Atheism and Theism JJ Haldane - Common Sense Atheism

192 J.J. Haldane
Davidsonian approach but taken in more hermeneutical and Aristotelian directions
is offered by John McDowell in Mind and World (Cambridge, MA: Harvard
University Press, 1994).
5 But not all: see B. Davies, An Introduction to the Philosophy of Religion (Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 1993), ch. 6; P. Geach, Providence and Evil (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1977), ch. 4; and A. Kenny, ‘The Argument
from Design’, in Reason and Religion: Essays in Philosophical Theology (Oxford:
Blackwell, 1987). Each of these authors raises doubts about the adequacy of
evolutionary explanations of beneficial teleology. My discussion in chapter 2
of the problem of accounting for speciation derives from remarks contained in
Geach’s Providence and Evil (pp. 75–7); I believe these are also the inspiration for
the arguments discussed by Davies and Kenny.
6 For a recent discussion of emergence see R. Spencer-Smith, ‘Reductionism and
Emergent Properties’, Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, 95 (1995). I reply to
this in J. Haldane, ‘The Mystery of Emergence’, Proceedings of the Aristotelian
Society, 96 (1996).
7 See the essays in D. Davidson, Essays on Actions and Events (Oxford: Clarendon
Press, 1982), starting with ‘Actions, Reasons and Causes’ which remains the best
statement of Davidson’s view.
8 For a fuller discussion of these matters see J. Haldane, ‘Some Metaphysical
Presuppositions of Agency’, Heythrop Journal, 35 (1994). My discussion here and
in chapter 2 is drawn from this essay.
9 For a short but very informative treatment of the interplay between Greek philosophy
and Christianity see A.H. Armstrong and R.A. Markus, Christian Faith
and Greek Philosophy (London: Darton, Longman & Todd, 1964). A somewhat
longer and more advanced study is Christopher Read, Philosophy in Christian
Antiquity (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994).
10 W.H. Gardner and N.H. MacKenzie, The Poems of Gerard Manley Hopkins
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1970).
11 ‘The Revival of Philosophy – Why?’, in G.K. Chesterton, The Common Man
(London: Sheed & Ward, 1950).
12 It is, for me, a matter of some regret that Catholic scholarship in this area has
not been as extensive or as good as it ought to have been. Happily, though, the
days of neglect are past; see, for example, the splendid Jerome Biblical Commentary
(London: Geoffrey Chapman, 1990).
13 This work, written c.90 AD, was later transcribed by Christians who ‘enhanced’
the description of Jesus. However, the reliable core of the passage in question
tells us that Jesus was a wise man who taught those who accept the truth with
gladness and who won over many Jews and Greeks; that on the accusation of
Jewish leaders he was crucified by Pilate; but that he still had followers up to the
time of Josephus’ writing. See Flavius Josephus, Complete Works, translated by
William Whiston (London, Glasgow: Pickering & Inglis, 1981).
14 See, for example, the assessment arrived at by E.P. Sanders in his book The
Historical Figure of Jesus (London: Allen Lane, 1993). Sanders is one of the
leading New Testament scholars.