Metaphysics Commons^™

A Response To Clark Pinnock's Hope For The Unevangelized As Seen In A Wideness In God's Mercy, Joshua Covert

Masters Theses

This paper will offer a response to Clark H. Pinnock's hope for the unevangelized as seen in A Wideness in God's Mercy. Pinnock argues that God saves individuals based upon their faith not primarily their knowledge. Pinnock develops a concept called the faith principle which he uses to support his claims. Pinnock provides five examples of unevangelized persons who are saved through faith without knowledge of Christ. Through Pinnock's faith principle and these five examples he argues that the unevangelized do not need special revelation - knowledge of Christ. It will be argued that the five examples provided ...

Approaching Christianity: Exploring The Tragic Impact Of Greek Philosophical Thought On Christian Thought, Tammy Galvan-Barnett

M.A. in Political Theory Theses

This study explores the impact of Greek philosophical thought on Christian thought. I argue that Greek dualism is the fundamental contradiction in Christian thought creating problems for the doctrines of Christianity and ultimately thwarting a biblical approach to Christianity. From the early days of Christianity, Greek philosophy became absorbed into Christian thinking. Christian theology is often incorrectly interpreted through Platonic metaphysics. Platonic Christianity distinguishes between sacred and secular realms of the cosmos and devalues physical things. Furthermore, the tragedy is not only that Greek philosophy has had such a profound impact on Christianity, but also that its influence is still ...

A Comprehensive Study Of Ayurveda, Traditional Chinese Medicine, And Comparison, Per Maximilian Gasseholm

Social Sciences

Today complimentary medicine is being increasingly sought out. Ayurveda and TCM, are among the oldest systems of medicine and have been developed for over thousands of years in India and China respectively. This paper details the philosophies, medical theories, anatomy, diagnosis, and treatments of both of these systems, including a comparison. Both of these modalities of healing operate with a microcosm – macrocosm paradigm. This makes them fundamentally similar, and compatible with each other. Ayurveda uses Tridoshic theory to apply treatments ranging from diet, massage, meditation, yoga among other therapies to bring Vata, Pitta, and Kapha into balance. TCM is based ...

Ideology, Truthmaking And Fundamentality, Anthony Robert James Fisher

Philosophy - Dissertations

In chapter 1 I outline two conceptions of ideology: ideological pessimism and ideological realism. Ideological pessimism is the view that ideological inquiry has dim prospects insofar as ideology is tied to meaning. Ideological realism is the view that there is a fact of the matter about which ideology is taken as primitive when attempting to describe reality correctly. I respond to an argument on behalf of ideological pessimism, develop ideological realism, and then defend it against an objection that attempts to derive the unpalatable consequence that a main dispute in the metaphysics of properties is verbal.

In chapter 2 I ...

Contemporary Challenges To Quinean Ontology, Owen Pikkert

Open Access Dissertations and Theses

In this master’s thesis I defend a Quinean approach to ontology. I first describe the Quinean approach as consisting of three steps and three theses. All three theses have been challenged in the contemporary literature. In each chapter I describe one such challenge, and then provide a response. The first challenge states that ontology is actually easy. Proponents of this challenge include Matti Eklund’s maximalist, as well as Amie Thomasson. In response, I argue that the maximalist cannot consistently determine whether abstract entities exist. I also argue that Thomasson’s account involves a certain slide in logic and ...

Not To Be: Modality Without Possible Worlds, Samuel Girwarnauth

The Hilltop Review

For many with broadly Aristotelian intuitions the Humean usurpation of work in philosophy is a frustrating landscape. This is most obviously demonstrated in the arena of the metaphysics of modality, and talk of "possible worlds" specifically. Famously, the Humean denial of necessary connections in the world has led to the most strongly defended thesis on modality to date: the extreme modal realism (EMR) of David Lewis. Pace Lewis, actualism ought to be the preferred position, but whose version, which actuality? The thrust of this paper shall be to argue that the truth makers, or grounding, for modal claims are not ...