Philosophy – literally means the love of wisdom. It deals with fundamental questions regarding Truth and Reality like:
- What is Truth? How do we know something is true?
- What is Real/Reality? How do we know reality?
- Is there a purpose and design for everything? If so, what is it?
Colossians 2:8 “See to it there is no one who takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception in accordance with human tradition, in accordance with the elementary principles of the world, rather than in accordance with Christ.”
Philosophy Categories:
- Metaphysics – The branch of philosophy that seeks to understand the nature of ultimate reality. What is real? What is the source of all reality? What is reality made of?
- Epistemology – The study of what knowledge is, how we can know, what makes a belief rational to hold, and what actually constitutes knowledge.
- Rationalism – a theory that claims reason is the source of knowledge. Great reliance on intuition. Claims that individuals have innate knowledge or concepts.
- Empiricism – a theory that claims experience is the source of knowledge. Complete rejection of intuition. Claims individuals do not have innate knowledge. We are blank slates (tabula rasa) which gain knowledge as we go through sensory experiences.
- Scientific Empiricism: The process of using the scientific method to observe and measure phenomena in the physical world, devise experiments to organize our observations, improve the accuracy of our measurements, and develop hypotheses we can test to see if our theories are actually true.
- Theories of Truth:
- Correspondence Theory – Something is true or false depending upon how it corresponds to the objective facts of reality.
- Coherence Theory – Something is true or false depending upon how it coheres with other held beliefs.
- Pragmatic Theory – Something is true or false based upon how useful it is when worked out.
- The Mind/Body Problem – the study of the relationship between the mind (e.g., mental events, mental functions, mental properties, and consciousness) and the physical body.
Worldview Positions:
- Secular Humanism = Naturalism
- Marxism = Dialectical Materialism
- New Age/Spirituality = Non-Naturalism
- Postmodernism = Anti-Realism
- Christianity = Supernaturalism — Faith and Reason
Biblical Philosophy:
- What is Truth? – John 18:36-38
- Truth is Personal, Objective, and Absolute:
- Truth is Objective – 5:21
- Truth is Absolute – James 1:12-18
- Truth is Personal – John 14:6
- How do we know Truth?
- General Revelation
- Creation – Romans 1:18-25
- Internal Longing – 3:11
- Empiricism – John 20:24-29
- Rationalism – Acts 17:22-31
- Specific Revelation
- Jesus Christ
- 1 John 5:20
- Hebrews 1:1-4 man
- The Bible
- 2 Timothy 3:16-17
- Psalm 119:160
- How must we respond to Truth?
- Biblical Faith on Truth – Hebrews 11:1
- Biblical Worship in Truth – John 4:23
- Biblical Freedom by Truth – John 8:32
- Biblically Speaking the Truth – Ephesians 4:15
- What is Real?
- Genesis 1:1 and John 1:1-18
- Physical Universe – the Seen
- The world
- The universe
- People – flesh and blood
- Spiritual Universe/Realm – the Unseen
- Heaven and Hell
- Angels and Demons
- The Human Soul
- Genesis 1:26-31
- Realism – The belief that an objective reality exists independent of human perception or language.
- The Body/Mind Problem
