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Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) is most famous for founding psychoanalysis, but he also took a keen interest in religion, particularly as it relates to man’s experience of suffering. For Freud, however, the problem of pain was a distraction from the more important “problem of religion,” as he referred to it. In the selection below, the famed […]
Sigmund Freud, The Future of an Illusion Read More »
Hermann Cohen’s Religion of Reason Out of the Sources of Judaism (published in 1919) is regarded by many as the most important work in Jewish religious and philosophical thought since Maimonides’s Guide for the Perplexed. In the excerpt below, Cohen examines the pantheistic response to the problem of pain, then contrasts it against the religious response to the
Hermann Cohen, Religion of Reason… Read More »
American philosopher and psychologist William James (1842–1910) is regarded as one of the founders of functional psychology, which evaluates mental life and behavior in terms of active adaptation to a person’s environment. Together with Charles Sanders Peirce, James also established the philosophical school known as pragmatism, which holds that most philosophical topics should be judged according to
William James, The Varieties of Religious Experience Read More »
Josiah Royce (1855–1916) was an objective idealist philosopher and the main proponent of American idealism at the turn of the twentieth century. Royce sets out his theodicy in “The Problem of Job” (published in 1898). In it, he argues that individuals “truly are one with God, part of his life.” Consequently, “When you suffer, your
Josiah Royce, “The Problem of Job” Read More »
The German philologist, philosopher, and cultural critic Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) is famous for declaring that “God is dead,” an expression of the secularist consequences unleashed by the Enlightenment. Though he was unsparing in his attacks on theism, Nietzsche shared at least one concern with the religious and metaphysical systems he held in such contempt: the
Friedrich Nietzsche, On the Genealogy of Morality Read More »
The English utilitarian and Member of Parliament John Stuart Mill (1806–1873) was one of the most influential thinkers in the history of classical liberalism. Though known mostly for his work in political philosophy and political economy, his interests spanned a wide variety of subjects, including the intersection of science and theism. During Mill’s lifetime, scientific knowledge
John Stuart Mill, …Sir Hamilton’s Philosophy Read More »
Man’s understanding of his origins was revolutionized with the 1859 publication of On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, by renowned English naturalist Charles Darwin (1809–1882). The book presents a body of evidence in support of the claim that the diversity of life on Earth arose from a unique ancestor through the
Charles Darwin, Letter to Asa Gray Read More »
The empiricist, atheist German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860) is best known for his 1818 work, The World as Will and Representation. In it, he responds to the problem of evil by inverting the Augustinian definition of evil as the privation of good. Happiness, Schopenhauer argued, is but the temporary cessation of suffering, which is the default condition
Schopenhauer, The World as Will and Representation Read More »
German idealist Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831) developed a system of logic around the concept of aufhebung. Aufhebung is the noun form of the German verb aufheben, which means “to keep,” “to cancel,” and “to pick up”. The tension between these senses is perhaps best captured in the English word sublation, a term that describes the
Hegel, “The Philosophical History of the World” Read More »
The poetry of the esteemed English Romantic poet John Keats (1795–1821) had been in publication for only a few years when he died of tuberculosis at the age of twenty-five. Insight into several of his most well-known poems can be found in letters Keats wrote to his brother and his brother’s spouse in 1819. In them,
John Keats, Letters to George and Georgiana Keats Read More »