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Fulfilling Russell’s Wish: A.N. Prior and the Resurgence of Philosophical Theology

In: Organon F, vol. 30, no. 1
David Jakobsen

Details:

Year, pages: 2023, 32 - 52
Language: eng
Keywords:
Prior; analytic theology; the ontological argument; quantified tense-logic.
Article type: Research Article
About article:
'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? This article supplements that with a more fine-grained answer to the question. 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 bring modern logicians into a discussion with the theologically minded medieval logicians.
How to cite:
ISO 690:
Jakobsen, D. 2023. Fulfilling Russell’s Wish: A.N. Prior and the Resurgence of Philosophical Theology. In Organon F, vol. 30, no.1, pp. 32-52. 1335-0668. DOI: https://doi.org/10.31577/orgf.2023.30103

APA:
Jakobsen, D. (2023). Fulfilling Russell’s Wish: A.N. Prior and the Resurgence of Philosophical Theology. Organon F, 30(1), 32-52. 1335-0668. DOI: https://doi.org/10.31577/orgf.2023.30103
About edition:
Publisher: Filozofický ústav SAV, Filosofický ústav AVČR
Published: 28. 2. 2023
Rights:
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International Public License (CC BY-NC 4.0)