Divine Revelation and Human Learning
Chapter 7
Reflection
(Chapter 7.pdf 182kb )
Takes up some of the outstanding philosophical and theological issues to arise from the theories of learning and revelation put forward
Interaction and the Cognitive Orientation
The necessity of bringing together separate fields of study in a single coherent framework – interaction, the cognitive orientation and a hermeneutical approach to social science as key elements of the approach – opposition to interaction in the social science community
Interaction and Synthetic A Priori
The cognitive approach as a 'turn to the subject' – relationship between the philosophical framework of the thesis and that of Immanuel Kant – Kant based his philosophy on the process of learning – Kant analyses judgements rather than propositions – but Kant had no room for interaction – the introduction of interaction allows a place for culture and history within a Kantian framework – Kant's system of categories replaced by tacit knowledge
Imagination
Michael Polanyi and the importance of imagination in the process of discovery – Polanyi's approach as implicitly interactionist – Thomas Kuhn supplements and extends Polanyi's work – schemata and the functioning of imagination – social science held back by opposition to the teleological explanation
Transcendental Idealism and the Status of the "Real"
Kant's transcendental idealism as a middle course between empiricism and rationalism – the same dichotomy between 'data-driven and concept-driven processing – objections to transcendental idealism answered by interactionism – what we know is a 'model' or 'best approximation' to the world of the 'real' – analogy between transcendental idealism and critical realism
Necessities of Discourse
The problem of communication – individual world models echo shared frames of reference – 'forms of life' – bodily mechanisms as the link between concepts and the 'real' world – language implies communication – self- others and the real world as 'necessities of discourse.
"I"
The logical status of the subject – Wittgenstein on subject-object duality – Mead and Gibson – 'I'-me relationship – agency as a capacity to relate – Schleiermacher on 'immediate self-consciousness – Schleiermacher in error over 'absolute dependence' – Holy Spirit as the source of 'God-consciousness
The Purpose of God in Creation
The potential role of revelation in the human sciences – problems for the appropriation of revelation caused by human sin – need for the recovery of a doctrine of a doctrine of creation – two kinds of relationship between God and humankind: created dependence and created autonomy – the highest form of explanation is related to God's purpose in creation – revelation is an integral element in God's purpose