Flew - New essays in philosophical theology

Flew, Antony, 1923

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TRENT UNIVERSITY LIBRARY

Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2019 with funding from Kahle/Austin Foundation

https://archive.org/details/newessaysinphiloOOOOflew

edited by

ANTONY FLEW

Professor of Philosophy in the University College of North Staffordshire

ALASDAIR MACINTYRE

Fellow of Nuffield College,

Oxford

SCM PRESS LTD

BLOOMSBURY STREET LONDON

First published 1959 Second impression December 1958 Third impression February ig6i First Cheap Edition September 1963

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Made and printed in Great Britain by William Clowes and Sons, Limited, London and Beccles

ONULP.

Preface by Antony Flew and Alasdair MacIntyre vii

I. Can Religion be Discussed? by A. JV. Prior I

II. Metaphysics, Logic and Theology by J. J. C.

Smart 12

III. The Existence of God by J. J. C. Smart 28

IV. Can Gods Existence be Disproved?

A. by J. JV. Findlay 47 ^

B. by G. E. Hughes 56

C. by A. C. A. Rainer (Windsor) 67

D. by J. JV. Findlay 71

V. A Religious Way of Knowing by C. B. Martin 76 ^

VI. Theology and Falsification (i) The University Discussion

A. by Antony Flew 96

B. by R. M. Hare 99

C. by Basil Mitchell 103

D. by Antony Flew 106

(ii) Arising from the University Discussion by I. M.

Crombie 109

VII. Religion as the Inexpressible by Thomas McPherson 131

VIII. Divine Omnipotence and Human Freedom by

Antony Flew 144

IX. Creation by Antony Flew and D. M. MacKinnon 170

X. Tertullians Paradox by Bernard Williams 187

v

40251

Contents

XI. The Perfect Good by C. B. Martin 212

XII. Demythologizing and the Problem of Validity

by Ronald W. Hepburn 227

XIII. Miracles by Patrick Nowell-Smith 243

XIV. Visions by Alasdair MacIntyre 254

XV. Death

A. by D. M. MacKinnon 261

B. by Antony Flew 267

Index of Names 273

This is a collection of twenty-two papers by sixteen different philosophers working in the British Commonwealth. The first thing which all the contributors have in common is a familiarity with and a great indebtedness to the recent revolution in philosophy. They are therefore certain to be labelled Logical Positivists by most laymen, including many professional theologians; and even by most philosophers outside the English-speaking countries. This label is entirely inappropriate: if it is to be taken, as it is and should be, to imply a toeing of the party line of the now defunct Vienna Circle; a position brilliantly epitomized by the Ayer of Language, Truth and Logic (First Edition, 1936: Gollancz, London). This is not the place to describe or discuss the revolution in philosophy or to estimate the part played in it by the Vienna Circle.1 It should be sufficient here simply to repudiate the popular misconception that all the philosophers are Logical Positivists nowadays: and to ask that this volume be judged on its arguments, and not be forced into some preconceived matrix of misunderstanding. The second thing which the contributors share is a concern with theological questions, and a conviction that these call for serious and particular treatment. (Whereas the Logical Positivists used to reject all theology holus-bolus as so much meaningless metaphysics.) But this common conviction and concern is not accompanied by a community of religious belief. One Editor is a Christian and one is not: while the contributors and contributions are likewise divided just about equally.2

1 Anyone interested might refer to: The Revolution in Philosophy (Macmillan, 1955), essays on the history of recent developments edited by D. F. Pears; and Logic and Language (Blackwell, Oxford: First Series, 1951, and Second Series 1953), and Essays in Conceptual Analysis (Macmillan, 1956), anthologies of recent philosophical articles edited by Antony Flew.

2 It will perhaps be of interest to some to mention that though we made our selection with no thought of denomination in mind it has turned out that the majority of our Christian contributors are within the Anglican communion. To our great regret the one Roman Catholic whom we approached felt unable to co-operate.

vii

Our title perhaps calls for some explanation. The word new is put in: not because the papers included are here published for the first timefor the majority have already appeared before somewhere; but because it is only in the last few years that attempts have been made to apply these latest philosophical techniques and insights to theological issues, while this is probably the first time that a whole book has been devoted to this enormous job. We should like to have used the expression Philosophy of Religion for its analogy with Philosophy of History, Philosophy of Science, and so on: since the questions discussed here are philosophical and bear the same sort of relation to religious thought and practice as the questions of the philosophy of history and of science bear to the thought and practice of working scientists and historians; the relation, that is, of arising out of or being posed by these empirical disciplines, while being themselves philosophical and not factual questions (see Chapter III). But this expression has become, and seems likely for some time to remain, associated with Idealist attempts to present philosophical prolegomena to theistic theology. So we have adapted as an alternative the expression Philosophical Theology ; which has a welcome analogy to Philosophical Ethics and Philosophical Aesthetics, occasionally used to cover the parallel philosophical inquiries which arise out of moral and critical thought and practice. We realize that many will be startled to find the word theology so used that: the expression theistic theologian is not tautological; and the expression atheist theologian is not self-contradictory. But unless this unusual usage of ours is adopted we have to accept the paradox that those who reach opposite conclusions about certain questions must be regarded as having thereby shown themselves to have been engaged in different disciplines: the paradox that whereas St. Thomass presentation of the quinque viae is a piece of (Natural or Philosophical) Theology, Humes Dialogues concerning Natural Religion must belong to some other and nameless discipline.