Since philosophical activity arises in response to problems, the course will be organized around problems involving religions. But which problems should the course address? My thinking here is influenced by Wittgenstein. In a passage included in Culture and Value, he writes:
By the way in the old conception -- roughly that of the (great) western philosophers -- there were two sorts of problem in the scientific sense: essential, great, universal, & inessential, as it were accidental, problems. Our conception on the contrary is that there is no great essential problem in the scientific sense. (CV, p. 20e) [MS 110 200: 22.6.1931]For reasons that will become clear in future posts, I will not be teaching the course as an introduction to the classical problems in philosophy of religion; instead, I will begin the class as an investigation into sources of confusion that arise out of how people use terms like "religion". Thus one might expect philosophical problems to be different in different parts of the world (e.g. China and the U.S.).
