Everything about us today tells us that we live in a world which will be increasingly dominated by empirical and theoretic science. This is the world in which the Church lives and proclaims its message about Jesus Christ. It is not an alien world, for it is in this world of space and time that God has planted us. He made the universe and endowed man with gifts to investigate and understand it. Just as he made life to produce itself, (...) so he has made the universe with man as an essential constituent in it, that it may bring forth and articulate knowledge of itself. Regarded in this light the pursuit of science is one of the ways in which man exercises the dominion in the earth which he was given at his creation. That is how, for example, Francis Bacon understood the work of human science, as man's obedience to God. Science is a religious duty, while man as scientist can be spoken of as the priest of creation , whose task it is to interpret the books of nature, to understand the universe in its wonderful structures and harmonies, and to bring it all into orderly articulation, so that it fulfils its proper end as the vast theatre of glory in which the creator is worshipped and praised. Nature itself is dumb, but it is man's part to bring it to word, to be its mouth through which the whole universe gives voice to the glory and majesty of the living God. (shrink)

Intrinsic to rigorous knowledge of God is the recognition that positive theological concepts and statements about God arising under the compelling claims of God's reality upon the human mind must have an open revisable structure. A similar combination of critical realism and ontological openness is apparent in the profound change that has taken place in the rational structure of rigorous science from the radical dualism and closed causal system of classical mechanics to the unifying world view and open dynamic field‐theories (...) of modern physics. It is argued that the intersection of theological and natural science in their epis‐temological foundations can enhance their ontological commitment and heuristic thrust. (shrink)

My personal relation with Polanyi, discussions with him in Oxford, contribution to the International Academy of the Philosophy of Science, the relevance of his innovative thought for Christian worship and theology, Magda and Michael in Oxford, the role of his literary executor.

My personal relation with Polanyi, discussions with him in Oxford, contribution to the International Academy of the Philosophy of Science, the relevance of his innovative thought for Christian worship and theology, Magda and Michael in Oxford, the role of his literary executor.

This chapter attempts to look into a number of epistemological issues that are of significance to modern thought. The title of this chapter is adopted from Martin Buber's book wherein he drew attention to some of the key issues in what is referred to as the ‘new theology’ of Harry Williams, Pail Van Buren, and other such theologians, and also in William Hamilton and Thomas Altizer's ‘God is dead’ theology. As Buber asserts that the eclipse is something that concerns our (...) eyes and the sun, and not the sun itself, the eclipse of God that this chapter attempts to explain involves our own selfhood. The main problem faced by new theologians entails how they are not able to differentiate between God and their own subjectivity. This chapter looks into various controversies such as Gnosticism, Arianism, and other debates regarding the knowledge of God. (shrink)

In his commentary on the Epistle to the Romans, Karl Barth explains that grace is not to be viewed as something cheap for it is costly both for God and for man. Ironically, grace becomes costly because of how it is unconditionally free and because of how it is achieved only when we are justified in Jesus Christ. Since we are all under God's mercy and since we are freely justified through grace, all men — regardless of whether they are (...) bad or good, whether they practice religion, and other such aspects — are perceived to be equal as they are all saved by grace alone. For God, this grace is perceived to be considerably costly since grace is achieved through Christ's blood. On the other hand, for man, all the achievements and possessions of man rely greatly on grace. (shrink)

In this world which has come to be through God's creative Word, ecumenical activity occurs within time and space which are both brought about as functions of conditional events and holders of the immanent order to the world. God placed man in this world, and He had made Himself known throughout this time and space. In this world, man was granted with certain skills so that he may be able to utilize the world, enjoy it, and have a certain degree (...) of control over it and its other elements so that praise and worship may be brought to God. This is also the same world wherein God had sent His Son to express the Father's love and so that man may be able to be in communion with God. As such, not only did God create the world, He had also been able to establish the world's relation to Himself. In this world, we see that the Church and the science community coexist and are both in quest of understanding the various structures of space and time while attempting to understand the different forms of human speech and thought. (shrink)

Through faith we understand that the worlds were made by the Word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear By faith we understand that the universe was framed by God's command, so that the visible came forth from the invisible.

