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Polkinghorne

muon neutrino Philosophy Pre-U Pre-U Inglés 68 fichas

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  1. 1How does JCP view construe theology?As the discipline that seeks the deepest possible level of understanding.
  2. 2How does JCP define natural theology?"the search for the knowledge of God by the exercise of reason and the inspection of the world"
  3. 3What is the view of Karl Barth? Why does JCP disagree?Barth says that the powers of human knowledge are insufficient to apprehend God—we only learn of God by his own free disclosure.
    JCP objects that the world is not just a "neutral theatre", but is also the creation of God, and therefore a potential "vehicle for his self-disclosure"
  4. 4What does Hugh Montefiore say about intellectual discussion of God?It cannot bring a person into a warm personal relationship with God, but is nevertheless important because it gives theism credibility.
  5. 5Romans 1.20 (Paul's Letter to the Romans)"Ever since the creation of the world his invisible nature, namely is power and deity, has been clearly perceived in the things that have been made."
  6. 6"Understanding is the reward of faith. Therefore do not seek to understand in order to believe but believe in order that you may understand." Who said this?Augustine
  7. 7What does JCP think about: 1. The ontological argument 2. Aquinas' five ways 3. The "God of the Gaps" idea1. Fails due to Kant's criticism
    2. Not proofs but insights
    3. There is no reason to think that scientifically state-able questions will not, in the end, have scientifically state-able answers. Besides, this view of God as one (efficient) cause among many is misguided—He is the ground of all that is in the world. So not a good route to go down.
  8. 8"We are concerned not only with a revived natural theology but with a revised natural theology." In what way does JCP want traditional NT to be revised?Natural theology should focus on law and circumstance, rather than particular occurrences. In this way, the "God of the Gaps" mistake is avoided, and NT has the potential to deliver a much deeper understanding than the merely scientific can.
  9. 9According to JCP, which four elements characterise all engagement with the search for understanding?1. Adopting a belief
    2. Comparing with experience
    3. Fuller conceptual exploration
    4. Generalisation
    The important point is that beliefs and experience are both necessary requirements for understanding.
  10. 10According to JCP, what inspires the scientist?The desire to reach deep understanding. JCP rejects positivist and instrumentalist accounts of the scientific endeavour.
  11. 11Why does JCP claim that science will not entirely satisfy those with 'a thirst for understanding'?Science answers only "how" questions about the processes of the world. Beyond science we have:
    1. The remarkable intelligibility of the world
    2. The data, taken by science as brute facts, that call out for deeper explanation (the inverse square law, the strength of G etc.)
    3. The world of personal experience
  12. 12What explanations for the congruence between our minds and the universe does JCP reject, and why?1. The evolutionary explanation—Einstein's ability to come up with GR surely couldn't just have been a spin-off from the struggle for survival.
    2. The fact that we are made of the same stuff as the universe we seek to understand—this has no explanatory power.
  13. 13Why does JCP dismiss the idea of the multiverse as a solution to the anthropic principle?First, he claims that such speculation is strictly metaphysical (not scientific), because it goes beyond the only universe of which we can have experience. He then claims that the alternative metaphysical explanation that attributes the anthropic possibilities of our universe to the Creator is preferable because it is more economical, and because the multiverse proposal has 'too prodigal and contrived an air about it to prove persuasive.'
  14. 14Why are considerations of intelligibility and the anthropic principle invulnerable to the charge of being "God of the gaps"?These considerations concern the scientifically given, rather than the scientifically open.
  15. 15Why does JCP reject the explanation for the "congruence" that the rationality of the universe is the result of an order that we impose on it?This goes against the feel of scientific enquiry, where the phenomena encountered 'often prove extremely surprising and contrary to our intuition.'
  16. 16Why does JCP reject the objection that the pursuit of full understanding at the deepest level is forlorn, and the best we can hope for is an endless regress of explanation?He refuses to subscribe to such pessimism without first attempting to pursue full understanding.
  17. 17What points does JCP make in relation to probability and 'the significance test approach to theism.'1. Highly improbable events are only remarkable if they have significance under some interpretive scheme (think casting stones at random on the ground).
    2. The seeming improbability of some events might be an illusion—the result of missing knowledge (think Fred Hoyle's protein molecule).
