The Unknown God: Agnostic Essays

by Anthony Kenny

Overview

Kenny, a philosopher by profession, struggles with the intellectual problems of theism and the possibility of believing in god, especially in an intellectual climate dominated by Logical Positivism.

Here he revisits the Five Ways of Aquinas and argues that they are not so much proofs as definitions of God. He is also in constant dialogue with Wittgenstein for, Kenny writes, no man in recent years has surpassed him in devotion of sharp intelligence to the demarcation of the boundary between sense and nonsense.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780826476340
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	06/05/2005
Series:	Continuum Compact S
Edition description:	Revised ed.
Pages:	232
Product dimensions:	5.06(w) x 7.81(h) x 0.49(d)

About the Author

Sir Anthony Kenny was until recently Master of Balliol College, Oxford and Senior Lecturer in Philosophy in the University. The author of a number of books, including an autobiography The Path from Rome, he was formerly a Roman Catholic priest.

Table of Contents

	Introduction	1
1	The Ineffable Godhead	7
2	Anselm on the Conceivability of God	25
3	Metaphor, Analogy and Agnosticism	34
4	God and Mind	46
5	The Limits of Anthropomorphism	62
6	The Problem of Evil and the Argument from Design	81
7	Faith, Pride and Humility	101
8	Two Agnostic Poets: Arthur Hugh Clough and Matthew Arnold	110
9	John Henry Newman on the Justification of Faith	125
10	Leslie Stephen and the Mountains of Truth	155
11	Wittgenstein on Mind and Metaphysics	179
12	Wittgenstein on Life, Death and Religion	197
	Index	217

Editorial Reviews

Can the existence of God be proven? Kenny (A Brief History of Western Philosophy), a former Roman Catholic priest, addresses this eternal question by first considering the likelihood of saying anything intelligible about the nature and existence of God. He believes that the correct position on the concept of God is agnosticism, which he describes as "those who fail to believe in God because they think that the truth-value of `God exists' is uncertain." This collection of essays covers a broad range of philosophical topics, from the existence of God to animal minds and consciousness. Though essays like "The Limits of Anthropomorphism" may initially seem to stray from his thesis, Kenny does a wonderful job of tying their conclusions to the book's overall purpose. With lucid writing and careful examination of past arguments for the existence of God, Kenny succeeds in presenting agnosticism not as an indecisive idea but as a deeply philosophical belief system that combines rationality and humility. Highly recommended for larger public and academic libraries that have existing collections on the philosophy of religion.-Scott Duimstra, Capital Area Dist. Lib., Lansing, MI Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

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