In developing our actual knowledge, we do not utilize authentic knowledge in looking into epistemology and on the ground of theory. It is also unlikely that we will be able to identify measures for answering the question ‘How can we know God?’ and use the answers in further investigation and explanation of what we know. As such, we may be able to develop an epistemology of God when we have considered our actual knowledge of God since form cannot be separated (...) from method nor from content. God enables us to know Him through how he is able to present Himself to us as an object of knowing and through how we are able to form relationships with Him. This chapter attempts to look into the formal and non-formal aspects of knowledge so that we may arrive at the epistemology of the Spirit. (shrink)

When a posteriori science came into view during the 16th century and had experienced classical developments during the 17th century, this modern science was referred to as dogmatic science. This is because an inductive discovery method that is directed by inquiry took the place of deducting from abstract principles, and because this science enabled various improvements in the real knowledge of the universe. The notion of acquiring ‘dogmatic’ thought was brought about by the differentiation given by the Greeks between the (...) ‘sceptics’ who asked several academic questions and the ‘dogmatics’ who seek to find positive results to these questions. As such, dogmatic science was utilized in analysing the new physics that encompassed a particular field of reality. (shrink)

The ability to attain the agreement of someone from whom we differ regarding a particular matter is referred to as persuasion, but certain differences may be identified in terms of how such may be achieved. People may be persuaded through convincing them and getting them to agree to what we say or believe in, or through meddling with their feelings so that the desired response may be manipulated and brought about. Persuasion generally stimulates a certain belief and that may be (...) furthered to a commitment that deals more with rational judgement. Theological persuasion is fundamentally concerned with the former, yet the latter is also not without a certain amount of significance. This chapter looks into how this type of persuasion involves a triadic relation in communication and in rationality. (shrink)

Recently, theology has been put under pressures by certain mechanistic concepts which resulted from the Newtonian era of science — dogmatic empiricism and dogmatic scientism. A number of theologians and biblical scholars discussed phenomenology and existentialism. However, such efforts were to no avail since these were done in the context of a historical relativism wherein Jesus continued to disappear from their observations. Also, others relied mostly on sociology and cultural expressionism in which they had to face the rifts that came (...) about between historic Christianity and modern culture. As such, several Christians often experienced certain degrees of confusion and irrationality toward their religion since the Church establishes the divide between experience and theology. Theology was thus viewed to be somehow detached from the reality the living God has furthered into its estrangement from men. (shrink)

Part I. The architectonic nature of Torrance's scientific Christian dogmatics : essays on method. Who is Thomas Forsyth Torrance? -- Scientific theology : an theological science -- Natural theology : and a theology of nature -- Realist theology : and theological realism -- Part II. Select themes within Torrance's theological oeuvre : essays on content. Mystical theology : reading Torrance as a mystical theologian sui generis -- Integrative theology : God, world, humanity -- Christocentric theology : (...) the fallen humanity of the Son of God -- Postscript: Torrance for the twenty-first century. (shrink)

While Bayesian models have been applied to an impressive range of cognitive phenomena, methodological challenges have been leveled concerning their role in the program of rational analysis. The focus of the current article is on computational impediments to probabilistic inference and related puzzles about empirical confirmation of these models. The proposal is to rethink the role of Bayesian methods in rational analysis, to adopt an independently motivated notion of rationality appropriate for computationally bounded agents, and to explore broad conditions under (...) which Bayesian agents would be rational. The proposal is illustrated with a characterization of costs inspired by thermodynamics. (shrink)