    3. In regard to our universe: how do we assign probability to a uniquely one-time event?
  18. 18What is the essence of JCP's non-reductionist view?Growth in scale and organisation produces genuine novelty, and "each level enjoys its own autonomy in terms of concepts that are not simply reducible to those associated with lower levels."
  19. 19How are order and disorder related to scale?At the extreme ends of the scale, particle physics and cosmology, there is great order. But at and around their geometric mean, on the scale of the everyday world, things are much more untidy. We require chemistry, biology, anthropology etc., to make sense of it.
  20. 20What reason does JCP give for rejecting reductionism?On a reductionist view, rationality 'dissolves away'—neural events simply happen, and there is no rightness or wrongness in thought.
  21. 21How does JCP construe the relationship between mechanics and thermodynamics, and how does it relate to being and becoming?Thermodynamics restricts the the possibilities that are actually obtainable among the range of potential processes that are possible in mechanics. Thermodynamics directs the course of history, not just each event independently. Thus, it represents the scientific account of becoming, complementing other physical theories that are concerned only with being.
  22. 22What was Einstein's mistake?Convinced that past, present, and future are just "persistent illusions", Einstein initially sought to find a static solution to his application of GR to the universe. It was later shown that the original equations lead to time-dependent solutions which were experimentally confirmed—our universe partakes of becoming.
  23. 23What is the role of randomness in creating an arrow of time?Randomness provides a degree of openness to the future that is not available to the past. (This randomness refers both to quantum randomness, and to the randomness that emerges from systems with sufficient complexity ("chaos")).
  24. 24What does JCP mean when he says that ours is a "world of ragged edges"?He is referring to the role of chance in the exploration of possibility, and the fruitful interlacing of order and disorder, or chance and necessity.
  25. 25How is the problem of natural evil solved?Natural evil is a by-product of the evolving interaction of chance and necessity.
  26. 26How is the universe like a game of Bridge?Bridge is a way of understanding the idea of the "raw material of novelty (chance)" being explored by the "intervention of lawful necessity". The raw material is the hand that is dealt, the lawful necessity are the rules of the game.
  27. 27What does theology assert about the world?That it is the creation of a Creator, whose process is an expression of the Creator's purpose. The Creator is good and almighty.
  28. 28What is the nature of God's freedom?He is externally free—he is not acted upon by any external agency that limits His power or perturbs His will (anti-dualism).
    But He is internally constrained by His own nature—He can do as He wills, but His will must be in accord with His character, not merely arbitrary.
  29. 29What are the internal constraints on God's freedom, and how are they manifested in the world?1. Fidelity, and therefore reliability in His relationship to His world; manifested by the laws of nature.
    2. Love, and therefore not all-controlling. God must grant a degree of independence to His creation. This opens up the possibility of disorder.
    "The world created by the God of love and faithfulness may be expected to be characterised by both an openness to chance and the regularity of necessity."
  30. 30What does JCP think about anthropocentrism, and how does he understand the terms "love" and "faithfulness" as applied to God given this attitude?He is against it. The cosmos is not just a gigantic theatre for human activity. God's love and faithfulness find their expression throughout His creation.
    Using the terms love and faithfulness, however, betrays an anthropomorphism. JCP says that, while it is clear that "our rational prattle is inadequate to discourse on the divine nature," we can still make some sense of these terms as applied to God.
  31. 31What is a demiurge and why does JCP reject the idea of God as demiurge?A demiurge is "the intelligent contriver and manipulator of material resources that are there at his disposal but not at his command".
    JCP reject this idea because:
    1. If there were demiurgic intelligences at work in the universe, then their nature and mode of operation should be discoverable by science. But there are no such gaps in the causal scheme of science.
    2. The "evidence of religious experience" points us to an idea of God as transcendentally other and the ground of cosmic process (not merely one cause among many)
  32. 32What does JCP see as the only answer to the problem of why God created a world at all?The existence of the world can only be attributable to the generosity of God's love; an act of supererogation.
  33. 33In what way does God have a similar role to the quantum field?When physicists talk about "a universe from nothing" they are referring to a quantum vacuum fluctuation blown up to cosmic proportions by the effects of inflation. So it is not really "from nothing"—there has to be a quantum field. On a theological view, this provision is given by the continuing act of the Creator.
