The debate between faith and rationality has been raging for a long time. Faith is belief in inspiration, revelation, or authority. Rationality is belief based on reason or evidence. Rationalism holds that truth should be determined by reason and factual analysis, rather than faith, dogma, or religious teaching. Religion holds that faith is necessary, and that beliefs must be held without evidence or reason, or even in conflict with evidence and reason.
The earliest thinkers to consider reason a line of philosophical enquiry were the Greeks, and their works have been the foundation for Western philosophy throughout history. The Greeks had their almost fantasy-like pantheon of deities, although philosophy was an altogether different matter. Aristotle’s influence has been profound in the first and second millennia AD. Thinkers from the Islamic world such as Ibn Sina and Ibn Rushd have translated and tried to fit him within their religion. Since religion was too powerful during these times, as well as in the dark ages, thinkers had to take a precaution of not offending the religious elite. As we shall see ahead, proper and free inquiry using reason was stumped by the looming presence of religion.
After Christianity was adopted as state religion in many parts of Roman Europe, the philosophy of the dark and mediaeval ages had two poles – faith was preached by thinkers closer to the church while so called dissidents urged the use of rationale over faith. The church was powerful and anyone who voiced contrary statements could be in mortal danger. Peter Abelard’s works are against the Chuch and profess reason superior, while his opponent Bernard of Clairvaux used his power for faith. Several synthesizers like Averroes appeared after this tie of thesis-antithesis, but the deadlock refused to die. Thomas Aquinas tried to synthesize faith and reason calling both City of God and City of Man, but he failed because the next century’s thinkers thought faith and the mysticism that surrounded it could never be understood with reason.
The age termed as renaissance in Western Civilization offers a turning point in this matter, but matters were hardly solved with polarity just as prevalent as before. The church was uncompromising on its stance on faith while the Greek learning expanded European thought exponentially in the direction of rationale. Rene Descartes, a rationalist, postulates one must never reason with faith, while the romantics were irreverent. Also Kierkegaard accepts the universality of faith saying while religion is irrational, it is overwhelming and he sought to expose the failings of the Church saying it was against true Christian spirit. With the Marxist rejection of a superior omnipresent being and Nietzsche’s famous “God is Dead” proclamation, philosophy has seemed to place reason over faith, at least in the 20th century.
The postmodern world today can be characterized as a world “where everything is possible and almost nothing is certain.” It is worthy to mention that postmodern philosophy follows the lead from the existentialists and marxists and neglects religion as other issues of power, money, hegemonies are considered more significant while interpreting the current state of affairs.
The debate on the role of faith and rationality in Western Philosophy has a long history. Discuss The history of Western philosophy is very long. In term of faith and rationalism there had has been always debate. Initally philosophy was started through myth. Slowly and gradually various philosophers came with their own idea. Plato is a rationalist. He has divided the world into two parts i.e. World of idea and World of sensory persception. It is Aristotle who said that there doesnot consist two world rather there is only one world. The two world is merge inorder to form single world.He focus more on sensory persception inorder to gain knowledge. Thus, he has also used his own logic. We have various ideas of different philosophers. In Neo-Platonism it refers to the improvisation of ideas of the Plato. Immanuel Kant is one of the rationalists who emphasize on reason. He was a synthesizer too. According to Hegel men are guided by reason where as women are guided by emotions and feelings. Soren Kierkegaard is another philosopher who establishes religion. It is irrational because the issues presented their which cannot be rationalized. Men should not be overwhelming as well as irrational. He suggests that don’t ask your obligation to god with reason instead to do with faith. Reason shouldn’t be put between you and god. If you respect with faith, then it would be overwhelming. Now, it’s Fredrich Nietzsche, who has lost their faith on everything. For it he blames Charles Darwin. People have lost their faith on state for that Karl Marx is responsible. In Middle Age Human beings are sinful creatures and to be free from that sin is attaining salvation. The outlook of the Christianity is the faith and salvation. It is Boethius who suggests joining faith and reason. Pseudo-Dionysius who is also from the same age says there is no need of faith and reason. But faith will work. Avicenna, he said that its thought that brings form to any object. It refers to reason which begins with the understanding of object. Averroes, he said that the existence of god by reason can be proved. Reason can’t be the avenue to understand god. Thomas Aquinas, he said that there are certain things which can understand through faith only in relation to god. It would not be wrong to say that reason does not help. The dispute between faith and reason collapsed due to contribution of Thomas Aquinas. Thus there has been always debate that there is logic in reason or reason in logic. Day by day new philosophers come up with new idea but then the debate is still exist.