We present a formal, mathematical model of argument structure and evaluation, taking seriously the procedural and dialogical aspects of argumentation. The model applies proof standards to determine the acceptability of statements on an issue-by-issue basis. The model uses different types of premises (ordinary premises, assumptions and exceptions) and information about the dialectical status of statements (stated, questioned, accepted or rejected) to allow the burden of proof to be allocated to the proponent or the respondent, as appropriate, for each premise separately. (...) Our approach allows the burden of proof for a premise to be assigned to a different party than the one who has the burden of proving the conclusion of the argument, and also to change the burden of proof or applicable proof standard as the dialogue progresses from stage to stage. Useful for modeling legal dialogues, the burden of production and burden of persuasion can be handled separately, with a different responsible party and applicable proof standard for each. Carneades enables critical questions of argumentation schemes to be modeled as additional premises, using premise types to capture the varying effect on the burden of proof of different kinds of questions. (shrink)

The Pleadings Game is a normative formalization and computational model of civil pleading, founded in Roberty Alexy''s discourse theory of legal argumentation. The consequences of arguments and counterarguments are modelled using Geffner and Pearl''s nonmonotonic logic,conditional entailment. Discourse in focussed using the concepts of issue and relevance. Conflicts between arguments can be resolved by arguing about the validity and priority of rules, at any level. The computational model is fully implemented and has been tested using examples from Article Nine of (...) the Uniform Commercial Code. (shrink)

Carneades is an open source argument mapping application and a programming library for building argumentation support tools. In this paper, Carneades’ support for argument reconstruction, evaluation and visualization is illustrated by modeling most of the factual and legal arguments in Popov v Hayashi.

We present a high-level declarative programming language for representing argumentation schemes, where schemes represented in this language can be easily validated by domain experts, including developers of argumentation schemes in informal logic and philosophy, and serve as executable specifications for automatically constructing arguments, when applied to a set of assumptions. This new rule language for representing argumentation schemes is validated by using it to represent twenty representative argumentation schemes.

Examines how Stieglitz's work influenced Gertrude Stein, William Carlos Williams, Hart Crane and Sherwood Anderson and discusses how photography reshaped literary aesthetics.

Honor, fearlessness, calm, decisive action, strategic thinking, and martial prowess have been the hallmarks of the Japanese samurai culture through the ages. Their ethos is known as bushido, or the way of the warrior-knight. Here is an insider’s view of the samurai—their moral and psychological development, the ethical standards they strive to uphold, their training in both martial arts and strategy, and the enormous role that the traditions of Shintoism, Buddhism, Confucianism, and Taoism had in influencing their ideals. Thomas Cleary (...) has collected writings on bushido by warriors, scholars, political advisors, and educators from the fifteenth through the nineteenth centuries that provide a comprehensive, historically rich view of samurai life and education. The selections deal with a broad range of subjects—from military strategy and political science to personal discipline and character development. Cleary includes an introduction to each piece, putting it into historical context and presenting biographical information about the authors. This is an essential read for martial artists and anyone interested in samurai history, but it will also appeal to readers in the fields of government, military, religion, and education. (shrink)

