Philosophy Word of the Day – Mean

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The middle way between too much and too little of something. Aristotle held that virtue is always a mean between vicious extremes of excess and deficiency.

(Via Philosophical Dictionary)

For example,

A general must seek to find courage, the mean between cowardice and foolhardiness, in order to gain honor. . . . A person who seeks pleasure through eating must find the mean between being a glutton and starving. . . . A person who seeks honor through knowledge must find the mean between ignorance and seeking knowledge to excess.

We must not understand Aristotle to mean that virtue lies exactly at the centre of two vices. Aristotle only means that virtue is in between the two vices. Different degrees are needed for different situations. Knowing exactly what is appropriate in a given situation is difficult and that is why we need a long moral training. For example, being very angry at the fact that your wife is murdered is appropriate even though the state is closer to extreme anger (a vice) than it is to indifference (a vice). In that case, it is right for the virtuous man to be angry. However, if some water has been spilt in the garden by accident then the virtuous response is much closer to indifference.

(Via Wikipedia)

William P. Alston, 1921-2009

I received this sad news today from the Society of Christian Philosophers.

Bill Alston, 87, died earlier today, September 13, 2009, at his home in Jamesville, NY.

A key figure in the founding of the Society of Christian Philosophers, Bill was a past president of both SCP and the Central APA and made significant contributions in the fields of epistemology and philosophy of religion.  His work, leadership, and exemplary model of Christian philosophy has inspired many.

Please remember his widow, Valerie, and the rest of his family in your prayers, giving thanks for Bill’s many gifts.

The following is from his faculty page at Syracuse University.

William P. Alston is a past President of the Central Division of the American Philosophical Association, of the Society for Philosophy and Psychology, and of the Society of Christian Philosophers. Perhaps best known for his work in the philosophy of language, epistemology, and the philosophy of religion, his impact is also felt in such areas as philosophical psychology and the history of philosophy. He was a Fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford in 1965-66 and Distinguished Visiting Professor of Philosophy at the Center for Advanced Study in Theoretical Psychology at the University of Alberta in 1975. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and he received the Syracuse University’s Chancellor’s Citation for Exceptional Academic Achievement. He conducted NEH summer seminars in 1978 and 1979, and directed an NEH Institute on Philosophy of Religion in 1986. He is founding editor of the journals Philosophy Research Archives (now The Journal of Philosophical Research) and Faith and Philosophy. In October, 1987 he led a delegation of eight American philosophers in epistemology and philosophy of mind for a week of discussions with Soviet philosophers in Moscow and Leningrad. In September, 1991 he participated in a conference at Castel Gandolfo, Italy on theology and physical cosmology sponsored by the Vatican Observatory.

His publications include several anthologies; Philosophy of Language (Prentice-Hall, 1964); more than one hundred and fifty journal articles, many anthologized; eighteen articles in the Encyclopedia of Philosophy (ed. Paul Edwards, MacMillan, 1967); and numerous reviews. Two collections of his essays have been published by Cornell University Press (1989): Epistemic Justification: Essays in Epistemology and Divine Nature and Human Language: Essays in Philosophical Theology. His most recent books are Perceiving God: A Study in the Epistemology of Religious Experience, (Cornell, 1991), The Reliability of Sense Perception, (Cornell, 1993), A Realist Conception of Truth (Cornell, 1995), and Illocutionary Acts and Sentence Meaning (Cornell, 2000).

Review of Anne Rice’s Angel Time

Anne Rice is the author of the well-known Vampire Chronicles, three of which have been made into films.  In 1998 she converted to Catholicism, as she describes on her website, and decided to use her writing talents and future books in service to God.

In 1998 I returned to the Catholic Church… I realized that the greatest thing I could do to show my complete love for Him was to consecrate my work to Him—to use any talent I had acquired as a writer, as a storyteller, as a novelist—for Him and for Him alone…

Betty Carter at First Things gives a thoughtful review of Rice’s forthcoming novel Angel Time, and compares it to her previous books, finding some interesting parallels.