Faith and rationalism are the two things which has always been an issue of debate. To conquer over the problems, various philosopher came up with their own philosophical views from the ancient Greek time and it still exit at present. It was started from the Myth and the discussion has been increased day by day. Rationalism is the belief where as reason is justified and with the presence of logic. It is Plato who had said that there exist two world that is World of Idea and World of Sensory Perception. But Aristotle said that there does not exist two world rather there is only one world that exists and that is world of sensory perception, inorder to get knowledge. Fredric Nietzsche said god is dead and he has no faith in god. The outlook of the Christianity is the faith and salvation. It is Boethius who suggests joining faith and reason. Pseudo-Dionysius who is also from the same age says there is no need of faith and reason. But faith will work.Immanuel Kant is one of the rationalists who emphasize on reason. He was a synthesizer too. According to Hegel men are guided by reason where as women are guided by emotions and feelings. Soren Kierkegaard is another philosopher who establishes religion. It is irrational because the issues presented their which cannot be rationalized. So, we can conclude some philosophers were in support of reasons and some highly favored faith.
Samuel Chhetri: In the long history of western philosophy, there are two things that have always been a matter of debate, Faith and Rationality. Faith is belief in inspiration, the higher power. Rationality is belief based on reason or evidence. Rationalism says that truth should be determined by reason and facts, rather than faith or religious teaching. Religion says that faith is necessary, and that one must believe without evidence or reason. The debate between faith and rationality has been going on for a long time. In the beginning the love of gaining wisdom started through myth. Gradually various philosophers were seen coming up with their own ideas about the existence and god. Some said that there is no place for reason when it concerns god and some argued that through reason only we could decide whether there is a supernatural being or not. So when we look at the debate between faith and rationalism it has a long past history.
The earliest philosophers are considered to be Greeks, and Greek philosophy is considered to have been the base for Western philosophy. One of the major philosophers in Greece, Aristotle’s influence can be seen in the earliest phase of the development of this debate. Since religion was very much powerful during those periods, philosophers were bound to take a precaution of not causing any harm in the religious belief. After Christianity was adopted as state religion in Rome by Constantine and further in many parts of Roman Europe, the philosophy of the dark and medieval ages took two different ways – faith was preached by thinkers closer to the church while others used rationale over faith. The church was powerful and anyone who voiced contrary statements could be in mortal danger. The outlook of the Christianity is Human beings are sinful creatures and to be free from sin is attaining salvation and salvation comes from god and and god can be understood only by faith. It was Boethius who suggested joining faith and reason. Pseudo-Dionysius who is also from the same age says there is no need of faith and reason. But faith will work. Avicenna refers to reason which begins with the understanding of object. Averroes said that the existence of god by reason can be proved. Reason can’t be the avenue to understand god. Thomas Aquinas one of the philosopher of that time as put forward his views as, "there are certain things which can understand through faith only in relation to god. It would not be wrong to say that reason does not help." He was the one who tried to synthesize faith and reason calling both City of God and City of Man, but he failed because the next century’s thinkers thought faith and the mysticism that surrounded it could never be understood with reason. The renaissance period in Western Civilization has proved to be a important phase in this debate between faith and rationalism, The church was unwilling to leave their stand on faith while the Greek knowledge grew up in the direction of rationale. Rene Descartes, a rationalist, postulates one must never reason with faith, while the romantics were irreverent. Also Kierkegaard accepts the universality of faith and stated that even though religion is irrational, it is overwhelming. Marxist rejected the presence of a supernatural being and Nietzsche killing of god makes us think that there has been a fierce battle in between faith and rationality, but things were hardly solved with sides just as it was as before.
Thus, there has been always debate on the role of faith and rationality. Many new philosophers have emerged and have come up with their own set of ideas, still trying to finish off things once and for all, but the debate is still exists.
