PHIL 380: PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION
PHIL 454/380: Philosophy of Religion
Paul Moser
Monday 8:45-11:15am Crown Center 334, LSC
This course will examine whether, and if so how, human knowledge of God's reality is available. The topics of religious skepticism and religious authority will take center stage, and we will relate these topics to human suffering. We will use the term “God” as a preeminent title connoting a being worthy of worship, and we will focus on some writings of Kierkegaard and others as a source of discussion. In particular, we'll examine a distinction between spectator evidence and authoritative evidence regarding God's reality. This will lead us to examine the roles of reason, the human will, and love in available knowledge of God's reality. We'll consider whether our moral attitudes and our likes and dislikes are centrally important in our receiving available evidence of God's reality. The course will consider three main approaches to knowledge of divine reality: fideism (inspired by Kierkegaard and others), naturalism (represented by Dennett), and evidentialism (represented by Moser). The course will not presuppose any significant familiarity with the central problems of the theory of knowledge or the philosophy of religion.
The course will require (among other things) class presentations, an outline of a term paper before mid-semester, and a substantial term paper (about 20 pages) on a topic of your choice relevant to the course. In particular, the requirements for the course are:
1. A twofold writing assignment worth one-third of the final grade. This assignment consists of (i) a homework question (answerable in about 4 pages) and (ii) a thesis, an outline, and a bibliography for the projected term paper. [Due Monday, October 6, noon. Mid-Semester Break is October 6-7, Monday to Tuesday.]
2. A term paper of about 20 pages worth one-third of the final grade. [Due Wednesday, December 10, noon. Monday, December 5 is the last day of our class.]
3. Assigned presentations and class participation, jointly worth one-sixth of the final grade. [Due when assigned]
4. A homework question (answerable in about 4 pages) worth one-sixth of the final grade, which will be assigned a week before December 5, the last day of our class. [Due Wednesday, December 12, noon.]
There is no final exam, because I want you to spend all available time toward the end of the semester working on your term paper, rather than on preparing for a final. The assigned homework question mentioned in 4 will encourage you to tie together class discussions from the second half of the semester.
Our readings will come from Søren Kierkegaard, Concluding Unscientific Postscript, Vol. 1, eds. H.H. & E.H. Hong (Princeton UP, 1992); Daniel Dennett, Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon (Penguin, 2006); Paul Moser, The Elusive God (Cambridge University Press, 2008); and Paul Moser, ed., Jesus & Philosophy (Cambridge University Press, 2008).
My office hours are in Crown Center 333, LSC, W, Th, 10:00-11:00am and by appointment. Phone 508-2739. E-mail: pmoser@luc.edu