Many individuals with developmental language disorder (DLD) and individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing (D/HH) have social–emotional problems, such as social difficulties, and show signs of aggression, depression, and anxiety. These problems can be partly associated with their executive functions (EFs) and theory of mind (ToM). The difficulties of both groups in EF and ToM may in turn be related to self-directed speech (i.e., overt or covert speech that is directed at the self). Self-directed speech is thought to (...) allow for the construction of non-sensory representations (i.e., representations that do not coincide with direct observation). Such non-sensory representations allow individuals to overcome the limits set upon them by the senses. This ability is constrained by the development of word meaning structure (i.e., the way words are understood). We argue that the greater ability to construct non-sensory representations may result in more enhanced forms of EF and ToM. We conclude that difficulties in EF, ToM, and social–emotional functioning in those with hearing and language problems may be accounted for in terms of word meaning impairments. We propose that word meaning structure and self-directed speech should be considered in assigning EF and ToM treatments to individuals with DLD and those who are D/HH. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Thucydides 1.22.1: Content and Form in the SpeechesThomas F. GarrityThe interpretive problem posed by the speeches of Thucydides is one of the oldest chestnuts in classical scholarship. It has long been debated whether the historian claimed and/or attempted to present verbatim accounts of the arguments put forward by the speakers on each occasion as best he could, or whether he felt free to modify or to invent particular arguments (...) or even whole speeches. And the controversy has been fueled by what has been widely regarded as the ambiguity of the second of the two parts of Thucydides’ famous statement of aims and methods in 1.22.1,. I propose here, instead, that the language in which scholars have found confusion is actually a clear statement pertaining both to the content and to the form in which the speeches are presented by Thucydides.THE ASSUMPTION IN SCHOLARSHIPThe perceived ambiguity of 1.22.1 has baffled generations of scholars, as they have attempted to relate their understanding of Thucydides’ statement concerning the presentation of speeches to what they themselves perceive as the historian’s practice throughout the History. In general, the debate has been characterized by a concerted and ongoing attempt to control the grammar, syntax, and vocabulary in 1.22.1 as a necessary ingredient in the construction of interpretive arguments. This uncompromising insistence on a study based on a close examination of Thucydides’ Greek is most evident in the early German scholarship, conducted [End Page 361] primarily from the point of view of the problem of composition.1 In subsequent research, scholars begin to place less emphasis on the significance of the programmatic statement strictly in relation to the problem of composition, but they remain devoted to the idea that a correct understanding of the historian’s aims and methods derives from a precise understanding of the Greek in 1.22.1.2 For all the efforts, however, of such well–known students of Greek, scholars remain sharply divided over the precise meaning of Thucydides’ programmatic statement.Not all participants in the debate, however, have felt this obligation to deduce the precise meaning of the Greek contained in the historian’s programmatic statement. And it is perhaps a measure of despair over finding a solution to the perceived enigma in 1.22.1 that some scholars have found it possible, especially in more recent times, to construct elaborate theories about the historian’s presentation of speeches without providing a detailed analysis of Thucydides’ own statement of aims and methods. The accepted ambiguity of 1.22.1, moreover, has provided such scholars with what they consider to be primary evidence with which they might successfully call into question the “objectivity” of Thucydides as a “scientific historian,” and with which they might thereby persuasively promote the view of him as either an impassioned (outraged) moralist or a tendentious manipulator of his reader’s sympathies.3 [End Page 362]In particular, the traditional view that the dependent participial clause,, is a qualification, or refinement, of the main assertion,,..., is what has led to the assumption that Thucydides is making two separate statements limited to the aspect of the content of the speeches.4 The result of this assumption has been to accept the notion that ambiguity exists in 1.22.1, as no satisfactory analysis has been put forward to explain how Thucydides can at one and the same time be presenting—in terms of content—“what was appropriate” () and “what was really said” (). And some scholars, for whom it is not adequate simply to question the reliability of Thucydides as a historical source, have taken a more extreme step: seizing on the traditional acknowledgment of the difficulties present in 1.22.1, they argue that the dependent participial clause,, is not a qualification at all but rather actually an explicit contradiction of the main assertion,.5 Thucydidean scholarship, then, has presented itself with an ironic result: the inherited assumption in scholarship that both parts of 1.22.1 refer only to the content of the speeches, first developed and seemingly permanently entrenched by early readers of Greek—so many of whom were committed to defending... (shrink)

Authors of books on business ethics and corporate social responsibility fall into two general approaches when they answer the question: Why should a business firm, which represents private property, have greater obligations to the local community than an ordinary citizen? Authors generally subscribe to a rights approach or to a power model. This paper will present four rights approaches and three power models which are used to describe the relationship of the firm to society. Introducing these different approaches and models (...) will be two brief expositions which provide the setting for determining the relationship of a firm to society. The first traces two lines to the development of the contemporary American corporation. The second views the business corporation as a quasi-public institution. (shrink)