Faith mean the believe which prevails among the people and faith is always guided by the god. Whereas rationality always believes in the reason. How things came in existence and they always looks for the way out. These two things are completely opposite of each other. They cannot be said together. This debate is not from now. It is the debate from the past till today. It is to be said that philosophy was initially started from the myth and myth all included the story of god and goddesses. Superstition was also there which all believes in the supernatural powers. And all the sudden Plato comes up with his idea. He divides the world into two different parts. One: the world of idea and another: the world of sensory perception. But Aristotle denying the fact that the world is in two parts. He believes that there is only one that is of sensory perception. The debate between the faith and the rational started from there to the never ending conclusion. It became more and tenser when Christianity was officially declared as a religion. That time faith overruled the rational. But Boethius was one person who thought of supporting both faith and reason and somehow he was able to do so. But there were some philosophers who thought that faith will only work. Immanuel Kant was another rationalist who focuses on the reason and the world runs under it. The debate goes on and on and finally .Thomas Aquinas was one person who had stopped the whole debate of faith and rationality. He said that in some parts faith is needed to understand god and reason also helps there. The world is run through this both. Because of his effort the debate collapsed. And now in the modern philosophy all the people have their own view but it could more be precise to say that the present world follows both the thing: faith and reason. Amisha lama BMS
Faith is a system of having strong religious belief (i.e., having strong belief in a religion), whereas the term rationality is based on reason or logic. During the Roman practice there were few Roman authors who cleared the views upon faith. Seneca, who within a narrow bound of his talent and understanding tried to keep alive the great tradition of Greek predecessors in philosophy, was a bit cruel and emphasized on killing people. He said, ‘whatever happens happens for god’s sake, god’s will’. Another was Constantine, who was one of the rulers of Roman Empire, declared Christianity as the main religion of the state during the period of ancient Rome. And Dilation, he used the Plotinus sight and explained minicanism, which is a philosophical religion that says there are two religion, one good and one bad. He divided world into two- ‘city of gods’ and ‘city of man’. During the middle age philosophy it discusses about the adoption of religions during the period of ancient Rome. There were many controversies too. When Christianity was an official religion, it gradually started creating problems in Rome because of the faith in salvation. During the Roman Catholic, some people said ‘you have faith in god just by contemplating yourself’. Because many members of religious traditions believe in things that exist in profoundly different ways from more everyday things, objects of religious belief both raise special philosophical problems. Western religion has proved a more natural target for the philosophy of religion. The central claim of western religious is the existence of God. In order to explain, god’s existence theists use ordinary words such as personal, creators, free, good, etc Also we come to question, whether there is any good reason to believe that god exists. Some have claimed that if one finds oneself believing that there is a god then it is rational to believe this without looking for arguments in support of the claim-for instance, it is rational for me to believe that I’m working on my computer or I’m listening to music, if I find myself believing these things. I do not need further evidence in order to rationally believe such things. Basic beliefs are ones which the subject believes, but not for the reasons that they are supported by any other beliefs which he holds. Beliefs are properly basic if the subject is justified in holding them even if not supported by other beliefs. Basic beliefs are self evident beliefs (beliefs in obvious logical truth, such as 2+2=4), (beliefs about our current mental states), etc. There has been a long history in western philosophy of positive arguments for the existence of god. Aquinas, Descartes and other philosophers have given such arguments. These philosophers had emphasized use of reasons. Rene Descartes gave the solution to the use of reasons begin to doubt. He had said, you reason with doubt and similarly, according to the enlightenment, the notion of reason is synthesis. - Riju Shrestha
Philosophical ideas have always been viewed in the relation with faith and reason. There has always been a conflict between faith and reason in philosophy, since its evolution and, till now, it is the core issue of discussion. However, some philosophers have discussed philosophical issues by giving priority to reason and some have given importance to faith. The first stage of philosophy was the construction of myth. The people started giving faith to myth. However, when Homer and Hesiod wrote myths in written form, people like Thales started questioning myths by putting logic in centre. In the same way, the philosopher like Plato had a rationalistic principles while discussing about the world and dividing it into world of ideas and world of sensory perception. Likewise, Aristotle also used logic in defining things. However, he also gave priority to sensory perception in gaining knowledge and understanding things. During the era of Hellenieism, Epicureans believed that god is easy to attain and that god is not superior. Likewise, Neoplatonic philosophers were convinced that god is within human beings and that quality of god is in human too. During Roman period, Constantine declared Christianity as a state religion because he had seen Christ in his dream. At that time, many Christians suffered brutality from Pagans. Therefore, in order to make people have faith in God, Augustine divided the city into city of man and city of god. Pagans belong to city of man that is full of cruelty. Christians belong to city of god which is the place of happiness. The philosopher like Senece had faith on God. According to him, God wants happiness of majority therefore if anyone tries to jeopardize the happiness of others than he can be killed. During Middle Age period, Thomas Aquinas was both rationalist and dualist. According to him, there are certain things which one can understand only through faith though it would not be wrong to say that reason also can help in this process. Moreover, he intertwined two opposite domains ie. Religion and Philosophy. However, there were some other philosophers who believed that philosophy and religion cannot be brought together because according to them, philosophy is guided by logic and religion by faith and logic cannot be avenue to understand god. During Renaissance period, church was at the centre. However, many scholars like Nicholas Kopernikas, Issac Newton, etc used logic in order to create new ideas. Coming to enlightenment era, the philosophers like Immanuel Kant gave emphasis to “use of reason” Moreover, the notion of enlightenment movement was that if people started believing in reason then a world can be established in a systematical way. Similarly, Marx brought revolution in philosophy by applying reason in an extreme form. Previous, people used to blame their fate for making them poor and rich. But after he introduced the concept of Suppressed and Suppresser, the whole scenario of the society changed. Fredich Nietzsche said that god is dead for according to him scientific inventions have made the people questionable about the faith. Some philosophers celebrated reason to logic and some logic to reason. Arguments differed from one philosopher to another according to different period of time. Thus, the debate on the role of faith and rationality in Western philosophy has a long history. - Elisha Shrestha
Faith can be described as belief in inspiration, revelation, or authority whereas Rationality is belief based on reason or evidence. Many Philosophers gave different view toward Faith and Reason. The conflict between faith and reason has long been known, and it has been widely discussed since it emerged in the Middle Ages under the influence of Greek philosophy. Here, question naturally arises that why are two truths needed? Isn't one truth enough? Moreover, if God were indeed the object of rational inquiry in this supernatural way, why would faith be required at all? To stop the debate many philosophers came with their own philosophical view but it is still debate. According to some western philosophers: William K Clifford : It is wrong always, everywhere, and for anyone, to believe anything upon insufficient evidence. Plato: Existence of two world that is World of Idea and World of Sensory Perception. Aristotle: No existence of two world rather there is only one world that exists and that is world of sensory perception, in order to get knowledge. Fredric Nietzsche: “God is dead”. Boethius: Suggested to join faith and reason. Pseudo-Dionysius: There is no need of faith and reason. Immanuel Kant :Emphasize on Reason and synthesizer too. Anselm: One must love God in order to have knowledge of Him. ST. THOMAS AQUINAS: Our faith in eternal salvation shows that we have theological truths that exceed human reason. But he also claimed that one could attain truths about religious claims without faith, though such truths are incomplete. Erasmus: Strong emphasis on the autonomy of human reason and the importance of moral precepts. This way there were many philosophers studied on reason and faith and there are many today but still today the debate is not stopped.
