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Articles 1 - 15 of 15
Full-Text Articles in Metaphysics
Nietzsche And Socrates: Reflections Of Redefined Virtue In Greek Tragedy, Kyle M. Lowry
Nietzsche And Socrates: Reflections Of Redefined Virtue In Greek Tragedy, Kyle M. Lowry
Senior Honors Theses
The works of Friedrich Nietzsche were used to study how Greek Tragedy was “born” and “died,” particularly in relation to the rise of Socratic philosophy in Ancient Greece. The intoxicated “Dionysian” and disciplinary, artistic “Apollinian,” are the elements Nietzsche claims encompass and catalyze human experience; the former containing the primal nature of the Being, and the latter containing the ordering through which identity is formed and art is created. Tragedy, the art form perfectly balancing these two elements was “born” within the conditions of a Dionysian Pessimism, by which the inevitable life of suffering was redeemed aesthetically. Socrates introduced rationality …
Awe As Signpost: An Argument For The Consistency Of Lewis’S “Joy” And Psychological Awe, Audrey Hendricks
Awe As Signpost: An Argument For The Consistency Of Lewis’S “Joy” And Psychological Awe, Audrey Hendricks
Senior Honors Theses
C.S. Lewis’s Surprised by Joy details Lewis’s autobiographical apologetic for the existence of God through his experiences of “Joy,” a technical term invented by Lewis. Upon close study, his experiences of Joy contain many similarities to psychological awe. This investigation compares Lewis’s Joy with psychological awe using the Awe Experience Scale (AWE-S) to determine consistency. Lewis’s Joy was found to be consistent with all six criteria of the AWE-S in addition to other recognized psychological characteristics of awe. In addition to qualitative consistency, this review also argues for the teleological consistency of the two concepts, contending for a Christian teleological …
The Grand Narratives: The Rise And Fall Of Universal Philosophical Systems, Gavin S. Litchford
The Grand Narratives: The Rise And Fall Of Universal Philosophical Systems, Gavin S. Litchford
Senior Honors Theses
This thesis reviews the development of narrative and systematic methods of argumentative legitimation in the Western tradition of philosophy from its conception until the present day. Utilizing both primary sources from central figures in key movements within this development process and supplementary secondary sources, this analysis notes which systems were used as appeals to higher authority and the trends in the adoption and transformation of new models. It is demonstrated that the Enlightenment era punctuated a progression begun in the premodern era from simple, cultural narratives to individualized, subjective, and self-perpetuating Grand Narrative systems, and that it generated the preconditions …
Freedom, Mystery And “Kinds Of Desire”: The Doctrine Of Theosis And Free Will’S Intelligibility Problem, Aaron Milkie
Freedom, Mystery And “Kinds Of Desire”: The Doctrine Of Theosis And Free Will’S Intelligibility Problem, Aaron Milkie
Senior Honors Theses
The problem of free will stands among the most intellectually fascinating, and practically concerning, problems of philosophy. It also remains, after centuries of rich discussion and sharp division, a locus of tremendous philosophical polarization— citing strong, often incongruous intuitions, philosophers today disagree over the nature, possibility, existence, and implications of human free agency. One route which might help penetrate this apparent stalemate is the application of resources from theism— in particular, Christian theism— to the philosophical free will conversation. In this paper, I review past contributions of Christian theism to the philosophical free will debate, arguing that these contributions, while …
An Evaluation Of Trenton Merrick's Physicalism Regarding The Resurrection, James Mitchell
An Evaluation Of Trenton Merrick's Physicalism Regarding The Resurrection, James Mitchell
Quaerens Deum: The Liberty Undergraduate Journal for Philosophy of Religion
In this article, the physicalism of Trenton Merricks is examined in relation to the Christian doctrine of the future resurrection of the body. Merricks' position is found to have serious issues relating to how a person can maintain numerical identity through a process of death and being brought back into existence at the resurrection. Merricks never provides any way of understanding how this is possible. Further, his argument seems to presuppose that human beings are merely physical beings without sufficiently grounding this point. The article concludes that Merricks' physicalism cannot account for the numerical identity which is necessary for the …
The Moral Argument, Existential Problems Of Evil, And A Non-Existential Alternative, Jonathan Smith
The Moral Argument, Existential Problems Of Evil, And A Non-Existential Alternative, Jonathan Smith
Senior Honors Theses
Within this paper, it is shown that certain ethical assumptions are implicit within the claim that certain kinds of evil exist. When taken in tandem with the moral argument for the existence of God, these assumptions can be arranged in such a way as to provide a contradiction. To avoid this contradiction, I posit a non-existential alternative to direct inductive arguments from evil, but the non-existential alternative gives rise to novel objections. When considering their respective ethical implications, both the existential and non-existential variations of direct inductive arguments fail. Since any direct inductive problem of evil must be either existential …
Mackie's Arguement For The Infinite Man, Abigail J. Basile
Mackie's Arguement For The Infinite Man, Abigail J. Basile
Quaerens Deum: The Liberty Undergraduate Journal for Philosophy of Religion
Theists and non-theists alike have toiled with the characteristics of the Judeo-Christian God and how they may or may not be contradictory with the existence of evil. Some philosophers, such as J. L. Mackie, have decided that God and evil cannot coexist, mainly because the existence of evil means that any God is unable to keep evil and suffering away from His beloved creation, and such a limited God is no God at all. But Mackie’s argument rests on flawed foundation. Mankind is necessarily finite because even the infinite God cannot do the logically impossible and create the infinite—nothing infinite …
