Given Schleiermacher's dense prose, I found it a lot easier to prepare for the podcast by "translating" his first two speeches into a more modern voice. As a result, here's On Religion, the PowerPoint! (Well, the first two speeches, anyway.) If you want to review Schleiermacher's basic arguments without having to wade through 18th century German translated into 19th century Continue Reading …
Heidegger on Schleiermacher’s Second Address
Let us think for a while of a farmhouse in the Black Forest, which was built some two hundred years ago by the dwelling of peasants. Here the self-sufficiency of the power to let earth and heaven, divinities and mortals enter in simple oneness into things, ordered the house. - Martin Heidegger, "Building Dwelling Thinking" (1951) Schleiermacher's On Religion provided me a Continue Reading …
“Prima Facie Weirdness?”
During the episode I made a comment about the seeming weirdness of Christianity that I feel it would be helpful for my thinking to try to elaborate. I've said in several posts here that I think that the new atheist movement is primarily political: it's not about advancing new arguments to philosophers, but about shifting the tide of opinion so that, for instance, an atheist Continue Reading …
Schleiermacher on Miracles and Revelation
We talked a bit on the episode towards the end about S's take on immortality. His take on miracles and on revelation is similar. In short, miracles are all around us, and all creativity is inspiration. It takes a pious person to recognize our ordinary environment as full of magic and wonder. From his second speech: The more religious you are, the more miracle would you Continue Reading …
Schleiermacher as Romantic Vanguard
http://youtu.be/hDmubeqjZKA Watch on YouTube Many of the books discussed on PEL advance their thesis methodically. Not so with Schleiermacher's On Religion. (Schleiermacher's approach changed after he became a university professor, whereupon he became more systematic and less interesting.) Schleiermacher's lack of structured argument may have resulted from his Continue Reading …
Capturing Schleiermacher’s Romantic Mood
Watch in YouTube Can modern film depict Schleiermacher's nature-obsessed 18th century Romantic mood? Probably not, but let's go. I thought I better understood Husserlian phenomenology after reading Sartre's Nausea, which even in translation has some gripping prose. The clip above, from Werner Herzog's Nosferatu (1979) exudes both the German Romantic aesthetic, and a Continue Reading …
Episode 39: Schleiermacher Defends Religion (Citizens Only)
Discussing Friedrich Schleiermacher's On Religion; Speeches to its Cultured Despisers (1799, with notes added 1821), first and second speeches. Does religion necessarily conflict with science? Schleiermacher says no: the essence of religion is an emotional response to life; it doesn't give knowledge or even tell us what to do exactly. Moreover, this attitude is a necessary Continue Reading …
PREVIEW-Episode 39: Schleiermacher Defends Religion
This is a 33-minute preview of a 1 hr, 43-minute episode. Buy Now Purchase this episode for $2.99. Or become a PEL Citizen for $5 a month, and get access to this and all other paywalled episodes, including 68 back catalogue episodes; exclusive Part 2's for episodes published after September, 2020; and our after-show Nightcap, where the guys respond to listener email and chat Continue Reading …
Schleiermacher vs. Kierkegaard (at LibertarianChristians.com)
Topic for #39: Schleiermacher’s Liberal Piety
Friedrich Schleiermacher, a contemporary of Hegel, bought into Kant's views on ethics and the division between scientific and religious realms, but didn't like Kant's ultimate view of religion, i.e. that its only support is an indirect (and really pretty flimsy) appeal to what we have to as a practical matter believe for ethics to really make sense to us. Instead, for Continue Reading …