We can understand the true nature of faith, or at least of Biblical faith, only if we recognize the funda- mental fact that any definition of faith which considers it a special source of truth is wrong in principle. Faith is not a special source of truth independent of reason or opposed to it. The Biblical term for faith, emunah, designates an attitude of trust and confidence between man and God. To have emunah is not to claim that a certain proposition is logically true. It is to "entrust" oneself to God and to feel secure in this -14-
Aquinas says that the truth of the proposition God exists is knowable in itself, because the predicate is included in the essence of the subject. But it is not knowable to us, because the essence of God is unknowable to us.
In philosophy, we find faith and reason are the two terms which are always debatable. From the very past to the present days, each philosopher came up with their own philosophical views either to support faith or reason. At the early ages, people developed myths. Homer and Hesiod wrote the myths. At that time people had faith but they did not thought rationally. Later, Thales first questioned on the myths written by Homer and Hesiod. Greeks turned to be the first scientific thinker. Greek philosopher Aristotle and Plato emphasized on the reason and faith. Plato said, there are two world, world of ideas and world of sensory perception. Aristotle said, there exist no two world rather world of sensory perception only exist. In Roman civilization some emphasized on faith and some emphasized reason. Pseudo-Dionysus emphasized on faith whereas Boethus emphasized on both faith and reason. But Avicenna emphasized on reason only. Thomus Acquinas emphasized on both reason and faith. Christianity emphasized on faith. It says people are sinful creatures and they are here in earth to get rid of sin. Emanuel Kant related existence of God with ethics. He was a synthesizer. According to Hegel, men are guided by reason and women are guided by faith. Another philosopher, Soren Kierkegaard was a person to establish religion. During Karl Marx he gave priority to reason. At first people thought they were poor due to the will of the God but Karl Marx established the notion of suppressed and suppressor. So we can say from early times that each philosopher either supports faith or reason. Still today debate is not stopped and no exact conclusion is formed.
The first stage of philosophy was the construction of myth. The people started giving faith to myth. However, when Homer and Hesiod wrote myths in written form, people like Thales started questioning myths by putting logic in centre. In the same way, the philosopher like Plato had a rationalistic principles while discussing about the world and dividing it into world of ideas and world of sensory perception. Likewise, Aristotle also used logic in defining things. Another philosopher, Soren Kierkegaard was a person to establish religion. During Karl Marx he gave priority to reason. At first people thought they were poor due to the will of the God but Karl Marx established the notion of suppressed and suppressor. There has been a long history in western philosophy of positive arguments for the existence of god. Aquinas, Descartes and other philosophers have given such arguments. These philosophers had emphasized use of reasons. Rene Descartes gave the solution to the use of reasons begin to doubt. Immanuel Kant was another rationalist who focuses on the reason and the world runs under it. The debate goes on and on. Thomas Aquinas was one person who had stopped the whole debate of faith and rationality. He said that in some parts faith is needed to understand god and reason also helps there. The world is run through these both. The outlook of the Christianity is the faith and salvation. It is Boethius who suggests joining faith and reason. Pseudo-Dionysius who is also from the same age says there is no need of faith and reason. So due to this debate going on for ages nobody has still been able come up with a concrete conclusion, and the debate is still on. -By Ashmita Rijal
This is my answer sir:
ReplyDeleteThe debate between faith and rationality has been raging for a long time. Faith is belief in inspiration, revelation, or authority. Rationality is belief based on reason or evidence. Rationalism holds that truth should be determined by reason and factual analysis, rather than faith, dogma, or religious teaching. Religion holds that faith is necessary, and that beliefs must be held without evidence or reason, or even in conflict with evidence and reason.
