Abstract
The Wittgensteinian approach to the philosophy of religion owes much to the influence of Rush Rhees but is best exemplified in the work of D.Z. Phillips, whose writings have given a new direction to the philosophical discussion of religious issues. His work has prompted much opposition and critical comment which in the main has been of two kinds. On the one hand he has been attacked for seeking to provide religion with a haven from the harsh winds of philosophical analysis, which has prompted some to refer to him as the protagonist of what Nielsen calls Wittgensteinian fideism.1 On the other hand he has been referred to by some religious believers as a reductionist who seeks to attenuate the faith of the fathers. I hope to examine both of these criticisms in the course of elucidating Phillips’s position in this essay.
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Notes and References
Kai Nielsen, ‘Wittgensteinian Fideism’, Philosophy 42, No. 161 (July, 1967) pp. 191–209.
D.Z. Phillips, Faith and Philosophical Enquiry (London, 1970) p. 124.
D.Z. Phillips, Religion without Explanation (Oxford, 1976) pp. 1–3.
D.Z. Phillips, The Concept of Prayer (London, 1965) p. 14; Athronyddu am Grefydd (Llandysul, 1974) pp. 9, 44.
John Hick, Philosophy of Religion (Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1973) pp. 95–6.
See my paper, ‘Paul Tillich and the Historical Jesus’, Studies in Religion, 4, No. 2, (1974–5) pp. 120–27.
S.R. Sutherland, ‘Religion and Ethics’, Human World, No. 5 (November, 1971) p. 44.
See Antony Duff, ‘Psychopathy and Moral Understanding’, American Philosophical Quarterly, 14, No. 3, (July, 1977) pp. 194–95.
D.Z. Phillips, Religion and Understanding (Oxford, 1967) p. 6.
L. Wittgenstein, Lectures and Conversations on Aesthetics, Psychology and Religious Belief (Oxford, 1966) p. 72.
Michael Durrant, ‘Is Justification of Religious Belief a Possible Enter-prise?’ Religious Studies 9, No. 4 (December, 1973) pp. 449–55.
D.Z. Phillips, Death and Immortality (London, 1970) pp. 38, 42, 45.
John Skorupski, ‘Review of Religion without Explanation’ (Glasgow, 1977).
L. Wittgenstein, Philosophical Investigations (Oxford, 1976) sec. 124.
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© 1995 Glyn Richards
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Richards, G. (1995). A Wittgensteinian Approach to the Philosophy of Religion. In: Studies in Religion. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-24147-7_2
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