| Affiliations: | |
| Project Leader: | David Anderson davidjanderson@tamu.edu Philosophy |
| Faculty Mentor: | Dr. Michael Hand, Ph.D. |
|
Meeting Times:
|
TBD |
|
Team Size:
|
7 (Team Full) |
| Open Spots: | 0 |
|
Special Opportunities:
|
Undergraduate researchers may submit their papers to Aletheia: The Undergraduate Jounral of Philosophy at Texas A&M for publication and may participate in an undergraduate philosophy research symposium.
|
|
Team Needs:
|
There are no prerequisites, but PHIL 251 (Intro) and/or PHIL (Philosophy of Religion) may be helpful. This project is likely to appeal to and help students enrolled in PHIL 255 (C.S. Lewis, Faith, & Philosophy) or PHIL 416 (Recent British & American Philosophy)
|
|
Description:
|
Despite being associated with both Logical Positivism and Ordinary Language Philosophy, both of which apparently had little room for religious language, Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951) was a figure of immense religious passion and angst. Since the publication of his Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (1922), critics and commentators have noted its apparent “mysticism” (e.g. Wasmuth 1952;). Moreover, his later work has been associated with “fideism” and “relativism.” Wittgenstein and “Wittgensteinianism” are both loved and hated by philosophers and theologians. This project seeks to examine certain precedents to post-Wittgensteinian philosophy of religion in the work of medieval “mystics” and theologians such as Augustine, Anselm, Thomas Aquinas, Maimonides, Meister Eckhart, Julian of Norwich, Marguerite Porete, and Nicholas Cusanus. Undergraduate researchers will be allowed and encouraged to take on different facets of the research independently and in groups, but all will begin with a collective reading of Cusanus’ Idiota (Layman) dialogues.
|