The earliest thinkers to consider reason a line of philosophical enquiry were the Greeks, and their works have been the foundation for Western philosophy throughout history. The Greeks had their almost fantasy-like pantheon of deities, although philosophy was an altogether different matter. Aristotle’s influence has been profound in the first and second millennia AD. Thinkers from the Islamic world such as Ibn Sina and Ibn Rushd have translated and tried to fit him within their religion. Since religion was too powerful during these times, as well as in the dark ages, thinkers had to take a precaution of not offending the religious elite. As we shall see ahead, proper and free inquiry using reason was stumped by the looming presence of religion.
After Christianity was adopted as state religion in many parts of Roman Europe, the philosophy of the dark and mediaeval ages had two poles – faith was preached by thinkers closer to the church while so called dissidents urged the use of rationale over faith. The church was powerful and anyone who voiced contrary statements could be in mortal danger. Peter Abelard’s works are against the Chuch and profess reason superior, while his opponent Bernard of Clairvaux used his power for faith. Several synthesizers like Averroes appeared after this tie of thesis-antithesis, but the deadlock refused to die. Thomas Aquinas tried to synthesize faith and reason calling both City of God and City of Man, but he failed because the next century’s thinkers thought faith and the mysticism that surrounded it could never be understood with reason.
The age termed as renaissance in Western Civilization offers a turning point in this matter, but matters were hardly solved with polarity just as prevalent as before. The church was uncompromising on its stance on faith while the Greek learning expanded European thought exponentially in the direction of rationale. Rene Descartes, a rationalist, postulates one must never reason with faith, while the romantics were irreverent. Also Kierkegaard accepts the universality of faith saying while religion is irrational, it is overwhelming and he sought to expose the failings of the Church saying it was against true Christian spirit. With the Marxist rejection of a superior omnipresent being and Nietzsche’s famous “God is Dead” proclamation, philosophy has seemed to place reason over faith, at least in the 20th century.
The postmodern world today can be characterized as a world “where everything is possible and almost nothing is certain.” It is worthy to mention that postmodern philosophy follows the lead from the existentialists and marxists and neglects religion as other issues of power, money, hegemonies are considered more significant while interpreting the current state of affairs.
Sunir Pandey
The debate on the role of faith and rationality in Western Philosophy has a long history. Discuss
ReplyDeleteThe history of Western philosophy is very long. In term of faith and rationalism there had has been always debate. Initally philosophy was started through myth. Slowly and gradually various philosophers came with their own idea.
Plato is a rationalist. He has divided the world into two parts i.e. World of idea and World of sensory persception. It is Aristotle who said that there doesnot consist two world rather there is only one world. The two world is merge inorder to form single world.He focus more on sensory persception inorder to gain knowledge. Thus, he has also used his own logic.
We have various ideas of different philosophers. In Neo-Platonism it refers to the improvisation of ideas of the Plato.
Immanuel Kant is one of the rationalists who emphasize on reason. He was a synthesizer too. According to Hegel men are guided by reason where as women are guided by emotions and feelings. Soren Kierkegaard is another philosopher who establishes religion. It is irrational because the issues presented their which cannot be rationalized. Men should not be overwhelming as well as irrational. He suggests that don’t ask your obligation to god with reason instead to do with faith. Reason shouldn’t be put between you and god. If you respect with faith, then it would be overwhelming. Now, it’s Fredrich Nietzsche, who has lost their faith on everything. For it he blames Charles Darwin. People have lost their faith on state for that Karl Marx is responsible.
In Middle Age
Human beings are sinful creatures and to be free from that sin is attaining salvation. The outlook of the Christianity is the faith and salvation. It is Boethius who suggests joining faith and reason. Pseudo-Dionysius who is also from the same age says there is no need of faith and reason. But faith will work.
Avicenna, he said that its thought that brings form to any object. It refers to reason which begins with the understanding of object. Averroes, he said that the existence of god by reason can be proved. Reason can’t be the avenue to understand god.
Thomas Aquinas, he said that there are certain things which can understand through faith only in relation to god. It would not be wrong to say that reason does not help. The dispute between faith and reason collapsed due to contribution of Thomas Aquinas.
Thus there has been always debate that there is logic in reason or reason in logic. Day by day new philosophers come up with new idea but then the debate is still exist.
Faith and rationalism are the two things which has always been an issue of debate. To conquer over the problems, various philosopher came up with their own philosophical views from the ancient Greek time and it still exit at present.
ReplyDeleteIt was started from the Myth and the discussion has been increased day by day. Rationalism is the belief where as reason is justified and with the presence of logic. It is Plato who had said that there exist two world that is World of Idea and World of Sensory Perception. But Aristotle said that there does not exist two world rather there is only one world that exists and that is world of sensory perception, inorder to get knowledge. Fredric Nietzsche said god is dead and he has no faith in god.
