E-Book Overview
Emphasizing shifting views of faith and the nature of evidence, Charles Taliaferro has written a dynamic narrative history of philosophical reflection on religion from the seventeenth century to the present. Beginning with the movement of Cambridge Platonism, which formed a bridge between the ancient and medieval worlds and early modern philosophy, his book provides an overview of different movements in philosophy, as well as detailed analysis and reflection on key arguments.
E-Book Content
This page intentionally left blank P1: JZZ 0521790271agg.xml CY507B/Taliaferro 0 521 79027 1 March 12, 2005 8:5 Evidence and Faith Philosophy and Religion since the Seventeenth Century Charles Taliaferro has written a dynamic narrative history of philosophical reflection on religion from the seventeenth century to the present, with an emphasis on shifting views of faith and the nature of evidence. The book begins with the movement called Cambridge Platonism, which formed a bridge between the ancient and medieval worlds and early modern philosophy. While the book provides a general overview of different movements in philosophy, it also offers a detailed exposition and reflection on key arguments, and the scope is broad, from Descartes to contemporary feminist philosophy of religion. Written with clarity and verve, this book will appeal to professionals and students in the philosophy of religion, religious studies, and the history of ideas, as well as informed lay readers. Charles Taliaferro is Professor of Philosophy at St. Olaf College, Minnesota. i P1: JZZ 0521790271agg.xml CY507B/Taliaferro 0 521 79027 1 ii March 12, 2005 8:5 P1: JZZ 0521790271agg.xml CY507B/Taliaferro 0 521 79027 1 March 12, 2005 8:5 THE EVOLUTION OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY General Editors: Paul Guyer and Gary Hatfield (University of Pennsylvania) Roberto Torretti: The Philosophy of Physics David Depew and Marjorie Grene: The Philosophy of Biology Forthcoming: Paul Guyer: Aesthetics Gary Hatfield: The Philosophy of Psychology Stephen Darwall: Ethics T. R. Harrison: Political Philosophy William Ewald and Michael J. Hallett: The Philosophy of Mathematics Michael Losonsky: The Philosophy of Language Why has philosophy evolved in the way that it has? How have its subdisciplines developed, and what impact has this development exerted on the way that the subject is now practiced? Each volume of “The Evolution of Modern Philosophy” will focus on a particular subdiscipline of philosophy and examine how it has evolved into the subject as we now understand it. The volumes will be written from the perspective of a current practitioner in contemporary philosophy, whose point of departure will be the question: How did we get from there to here? Cumulatively the series will constitute a library of modern conceptions of philosophy and will reveal how philosophy does not in fact comprise a set of timeless questions but has rather been shaped by broader intellectual and scientific developments to produce particular fields of inquiry addressing particular issues. iii P1: JZZ 0521790271agg.xml CY507B/Taliaferro 0 521 79027 1 iv March 12, 2005 8:5 P1: JZZ 0521790271agg.xml CY507B/Taliaferro 0 521 79027 1 March 12, 2005 Evidence and Faith Philosophy and Religion since the Seventeenth Century CHARLES TALIAFERRO St. Olaf College v 8:5 CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, São Paulo Cambridge University Press The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge CB2 8RU, UK Published in the United States of America by Cambridge Universit