  34. 34What is involved in the act of creation?A divine kenosis: God's withdrawal to make (ontological) room for His creation, and accepting the self-limitation that this entails. Moreover, if the creation is an act of love, then God creates a world in which chance has a role to play, thereby being wholly responsible for consequences and also accepting His own limitations to control.
  35. 35How does JCP view the prospect of the heat death of the universe?He sees it as the counterpart to the human certainty that we will all die. But Christian hope is maintained by the belief in a destiny beyond death—JCP believes that the universe as a whole must also have such a destiny, and must fulfil some telos.
  36. 36If the whole creation is to achieve its destiny in the New Creation, what is the point of first enduring the imperfections of the old?God achieves his purposes through process, not magic. It can be argued that this must be so if God acts out of love.
  37. 37What is the significance of the incarnation?It testifies to God's deep involvement in His creation. The empty tomb and the ascension hold forth a hope for the destiny of the cosmos.
  38. 38What does "a wholehearted acceptance of the unity of knowledge" require?A harmonious and integrated view of the nature of reality. Polkinghorne's experience as a physicist and as a priest must "be capable of being held together, without compartmentalisation or dishonest adjustment".
  39. 39What is the theological basis for seeking a unified view of reality?The belief that the Creator is the single ground of all that is.
  40. 40What can we learn from the early investigators of quantum phenomena, and the practice of science in general?It is better to hold together various puzzling pieces of evidence, granting them all due respect for their facticity, than to produce a tidy scheme by "wilful oversimplification and neglect of evidence".
  41. 41Why does Polkinghorne refuse to join the idealists?Experience is "so marvellously patterned" that it is hard to doubt that it is a discernment of a material reality. Also, the most naturally convincing explanation for the success of science is that it is gaining an ever tightening grasp on actual reality.
  42. 42Why does Polkinghorne refuse to join the physical reductionists?He says that the reductionist program is suicidal (it subverts itself), for if thought is to be identified with electro-chemical neural events, then two thoughts cannot confront each other in rational discourse. They are neither right nor wrong; they just happen.
    (Note: this, once again, seems to totally ignore that body of philosophy dedicated to explaining how reasons can exist alongside causes, and how intentionality emerges from the material.)
  43. 43Why does Polkinghorne reject Cartesian dualism?Essentially due to the causal-interaction problem. Neither Descartes pineal gland explanation nor divine synchronisation are particularly convincing. The "twin worlds of extension and thought […] fail to coalesce into the one world of our psychosomatic experience".
  44. 44With what does JCP identify the soul?That almost infinitely complex information carrying pattern that persists through all the changes of material constituents.
    "If you take me apart, you will find that all you get will be matter […] neither soul nor entelechy will be found as a separate part of the residue."
    Corresponds with Aristotle's notion of the soul as the form of the body.
  45. 45How does JCP account for the apparent dualism of mind and matter?Through the idea of complementarity. In physics, the wave description and the particle description are mutually exclusive but complementary descriptions of the same underlying reality. The same is true of mind/matter—they are contrasting aspects of the "world-stuff".
  46. 46Over what does JCP disagree with Aquinas with regards to the soul?Aquinas thought that humans had to be non-material in their intellectual powers because understanding could not be the power of an organ.
    JCP thinks that understanding could well be the power of an organ, demonstrating the fertility of matter-in-organisation.
  47. 47Why does JCP reject panpsychism?He views this as an "unhappily literal way of seeking a synthesis", preferring the view that the mental is an indefinite aspect of material organisation, rather than a direct property of matter, or an aspect of an indefinite quantity of the material.
  48. 48How can the mental come to be?Appealing again to Prigogine's understanding of the nature of becoming, we see that there is a degree of randomness and hence an openness to the future that permits the coming to be of genuine novelty.
  49. 49In what way is the mind-matter duality different to wave-particle duality?Wave and particle are not separable in quantum theory (i.e. there is no "pure particle" or "pure wave"). However, the noetic realm of mathematical truth is an inhabitant of the mental world that does not find its counter-part in the material.
  50. 50How does Polkinghorne's view of the noetic world differ from classical platonism?1. Polkinghorne does not ascribe a higher significance or reality to the mental than to the material.
    2. The noetic world is not an eternal uncreated realm standing alongside God on equal terms, but rather it depends on Him. God does not create mathematical truth by arbitrary exercise of His will, but he is the ground of Reason itself.