The outlook of the Christianity is the faith and salvation. It is Boethius who suggests joining faith and reason. Pseudo-Dionysius who is also from the same age says there is no need of faith and reason. But faith will work.Immanuel Kant is one of the rationalists who emphasize on reason. He was a synthesizer too. According to Hegel men are guided by reason where as women are guided by emotions and feelings. Soren Kierkegaard is another philosopher who establishes religion. It is irrational because the issues presented their which cannot be rationalized.
So, we can conclude some philosophers were in support of reasons and some highly favored faith.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteSamuel Chhetri:
ReplyDeleteIn the long history of western philosophy, there are two things that have always been a matter of debate, Faith and Rationality. Faith is belief in inspiration, the higher power. Rationality is belief based on reason or evidence. Rationalism says that truth should be determined by reason and facts, rather than faith or religious teaching. Religion says that faith is necessary, and that one must believe without evidence or reason. The debate between faith and rationality has been going on for a long time. In the beginning the love of gaining wisdom started through myth. Gradually various philosophers were seen coming up with their own ideas about the existence and god. Some said that there is no place for reason when it concerns god and some argued that through reason only we could decide whether there is a supernatural being or not. So when we look at the debate between faith and rationalism it has a long past history.
The earliest philosophers are considered to be Greeks, and Greek philosophy is considered to have been the base for Western philosophy. One of the major philosophers in Greece, Aristotle’s influence can be seen in the earliest phase of the development of this debate. Since religion was very much powerful during those periods, philosophers were bound to take a precaution of not causing any harm in the religious belief. After Christianity was adopted as state religion in Rome by Constantine and further in many parts of Roman Europe, the philosophy of the dark and medieval ages took two different ways – faith was preached by thinkers closer to the church while others used rationale over faith. The church was powerful and anyone who voiced contrary statements could be in mortal danger. The outlook of the Christianity is Human beings are sinful creatures and to be free from sin is attaining salvation and salvation comes from god and and god can be understood only by faith. It was Boethius who suggested joining faith and reason. Pseudo-Dionysius who is also from the same age says there is no need of faith and reason. But faith will work. Avicenna refers to reason which begins with the understanding of object. Averroes said that the existence of god by reason can be proved. Reason can’t be the avenue to understand god. Thomas Aquinas one of the philosopher of that time as put forward his views as, "there are certain things which can understand through faith only in relation to god. It would not be wrong to say that reason does not help." He was the one who tried to synthesize faith and reason calling both City of God and City of Man, but he failed because the next century’s thinkers thought faith and the mysticism that surrounded it could never be understood with reason. The renaissance period in Western Civilization has proved to be a important phase in this debate between faith and rationalism, The church was unwilling to leave their stand on faith while the Greek knowledge grew up in the direction of rationale. Rene Descartes, a rationalist, postulates one must never reason with faith, while the romantics were irreverent. Also Kierkegaard accepts the universality of faith and stated that even though religion is irrational, it is overwhelming. Marxist rejected the presence of a supernatural being and Nietzsche killing of god makes us think that there has been a fierce battle in between faith and rationality, but things were hardly solved with sides just as it was as before.
Thus, there has been always debate on the role of faith and rationality. Many new philosophers have emerged and have come up with their own set of ideas, still trying to finish off things once and for all, but the debate is still exists.
Faith mean the believe which prevails among the people and faith is always guided by the god. Whereas rationality always believes in the reason. How things came in existence and they always looks for the way out. These two things are completely opposite of each other. They cannot be said together. This debate is not from now. It is the debate from the past till today.
ReplyDeleteIt is to be said that philosophy was initially started from the myth and myth all included the story of god and goddesses. Superstition was also there which all believes in the supernatural powers. And all the sudden Plato comes up with his idea. He divides the world into two different parts. One: the world of idea and another: the world of sensory perception. But Aristotle denying the fact that the world is in two parts. He believes that there is only one that is of sensory perception. The debate between the faith and the rational started from there to the never ending conclusion. It became more and tenser when Christianity was officially declared as a religion. That time faith overruled the rational. But Boethius was one person who thought of supporting both faith and reason and somehow he was able to do so. But there were some philosophers who thought that faith will only work.
Immanuel Kant was another rationalist who focuses on the reason and the world runs under it. The debate goes on and on and finally .Thomas Aquinas was one person who had stopped the whole debate of faith and rationality. He said that in some parts faith is needed to understand god and reason also helps there. The world is run through this both. Because of his effort the debate collapsed. And now in the modern philosophy all the people have their own view but it could more be precise to say that the present world follows both the thing: faith and reason.
