Jörg Disse

In his late philosophy, Wittgenstein radically dissociates religion and metaphysics. In the first part of this paper, the implicit consequences of his critique of metaphysics for his philosophy of religion are analysed. On the one hand, it appears that Wittgenstein, in contrast to Aristotelian metaphysics, has no place for any metaphysical understanding of God, on the other hand, in contrast to Plato's metaphysical epistemology, it becomes evident that for him there is no possibility of any kind of metaphysical experience of God. The last part questions the a-metaphysical foundations of his positive understanding of religion.

My aim is to relate Søren A. Kierkegaard’s early theory of stages as described basically in “Either-Or” to the theory of interest underlying the two process model of cognition of the Canadian psychologist Keith E. Stanovich with regard to the question of the highest formal goal we can pursue in our life. On the basis of Stanovich’s distinction between type 1 and type 2 processing and Kierkegaard’s distinction between an esthetical and an ethical stage of life, I argue for an extension of Stanovich’s understanding of the goal structure of type 2 processing, for Kierkegaard’s ethical stage of life being a natural expression of our cognitive faculties and for a critical approach to Kierkegaard's idea of a religious stage as hinted at in “Fear and Trembling”.

What do human beings desire? Desire is diverse, multi-layered, often contradictory, directed to the most various goals: from the satisfaction of the simplest, biologically-related needs, such as hunger, thirst, or sexuality, to elaborate forms of desire for self-realization, social recognition or religious experience. But what is the ultimate goal of desire? Is there such a goal? The book examines desire as a phenomenon in the intersection area of anthropological and psychological philosophy. It deals with the anthropological principle, indicated in Plato and formulated by Augustine and Thomas Aquinas, according to which all desire is ultimately directed to a Supreme Good or God. It critically reconsiders this principle by taking into account current phenomenology, empirical psychology and neuroscience.

La crise écologique fait sentir la nécessité d'élaborer une éthique de la nature. Elle provoque l'affrontement, en particulier en Allemagne, d'une tendance philosophique, qui fonde le devoir de l'homme envers la nature sur le propre bien de l'homme, et d'une tendance théologique, qui fonde ce devoir sur l'immanence de Dieu dans la nature. Il semble qu'on puisse trouver chez Simone Weil une autre voie, esthétique, qui éviterait les insuffisances ou les dangers de ces deux tendances: la perception de la beauté du monde, appréhendée comme trace de la présence du Dieu absent.

The book unfolds the history of Western metaphysics on the basis of nine outstanding philosophers. For ancient philosophy: Plato, Aristotle and Plotinus; for medieval philosophy: Augustine, Thomas Aquinas and William of Ockham; for the modern period: Descartes, Kant and Hegel. The final chapter outlines some prominent opponents of metaphysics in the 19th/20th Century (Feuerbach, Marx, Nietzsche, Wittgenstein, Heidegger). Metaphysics being a fundamental philosophical discipline, this book can also be read as an introduction to philosophy as such.

In Western intellectual history faith is usually subordinated to knowledge. Ideally, mere faith is to be overcome by knowledge. However is this view appropriate to the Christian self-understanding? Do we not need to assume that faith always includes some knowledge, that faith and knowledge are directly intertwined? But what kind of knowledge would that be? And what does it mean for the idea of an eschatological knowledge of God? The study examines this issue with reference to the Bible, Thomas Aquinas and Hans Urs von Balthasar.