School of Historical and Philosophical Studies - Theses

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    Realist epistemology in Christian philosophy
    Ellis, William ( 1953)
    I propose in this thesis to show that the Idealist Epistemology does not allow for the essentials of Christianity and that, on the contrary, a Realist epistemology does make it possible to accept Christianity without any contradiction being involved. To achieve this, I shall first state the philosophy of John Caird who attempted to start with Idealism and end with a philosophy of religion; then I shall examine the conclusions and implications of Caird, comparing them with the writings of other Idealist thinkers, and show wherein they fail to meet the needs of Christian thinkers. This, of course, is no proof of the falsity of their thinking but I shall, after a short section on the historical change from Idealism to Realism, follow with a statement of the Realist epistemology which I hold to be necessary to describe and clarify our experience. The position which I will advocate will be that generally described as. Critical Realism but it will include a section on our knowledge of persons which is relevant in any religious thought which takes account of a personal God, as well as some account of error and the occurrence of error which is relevant to the question of the place of evil in our experience. Finally I shall make a statement of the points of Christian doctrine which I consider to be vitally affected by epistemology and I shall endeavour to show that, under Realism, both Christian needs and our experience can be adequately stated. This is not to say. that Christianity is a necessary conclusion but only that Christianity does not preclude one from being a realist and that realism does not preclude one from being a Christian.
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    The eternal thou : an examination of some religious statements
    Franklin, R. L (1925-) ( 1956)
    This thesis was planned to be an examination of certain work in the philosophy of religion. It was to consider the writings on this subject since 1945 of that group of philosophers usually known as Linguistic Analysts or Logical Analysts; that is, those who philosophise more or less in the manner of Wittgenstein, Wisdom and Ryle. I need a name for this group, and so I shall henceforth call them "analysts" , in spite of their understandable objections to being grouped together or labelled at all.
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