Amisha lama BMS
Faith is a system of having strong religious belief (i.e., having strong belief in a religion), whereas the term rationality is based on reason or logic. During the Roman practice there were few Roman authors who cleared the views upon faith. Seneca, who within a narrow bound of his talent and understanding tried to keep alive the great tradition of Greek predecessors in philosophy, was a bit cruel and emphasized on killing people. He said, ‘whatever happens happens for god’s sake, god’s will’. Another was Constantine, who was one of the rulers of Roman Empire, declared Christianity as the main religion of the state during the period of ancient Rome. And Dilation, he used the Plotinus sight and explained minicanism, which is a philosophical religion that says there are two religion, one good and one bad. He divided world into two- ‘city of gods’ and ‘city of man’. During the middle age philosophy it discusses about the adoption of religions during the period of ancient Rome. There were many controversies too. When Christianity was an official religion, it gradually started creating problems in Rome because of the faith in salvation. During the Roman Catholic, some people said ‘you have faith in god just by contemplating yourself’.
ReplyDeleteBecause many members of religious traditions believe in things that exist in profoundly different ways from more everyday things, objects of religious belief both raise special philosophical problems. Western religion has proved a more natural target for the philosophy of religion. The central claim of western religious is the existence of God. In order to explain, god’s existence theists use ordinary words such as personal, creators, free, good, etc
Also we come to question, whether there is any good reason to believe that god exists. Some have claimed that if one finds oneself believing that there is a god then it is rational to believe this without looking for arguments in support of the claim-for instance, it is rational for me to believe that I’m working on my computer or I’m listening to music, if I find myself believing these things. I do not need further evidence in order to rationally believe such things. Basic beliefs are ones which the subject believes, but not for the reasons that they are supported by any other beliefs which he holds. Beliefs are properly basic if the subject is justified in holding them even if not supported by other beliefs. Basic beliefs are self evident beliefs (beliefs in obvious logical truth, such as 2+2=4), (beliefs about our current mental states), etc.
There has been a long history in western philosophy of positive arguments for the existence of god. Aquinas, Descartes and other philosophers have given such arguments. These philosophers had emphasized use of reasons. Rene Descartes gave the solution to the use of reasons begin to doubt. He had said, you reason with doubt and similarly, according to the enlightenment, the notion of reason is synthesis.
- Riju Shrestha
Philosophical ideas have always been viewed in the relation with faith and reason. There has always been a conflict between faith and reason in philosophy, since its evolution and, till now, it is the core issue of discussion. However, some philosophers have discussed philosophical issues by giving priority to reason and some have given importance to faith.
ReplyDeleteThe first stage of philosophy was the construction of myth. The people started giving faith to myth. However, when Homer and Hesiod wrote myths in written form, people like Thales started questioning myths by putting logic in centre. In the same way, the philosopher like Plato had a rationalistic principles while discussing about the world and dividing it into world of ideas and world of sensory perception. Likewise, Aristotle also used logic in defining things. However, he also gave priority to sensory perception in gaining knowledge and understanding things. During the era of Hellenieism, Epicureans believed that god is easy to attain and that god is not superior. Likewise, Neoplatonic philosophers were convinced that god is within human beings and that quality of god is in human too.
During Roman period, Constantine declared Christianity as a state religion because he had seen Christ in his dream. At that time, many Christians suffered brutality from Pagans. Therefore, in order to make people have faith in God, Augustine divided the city into city of man and city of god. Pagans belong to city of man that is full of cruelty. Christians belong to city of god which is the place of happiness. The philosopher like Senece had faith on God. According to him, God wants happiness of majority therefore if anyone tries to jeopardize the happiness of others than he can be killed. During Middle Age period, Thomas Aquinas was both rationalist and dualist. According to him, there are certain things which one can understand only through faith though it would not be wrong to say that reason also can help in this process. Moreover, he intertwined two opposite domains ie. Religion and Philosophy. However, there were some other philosophers who believed that philosophy and religion cannot be brought together because according to them, philosophy is guided by logic and religion by faith and logic cannot be avenue to understand god. During Renaissance period, church was at the centre. However, many scholars like Nicholas Kopernikas, Issac Newton, etc used logic in order to create new ideas. Coming to enlightenment era, the philosophers like Immanuel Kant gave emphasis to “use of reason” Moreover, the notion of enlightenment movement was that if people started believing in reason then a world can be established in a systematical way. Similarly, Marx brought revolution in philosophy by applying reason in an extreme form. Previous, people used to blame their fate for making them poor and rich. But after he introduced the concept of Suppressed and Suppresser, the whole scenario of the society changed. Fredich Nietzsche said that god is dead for according to him scientific inventions have made the people questionable about the faith.
Some philosophers celebrated reason to logic and some logic to reason. Arguments differed from one philosopher to another according to different period of time. Thus, the debate on the role of faith and rationality in Western philosophy has a long history.