Some writers have one story that they tell again and again in different ways, and often that story is autobiography. Charles Dickens liked to write about deserving young men who fall on hard times and then, through the help of benevolent friends, recover a birthright; this was Dickens’s own life, retold as David Copperfield, Oliver Twist, or Nicholas Nickelby. In the case of Anne Rice, it’s no accident that two of her most significant characters—Louis of Interview with the Vampire (probably her best book), and now Lucky the Fox—begin as innocent children in devout Catholic families, lose beloved family members through cruel accidents and alcoholism, and at last feel themselves ripped from their old lives by dark forces that turn them into creatures of darkness—whether vampires or assassins.

This is Rice’s life. Like Louis’ brother and Lucky’s mother, her own mother died tragically at a young age. Anne was a teenager then, still a very devout Catholic, even dreaming of the priesthood (her outlook, like her birth name, Harold Allen, was androgynous). But faith melted away as she grew older and became curious about the intellectual, cultural, and sexual world outside the Church. Rice eventually came to see Christianity as beautiful but repressive and God as a fiction. She married a scholar, lost a young daughter to leukemia a few years later, and out of her own darkness produced dark stories about beautiful, brooding creatures who wrestle with questions of immortality and faith. Still obsessed with religious art and symbols, she yearned for the thing she couldn’t accept. (Continue)

Can We Trust Our Emotions?

Sage advice here from Dr. Gary Chapman.  I believe emotions are a perceptual faculty that give us glimpses of reality that we probably don’t perceive in other ways.

Why do we consider our emotions as an enemy?  One reason is that we know our feelings change.  The lift us up and they let us down.  Our highs don’t last, and our lows are painful.  We conclude, therefore, that emotions are unreliable.  Perhaps the chief reason is that negative emotions don’t seem to fit with our idea of being a “good Christian.”

Anger, fear, disappointment, loneliness, frustration, depression, and sorrow don’t fit the stereotype of successful Christian living.  The fact is negative and positive emotions are morally neutral.  It is what we do in response to our emotions that leads to good or bad.  Negative emotions call for positive action.  Positive emotions call us to celebrate.  Take time to listen to your emotions.

Have you ever done a Bible study on emotions?  When I wrote The Marriage You’ve Always Wanted Bible Study, I felt it important to include a chapter on “Becoming Friends with My Feelings” because I think many Christians have a distorted view of emotions.  Many people are surprised to discover that Jesus felt depression.  Read it for yourself in Matthew 26:36-46.

We have wrongly concluded that negative emotions are from Satan.  The Scriptures teach that emotions are a gift from God.

They motivate us to take constructive action.  Anger motivated Jesus to clear the temple of robbers and thieves.  Emotions call us to engage the mind and to make wise decisions on what needs to be done.  When we make wise decisions, emotions have served their purpose.

Would it surprise you if I told you that Jesus experienced fear?  Fear is an emotion that pushes us away from a person, place, or thing.  In Matthew 26, Jesus prayed, “Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me.”  He saw what was ahead and his emotions pleaded for a different way.  Jesus did what we should do with our fear – express it to God.

The proper response to fear is to run to God.  The Psalmist said, “When I am afraid, I will trust in Thee.”  365 times in the Bible God says, “Fear not, for I am with you.”  Our fear leads us to God and we rest in His strength to protect.  Don’t put yourself down for feeling fear, just run as quickly as you can to the loving arms of God.

Unsolved Scientific Mysteries

Science is fascinating, beneficial (when used rightly), and helps us understand and appreciate God’s creation.  New Scientist lists 13 riddles that still remain a mystery to science.  For example,

Axis of evil

Radiation left from the big bang is still glowing in the sky – in a mysterious and controversial pattern

Dark flow

Something unseeable and far bigger than anything in the known universe is hauling a group of galaxies towards it at inexplicable speed (Continue)

(Via Freakonomics)

The Veracity Of The New Testament

The Veritas Forum provides an excellent audio or video presentation by Dr Gary Habermas called:

“The Veracity Of The New Testament”.

View it here.

(Via Faith Interface)