Research Catalog

Title

God and the philosophers / Paul Edwards ; introduction by Timothy J. Madigan.

Author

Edwards, Paul, 1923-2004.

Publication

Amherst, N.Y. : Prometheus Books, 2009.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

330 pages; 24 cm

Summary

"This exploration of critical views on the nature and existence of God, as expressed by major philosophers of the Western world from the medieval period to the present day, is the last work of internationally recognized philosopher Paul Edwards. Edwards addresses how the concept of God has changed over the centuries, in large part due to the analyses of such skeptical thinkers as David Hume, Thomas Paine, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Bertrand Russell." "A longtime critic of theistic arguments, Edwards demonstrates a masterful understanding of the ways in which the scientific revolution of the seventeenth century, the Enlightenment of the eighteenth century, the evolutionary materialism of the nineteenth century, and the rise of analytic and existentialist philosophies in the twentieth century prepared the way for the growing role of atheism in the twenty-first century." "This work is an idiosyncratic evaluation of the views of dozens of Western thinkers on perennial topics in the philosophy of religion. Though not all of the philosophers discussed were nonbelievers or antireligious, they can be considered to be "freethinkers." They pursued the cause of knowledge wherever their thinking led them, often to iconoclastic positions."--Jacket.

Subject

• Geschichte
• Philosophy and religion
• Philosophers
• philosophers
• Philosoph
• Religion
• Religionsfilosofi
• Gud > teori, filosofi
• Filosofi och religion

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references and index.

Contents

The medieval philosophers -- Thomas Hobbes and John Locke -- Baruch Spinoza -- Pierre Bayle -- The English deists -- Voltaire -- David Hume and Immanuel Kant -- The eighteenth-century French materialists -- The American deists -- The German enlightenment -- Fideism -- Arthur Schopenhauer -- Nineteenth-century German materialism -- John Stuart Mill -- Agnosticism -- Friedrich Nietzsche -- William James -- Bertrand Russell -- The Existentialists -- The semantic challenge -- The modus operandi problem -- How does God do it?

ISBN

• 9781591026181
• 1591026180

LCCN

• 2008007930
• 99932912982

OCLC

• ocn179808061
• 179808061
• SCSB-9429333

Owning Institutions

Princeton University Library