Plato and his pupil, Aristotle, arguing as they walk in the "School of Athens."

Raphael - Vatican Fresco

What is Philosophy of Religion?

The university catalogue describes it this way: "An introduction to basic philosophical issues connected with religious belief such as the nature and existence of God, the problem of evil, miracles, and the significance of religious experience."

Philosophy of religion classically is concerned with the arguments for and against the rationality of religious beliefs and a religious worldview. It also has interest in the analysis of religious language and the clarification of the relation between religious and other sorts of explanations.

Various kinds of arguments have been traditionally considered in philosophy of religion: ontological, cosmological, and teleological arguments, arguments from miracles, cumulative case arguments, religious epistemology and religious experience, arguments from transcendental experience, arguments based on moral experience, pragmatic arguments, and “Pascal’s Wager”.

What is this Course About?

Philosophy 331 is a "mid-level" philosophy course. That means that it will provide a survey of the field of study - in this case philosophy of religion - and give an overview of the main problems and questions discussed. It will go into more detail on some questions than on others.

Are you ready to get started? It would be good to begin by reading carefully the class syllabus (you just read some of it , but click on this link for the entire page). Then, take a look at the class sessions listed to the right. After that, explore the homework assignments. Finally, take a look around at the materials. That is where you'll find the PowerPoint notes for each session. If you want to explore some links to important philosophy sites on the web, you'll find those under Contact. (As well as a mixture of important and trivial information about the professor and how to get in touch with him.)

An Important apologia

The Greek word apologia means "reply" and "defense". I am acutely aware of the seemingly unbalanced emphasis in much of academic philosophy on a) the Western philosophical tradition and b) until recently, almost exclusively on the writings of men. Here I try to explain why I think this will have to be the case in this course, too.

©2008 Clark Peddicord

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