The Rediscovery of Wisdom: From Here to Antiquity in Quest of Sophia

206 Pages·2000·9.83 MB·English

by  David Conway (auth.)

196 Subject Index
how different from scientific wisdom
enquiry, 25-7 see sophia and theoria
The Rediscovery of Wisdom
Also by David Conway
A FAREWELL TO MARX: An Outline and Appraisal of his Theories
CLASSICAL LIBERALISM: The Unvanquished Ideal
The Rediscovery of Wisdom
From Here to Antiquity in Quest of Sophia
David Conway
Professor of Philosophy
School of Humanities and Cultural Studies
Middlesex University
&
First published in Great Britain 2000 by
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ISBN 978-1-349-41095-8 ISBN 978-0-230-59712-9 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/9780230597129
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Conway. David. 1947-
The rediscovery of wisdom : from here to antiquity in quest of Sophia I David
Conway.
p. cm.
lncludes bibliographical references and index.
I. Theism. 2. Philosophy. 3. Religion and philosophy. I. Titlc.
BD555 .C57 2000
100-dc21
00-D23818
© David Conway 2000
Softcover rcprint ofthe hard cover Istedition 2000 978-0-333-74711-7
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Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to
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This book is printcd on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained
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10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 I
09 08 07 06 05 04 03 02 0 I 00
For my children, Julian and Charlotte
May the Lord bless you and keep you; may the Lord make
his face to shine upon you and be gracious unto you.
May the Lord turn his face unto you, and give you peace.
(Numbers 6: 24-6)
Contents
Acknowledgements ix
Introduction 1
1 Philosophy without Wisdom 6
1.1 The present-day philosophical landscape 6
1.2 The forgetting of wisdom 16
1.3 Three case-studies 19
1.4 The betrayal of sophia 28
2 The Classical Conception of Philosophy 31
2.1 Philosophy as quest for sophia 31
2.2 Plato on the form of the good 34
2.3 Aristotle's Unmoved Mover 53
2.4 The Unmoved Mover and the Judaeo-Christian God 72
2.5 Aristotle on the purpose of creation 74
3 The Decline and Fall of the Classical Conception 79
3.1 Philosophy in the age of wisdom 79
3.2 The Copernican Revolution 90
3.3 God's unwilling executioners 98
3.4 The assault on the Cosmological Argument 105
3.5 The assault on the Argument from Design 116
3.6 God's jubilant obituarist 126
viii Contents
4 The Wisdom of the Book Revisited 134
4.1 The hieroglyph of wisdom 134
4.2 Revelation in Christian orthodoxy 146
4.3 Revelation in Jewish orthodoxy 155
4.4 Revelation without grace or favour 160
5 Conclusion 171
Notes 177
Bibliography 188
Name Index 193
Subject Index 195
Acknowledgements
This book was written during a sabbatical year in 1997/98. I am
indebted to Middlesex University for granting me this period of leave.
Chapter 4 has benefited as a result of incorporating several sugges
tions which I have received from Professor Richard Swinburne and
Professor Hyam Maccoby. I should like to thank them both for their
helpful comments, even though I have not always found myself able
to adopt all their suggestions. Any remaining defects in this chapter
are, of course, entirely my own responsibility.
Melissa Gibson kindly checked the accuracy of all quotations for me
and helped me compile the bibliography. I should like to take this
opportunity to thank her for so doing.
I should also like to thank Oxford University Press for their kind
permission to quote selections from their published translations of the
following works of Aristotle: Thysics' translated by R. P. Hardie and
R. K. Gayle translated by J. L. Stocks, and 'De Generatione et
Corruptione' translated by H. H. Joachim, from Aristotle's Philosophy
of Nature from The Oxford Translation of Aristotle, edited by W. D. Ross
(vol. 2, 1930); 'Metaphysics', translated by W. D. Ross, from Aristotle's
Metaphysics from The Oxford Translation of Aristotle edited by W. D.
Ross (vol. 8, 2nd edition 1928); 'Ethica Nicomachea' translated by
W. D. Ross, from Aristotle's Ethics from The Oxford Translation of
Aristotle edited by W. D. Ross (vol. 9, 1925); Tolitica' translated by B.
Jowett, from Aristotle's Politics and Economics from The Oxford
Translation of Aristotle edited by W. D. Ross (vol. 10, 1921).
For their kind permission to reproduce material of theirs in this
book, I should also like to thank J. J. Blom (trans.) Descartes: His Moral
Philosophy and Psychology, Harvester Press, 1978, Hassocks, Sussex; and
J. Kraye, Cambridge Translations of Renaissance Philosophical Texts, vol.
IX
x The Rediscovery of Wisdom
1, Moral Philosophy, Cambridge University Press, 1997, Cambridge and
New York.