FULFILLING RUSSELL’S WISH: A.N. PRIOR AND THE RESURGENCE OF PHILOSOPHICAL THEOLOGY

• Authors: Jakobsen David
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

Wolterstorff (2009) provides an important explanation to the question: What caused the surprising resurgence of philosophical theology that has occurred over the last 50 years—a resurgence that rivals its zenith in the Middle Ages? Recent discoveries in Arthur Norman Prior’s correspondence with J.J.C Smart and Mary Prior, between November 1953 and August 1954 on the possibility of necessary existence, demonstrates the importance of Prior’s discussion of the Barcan formulae in Time and Modality (1957) for the resurgence of analytic theology. The correspondence establishes that Prior’s discovery of tense-logic, and his discussion of quantified tense-logic constituted the perfect opportunity for him to challenge key anti-metaphysical assumptions in analytic philosophy, from which four important consequences can be drawn for the resurgence of philosophical theology. First, Prior’s discussion of time and existence challenged the idea of Russell (1945) and Findlay (1948) on the logical status of a necessary existing being. Second, the discussion challenged the Analytic school’s view of analysis and gave Prior the opportunity to introduce a different perspective on the relationship between logic and metaphysics. Third, it gave Prior a good opportunity to demonstrate that the then-prevailing attitude towards medieval logic was wrong. Fourth, it made it possible for Prior to demonstrate that the highly surprising metaphysical conclusions of quantified tense-logic brings modern logicians into a discussion with the theologically minded medieval logicians.

Keywords

EN

ARTHUR NORMAN PRIOR; PHILOSOPHICAL THEOLOGY; RUSSELL; ONTOLOGICAL; TENSE LOGIC

• Publisher: Institute of Philosophy of the Slovak Academy of Sciences and Institute of Philosophy of Academy of Sciences of Czech Republic
• Journal: Organon F. medzinárodný časopis pre analytickú filozofiu
• Year: 2023
• Volume: 30
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 32 – 52

Contributors

author

Jakobsen David

• Aalborg University, Department of Communication and Psychology, Aalborg, Denmark

• https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9607-2508

Identifiers

DOI

https://doi.org/10.31577/orgf.2023.30103