- Elisha Shrestha
Faith can be described as belief in inspiration, revelation, or authority whereas Rationality is belief based on reason or evidence. Many Philosophers gave different view toward Faith and Reason. The conflict between faith and reason has long been
ReplyDeleteknown, and it has been widely discussed since it
emerged in the Middle Ages under the influence of
Greek philosophy. Here, question naturally arises that why are two truths needed? Isn't one truth enough? Moreover, if God were indeed the object of rational inquiry in this supernatural way, why would faith be required at all?
To stop the debate many philosophers came with their own philosophical view but it is still debate.
According to some western philosophers:
William K Clifford : It is wrong always, everywhere, and for anyone, to believe anything upon insufficient evidence.
Plato: Existence of two world that is World of Idea and World of Sensory Perception.
Aristotle: No existence of two world rather there is only one world that exists and that is world of sensory perception, in order to get knowledge.
Fredric Nietzsche: “God is dead”.
Boethius: Suggested to join faith and reason.
Pseudo-Dionysius: There is no need of faith and reason.
Immanuel Kant :Emphasize on Reason and synthesizer too.
Anselm: One must love God in order to have knowledge of Him.
ST. THOMAS AQUINAS: Our faith in eternal salvation shows that we have theological truths that exceed human reason. But he also claimed that one could attain truths about religious claims without faith, though such truths are incomplete.
Erasmus: Strong emphasis on the autonomy of human reason and the importance of moral precepts.
This way there were many philosophers studied on reason and faith and there are many today but still today the debate is not stopped.
We can understand the true nature of faith, or at
least of Biblical faith, only if we recognize the funda-
mental fact that any definition of faith which considers
it a special source of truth is wrong in principle.
Faith is not a special source of truth independent of
reason or opposed to it. The Biblical term for faith,
emunah, designates an attitude of trust and confidence
between man and God. To have emunah is not to
claim that a certain proposition is logically true. It is
to "entrust" oneself to God and to feel secure in this
-14-
Aquinas says that the truth of the proposition God exists is knowable in itself, because the predicate is included in the essence of the subject. But it is not knowable to us, because the essence of God is unknowable to us.
Sir, this site is not supporting my text. So kindly check your e-mail as i have attached my text there.
ReplyDeleteThank you
In philosophy, we find faith and reason are the two terms which are always debatable. From the very past to the present days, each philosopher came up with their own philosophical views either to support faith or reason. At the early ages, people developed myths. Homer and Hesiod wrote the myths. At that time people had faith but they did not thought rationally. Later, Thales first questioned on the myths written by Homer and Hesiod.
ReplyDeleteGreeks turned to be the first scientific thinker. Greek philosopher Aristotle and Plato emphasized on the reason and faith. Plato said, there are two world, world of ideas and world of sensory perception. Aristotle said, there exist no two world rather world of sensory perception only exist.
In Roman civilization some emphasized on faith and some emphasized reason. Pseudo-Dionysus emphasized on faith whereas Boethus emphasized on both faith and reason. But Avicenna emphasized on reason only. Thomus Acquinas emphasized on both reason and faith.
Christianity emphasized on faith. It says people are sinful creatures and they are here in earth to get rid of sin. Emanuel Kant related existence of God with ethics. He was a synthesizer. According to Hegel, men are guided by reason and women are guided by faith. Another philosopher, Soren Kierkegaard was a person to establish religion. During Karl Marx he gave priority to reason. At first people thought they were poor due to the will of the God but Karl Marx established the notion of suppressed and suppressor.
So we can say from early times that each philosopher either supports faith or reason. Still today debate is not stopped and no exact conclusion is formed.
The first stage of philosophy was the construction of myth. The people started giving faith to myth. However, when Homer and Hesiod wrote myths in written form, people like Thales started questioning myths by putting logic in centre. In the same way, the philosopher like Plato had a rationalistic principles while discussing about the world and dividing it into world of ideas and world of sensory perception. Likewise, Aristotle also used logic in defining things. Another philosopher, Soren Kierkegaard was a person to establish religion. During Karl Marx he gave priority to reason. At first people thought they were poor due to the will of the God but Karl Marx established the notion of suppressed and suppressor. There has been a long history in western philosophy of positive arguments for the existence of god. Aquinas, Descartes and other philosophers have given such arguments. These philosophers had emphasized use of reasons. Rene Descartes gave the solution to the use of reasons begin to doubt. Immanuel Kant was another rationalist who focuses on the reason and the world runs under it. The debate goes on and on. Thomas Aquinas was one person who had stopped the whole debate of faith and rationality. He said that in some parts faith is needed to understand god and reason also helps there. The world is run through these both. The outlook of the Christianity is the faith and salvation. It is Boethius who suggests joining faith and reason. Pseudo-Dionysius who is also from the same age says there is no need of faith and reason. So due to this debate going on for ages nobody has still been able come up with a concrete conclusion, and the debate is still on.
ReplyDelete-By Ashmita Rijal
Sir I have sent an email with my assignment.
ReplyDeleteChandiraj