Basic Hegel Series Lecture #3 : Basic Hegel Series Lecture #3 The Philosophy of Religion
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Basic Hegel Series lecture #3 Hegel on Religion - A presentation by Robbert Veen : Basic Hegel Series lecture #3 Hegel on Religion - A presentation by Robbert Veen
Project : Introduction: religion today
Hegel’s era
Hegel on Religion Project
1. Religion Today : Christianity, Islam, Buddhism
West, East, Far East
Christianity on the decline in Europe
Islam growing everywhere
Buddhism staying stable 1. Religion Today
Anti-religion Today : Particularly in the West:
New Atheism
Daniel Dennet
Sam Harris
Christopher Hitchens
Richard Dawkins Anti-religion Today
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Darwin and the Aftermath : 19th century Transformation
Marx: consciousness is influenced by social structures
Darwin: consciousness is determined by evolutionary mechanisms
Freud: Consciousness is surface of subconscious
Nietzsche: Reason is determined by vital power
Anthropocentric Turn Darwin and the Aftermath
2. Hegel’s Era : German Pietism
Literal belief in scripture
No evolution, but creation
No general acceptance of Copernicus
Rationalization of faith 2. Hegel’s Era
History before Hegel : Christianity in conformity with Aristotle
Medeaval synthesis
Ontological proof for God
Reformation:
The principle of interiority (Luther)
Freedom in religion (Region principle)
Freedom of religion (Humanism)
Tradition of atheist freethinkers: Payne, Montaigne, Voltaire, Diderot, La Mettrie History before Hegel
Arguments for God : From logic
“God is by definition that Being higher than which cannot be thought. A being that is perfect and cannot be outranked by another, must therefore have existence. Therefore God must necessarily exist.”
Anselm of Canterbury 11th century AD Arguments for God
Kant’s criticism : Being is equal to ‘being thought.’
Existence requires experience as evidence
The mere thought of being does not add to the contents. I.e. 300 dollars in my mind and 300 dollars in my wallet are the same amount. Kant’s criticism
3. Hegel on religion : Anselm is wrong because he presuposes the existence of a being of which it is valid to say being = thought. Yet the Absolute identity of being and thought = Spirit
Kant is wrong, because he assumes that only finite things –where being does not equal existence – can exist. God is by definition not finite. 3. Hegel on religion
Hegel: : Religion is the way in which human beings express and experience their identity with the Absolute.
God is ‘in’ reality, not equal to it (Spinoza) nor transcendent to it (orthodoxy).
God is the religious name for the totality of reality as subject
God is only selfconscious within His congregation = society as such Hegel:
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Religion : The expression of the relationship between humanity and the ultimate focal point of all cultural and social endeavors: the Absolute as it becomes manifest in natural and human history. Including sacred scriptures and religious histories.
Makes perfect sense. Religion
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Slide 22 : Have a nice weekend!
Robbert