The Explication and Criticism of Philip’s Viewpoint toward the Nature of Religious Language

Document Type : Research Paper

Author

Assistant Professor, Department of Islamic Philosophy, Payame Noor University, Tehran, Iran

Abstract

Philips is a scholar with a non-cognitivist view toward religious beliefs. Suggesting the fallacy of the sublimity of religious language, he believes that this language is non-referential and non-descriptive, and separates the true being from the rational being in its statements. This article shows that in his thought system, for the religious language to be descriptive it should never try to prove the existence of God and other religious parameters independently from the religious context, because it is the religious lifestyle that gives suchlike beliefs their meaning and existence. From Philip’s viewpoint, discussions about God and other religious topics entail allusions to their referents, although these referents are not external phenomena, but rather, are realized in Faithful’s lifestyle. He accepts the descriptive and referential nature of the religious language within the boundaries of the religious lifestyle, and this, of course, is what distinguishes him from other analytical philosophers of religion. As a result, some discourse analysis philosophers in the domain of the philosophy of religion have put forth the following criticisms against his viewpoint: the inaccuracy of making a distinction between the logical existence and the true existence of God; the rejection of the reality of religious elements based on Philip’s positivistic principles; and the failure to prove the inability of the ordinary language to talk about the metaphysical issues.

Keywords

References

  1. پترسون، مایکل (1376). عقل و اعتقاد دینی، ترجمۀ احمد نراقی و ابراهیم سلطانی، تهران: طرح نو.
  2. شهیدی، شهاب (1396). بررسی تحلیلی تأثیر هیوم در نظام فلسفی فیلیپس، مجلۀ پژوهشنامۀ فلسفۀ دین، دانشگاه امام صادق (ع)، شمارۀ 30، زمستان.
  3. ـــــــــــــــ (1395). بررسی و نقد مفهوم دعا از نظر فیلیپس، مجلۀ اندیشۀ نوین دینی، دانشگاه معارف، شمارۀ 46، پاییز.
  4. ـــــــــــــــ (1394). گرامر دینی از منظر فیلیپس و نقد آن، مجلۀ نقد و نظر، شمارۀ 2، تابستان.
  5. صادقی، علی (1395). واقعگرایی و ناواقع‌گرایی دینی: بررسی و نقد آرای دان کیوپیت فیلیپس، مجلۀ پژوهشنامۀ فلسفۀ دین، دانشگاه امام صادق(ع)، شمارۀ 27، بهار و تابستان.
  6. علیزمانی، امیرعباس (1375). زبان دین، قم: دفتر تبلیغات اسلامی حوزۀ علمیۀ قم.
  7. ـــــــــــــــــــ (1386). سخن گفتن از خدا، تهران: سازمان انتشارات پژوهشگاه فرهنگ و اندیشۀ اسلامی.
  8. ـــــــــــــــــــ (1390). واقعگرایی یا ناواقع‌گرایی زبان دینی با تأکید بر آرای فیلیپس و تریک، مجلۀ اندیشۀ دینی، دانشگاه شیراز، شمارۀ 39، تابستان.
  9. لگنهاوزن، محمد (1379). نگاه ایمان‌گرایی ویتگنشتاینی، ترجمۀ سید محمد موسوی، مجلۀ نقد و نظر، سال هفتم، شمارۀ 1 و 2، زمستان و بهار.

10. Arrington, Robert L. Addis, Mark (2004). "Wittgenstein and Philosophy of Religion". London and Newyork, Routledge.

11. Henderson, Edward H. (1965). "Austin farrar and D.Z. Phillips on lived Faith, prayer and Divine Reality". London.oxford publication.

12. Hick, John (1968). "The Justification of Religious Belief". yale university press.

13. _________ (1989). "An Interpretation of Religion". New Heaven, CT: yale University press.

14. Min, Anselm (2007). "D.Z. Phillips on the grammer of God". Interrnational journal for philosophy of religion, volume 63.

15. Phillips, D.Z. (1970). "Death and Immortality". Newyork: st Martin's press.

16. ________ (1976). "Religion without Explanation". Oxford: Basil Blackwell.

17. ________ (1986). "R.S. Thomas: poet of the Hidden God". Allison Park, PA: Pickwick Publication.

18. ________ (1993). "Religious Belief and Language-Games in Wittgenstein and Religion". New York: st. Martin's Press.

19. ________ (1995). "Phillips and the Grammer of Religious Belief". New York: Herder and Herder.

20. _________ (2005). "The problem of Evil and the problem of God". Minneapolis: Frotress.

21. Ramal, Randy (2000). "Reference" to D.Z. Phillips". International Journal for Philosophy of Religion, Kluwer Acadmic Publisher.

22. Stiver, Dan R. (1998). "The Philosophy of Religious Language". Black well.

Philosophy of Religion
Volume 16, Issue 2
July 2019
Pages 279-304

Files

Share

How to cite

Statistics