When Two Become One: Reconsidering Marriage As A Sacrament In Protestant Theology, Adam Neal
When Two Become One: Reconsidering Marriage As A Sacrament In Protestant Theology, Adam Neal
Doctoral Dissertations and Projects
Protestant theology has historically rejected marriage as sacrament, a rejection which continues to resound in the majority of contemporary Protestant scholarship. Yet many, if not most, arguments against sacramental marriage tacitly follow an outline set forward by Luther and Calvin which, if examined with critical scrutiny, is based on a problematic soteriological premise. In light of this, the present study sets forward a comprehensive argument in favor of Protestant theology reaffirming marriage as a sacrament through systematic investigation into the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament), New Testament, and Christian history. After developing a critical hermeneutic founded on realist epistemological grounds, a …
Is God The Necessary Being?, Bryce E. Hardy
Is God The Necessary Being?, Bryce E. Hardy
Quaerens Deum: The Liberty Undergraduate Journal for Philosophy of Religion
This paper briefly presents and engages with four competing hypotheses as to the most plausible explanation for the beginning of the universe. After clarifying some terminology, I will first establish both scientific and philosophical reasons for accepting the notion of an absolute beginning over a past eternal universe. Next, I will interact with Lawrence Krauss’ two versions of “nothing” and speculation of a multiverse as possible suggestions for what that first cause might be. In response, I will demonstrate the logical inadequacy of this approach, and by extension all other non-metaphysical theories. Ultimately, I will determine that, due to the …
Arminianism And Molinism On Divine Foreknowledge, Nathan S. Justice
Arminianism And Molinism On Divine Foreknowledge, Nathan S. Justice
Senior Honors Theses
Evidence is examined concerning the coherence of divine foreknowledge as defined by Arminianism and Molinism. Arminianism argues that God has complete and infallible knowledge of the future, and attempts to simultaneously maintain a strong view of libertarian freedom. Molinism agrees with the Arminian stance on foreknowledge and human freedom, but argues that middle knowledge must also be posited for God to have strong providential control over His creation. It is argued that Molinism better accounts for the biblical data and provides a more coherent theological and philosophical position, since Arminianism cannot provide a strong theory of providential control. Subsequently, a …
Die Phantasie Gottes: An Analysis Of The Divine Ideas In Deity Theories And Brian Leftow, With A Proposed Synthesis, Nathaniel Dowell
Die Phantasie Gottes: An Analysis Of The Divine Ideas In Deity Theories And Brian Leftow, With A Proposed Synthesis, Nathaniel Dowell
Masters Theses
This thesis was on how God is related to the truth-values of propositions on possible worlds - specifically, those propositions that do not seem to be about Him and constitute His ideas for what to create. It opened with a survey of some historical positions with special emphasis on Aquinas, Leibniz, Spinoza and Kant. Next, some criticisms were given for these so-called deity theories (i.e., the belief that possibilities are dependent on God and God must, by nature, recognize the necessary truths He does) with the most space given to Brian Leftow’s critiques. The second chapter detailed Brian Leftow’s theological …
Auctor In Fabula: Umberto Eco And The Intentio Of Foucault's Pendulum, Douglas Stephens Iv
Auctor In Fabula: Umberto Eco And The Intentio Of Foucault's Pendulum, Douglas Stephens Iv
Senior Honors Theses
Umberto Eco’s 1988 novel Foucault’s Pendulum weaves together a wide range of philosophical and literary threads. Many of these threads find their other ends in Eco’s nonfiction works, which focus primarily on the question of interpretation and the source of meaning. The novel, which follows three distinctly overinterpretive characters as they descend into ruin, has been read by some as a retraction or parody of Eco’s own position. However, if Foucault’s Pendulum is indeed polemical, it must be taken as an argument against the mindset which Eco has termed the “hermetic”. Through an examination of his larger theoretical body, including …
Why William Rowe’S Argument From Natural Evil Fails, Douglas Taylor
Why William Rowe’S Argument From Natural Evil Fails, Douglas Taylor
Other Graduate Scholarship
Atheists in the vein of William Rowe have put forth arguments suggesting that the presence of evil counts against the existence of God. In particular, Rowe has advanced two lines of reasoning for his position, one being taken from an actual historical case of moral evil, and one case being a hypothetical natural evil. This paper seeks to interact with the proffered fictitious case whereby Rowe contends that even nature argues against the existence of God. If it is possible to demonstrate that Rowe’s argumentation fails, namely that if a greater good can be identified in relation to his submitted …
Epistemological Realism And Onto-Relations, Max Lewis Edward Andrews
Epistemological Realism And Onto-Relations, Max Lewis Edward Andrews
Liberty Theological Review
The traditional concept of knowledge is a justified true belief. The bulk of contemporary epistemology has focused primarily on that task of justification. Truth seems to be a quite obvious criterion—does the belief in question correspond to reality? My contention is that the aspect of ontology is far too separated from epistemology. This onto-relationship of between reality and beliefs require the epistemic method of epistemological realism. This is not to diminish the task of justification. I will then discuss the role of inference from the onto-relationships of free invention and discovery and whether it is best suited for a foundationalist …
A Response To Clark Pinnock's Hope For The Unevangelized As Seen In A Wideness In God's Mercy, Joshua Covert
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 by Pinnock …