about the realities of human life in the service of religious apologetics.
Additional text
’In Religion and Friendly Fire, D.Z. Phillips returns to philosophical questions that have occupied him throughout his career. What makes this book unique and provocative is the way in which these questions are brought together under the theme of what Phillips calls 'friendly fire', which he describes as 'the possibility that harm can be done to religious beliefs by the very philosophical analyses which set out to defend them'.’ Philosophical Investigations