  51. 51What does Polkinghorne say about miracles?The possibility of the miraculous is part of the openness of the creation to the Creator, who is neither tyrannical nor indifferent. Miraculous occurrences will not be random interventions bearing arbitrary relation to the rest of the world's process, but will be understood as the sign of deeper rationality.
  52. 52What can the scientific mindset contribute to theology?Science insists on conforming thought to the nature of the object, allowing reality to surprise us, and being open to the unexpected.
  53. 53What are the limits of the usefulness of natural theology and the scientific method generally for theological investigation?1. NT only brings us to the Cosmic Architect or Great Mathematician, rather than the God and Father of Jesus Christ.
    2. Much of theological thinking is passive rather than probing.
    3. Theological knowledge is personal knowledge, and therefore always idiosyncratic; scientific knowledge is impersonal, and concerned with generalities that everyone can find.
  54. 54Does Polkinghorne agree with Theissen that "scientific thought delights in dissension; faith is based on consensus."No—scientists actually find it very difficult to accept a radical change of view, and the history of religion is full of the influence of prophet and reformer. Both must strike a balance.
  55. 55Why are science and theology both parts of scientia?"They share a comradely concern in the search for truth about the world."
  56. 56What does JCP say about the distinction between natural and supernatural?Not a useful distinction to make—they are simply different levels in the one rationality.
  57. 57How is the unity of knowledge to be achieved?"It is a unity to be achieved by the search for synthesis, rather than by reduction to a falsely simplified common denominator."
  58. 58What does JCP say about religious experience?1. Sympathetic to Swinburne's Principle of Credulity and Testimony.
    2. RE is more widespread than we are inclined to suppose.
    3. "The testimony of the tone deaf would not be allowed to negate the reality of music…"
  59. 59How does science help us in thinking about Christian paradoxes such as the incarnation?"it ought to liberate us from an undue tyranny of common sense"
  60. 60How does JCP respond to the problem of the inadequacy of religious language to speak of that which is transcendent?"Inescapably, we are driven to the use of analogy […] the language of theology is the language of symbol."
  61. 61What is the tripodal basis for theological science's enquiry?1. Appeal to the tradition of religious experience, including our own contribution.
    2. Reason (i.e. natural theology)
    3. Scripture/revelation/history
  62. 62What are the two modes in which scripture can be read?1. The scholarly mode: as a record of past historical events
    2. The meditative mode: we just submit ourselves to its authority, and experience the scripture as a vehicle for the Spirit.
  63. 63For JCP, what is the significance of the incarnation?It is the complete fusion of event and image, of myth and actuality.
  64. 64How does Polkinghorne rephrase Einstein's quote: "Religion without science is blind. Science without religion is lame.""Religion without science is confined; it fails to be completely open to reality. Science without religion is incomplete, it fails to attain the deepest possible understanding."
  65. 65JCP makes two assumptions (his "basic convictions"). What are they?1. The unity of knowledge: a comprehensive view of reality must be internally consistent; science and theology both needed to attain this understanding.
    2. Methodological claim: seek the truth via well motivated belief. The theologian is subject to the same epistemic constraints as the physicist.
  66. 66The main claim in chapter 1 is that natural theology is essential, and not just an optional extra, if you want a total view of the universe. How does Polkinghorne commit the genetic fallacy?He gives evidence that natural theology has always been a big part of the scientific enterprise. But just because this is so, does not mean it really is an essential component of this enterprise.
  67. 67What is the main claim of chapter 2: Insightful Enquiry?The deep intelligibility of the universe requires explanation. Such an explanation would be provided by the rationality of the Creator God.
    "Intelligibility" refers to the congruence between:
    1. The rationality of our minds (a faculty)
    2. The rationality of the universe (order, structure etc.)
  68. 68What is the main theme of Chapter 4: Creation and Creator?Divine kenosis. God withdraws in order to make room for the universe, and enable freedom in its process. The world is, therefore, independent of God in some sense.
    1. The lawful necessity of the universe is a reflection of God's faithfulness.
    2. The chance inherent in the unfolding of its process (disorder/randomness) is a reflection of God's love.

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Pre-U (Paper 2) Philosophy Pre-U Fichas sobre Polkinghorne, creado por muon neutrino el 01/04/2018.
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