Philosophy
— BROWN— FIVE CHRISTIAN SCHOOLS John Brown University Siloam Springs» Arkansas ‘‘Training Head, Heart and Hand" Brown Military Academy San Diego, California Junior High thru Junior College Junior School— 1st thru 6th grades Southern California Military Academy Long Beach, California Pre-Kindergarten thru 9th grade Brown School for Girls Glendora, California 1st Grade thru High School Brown Military Academy of the Ozarks Siloam Springs, Arkansas 1st Grade thru High School WRITE INDIVIDUAL SCHOOL FOR COMPLETE INFORMATION A PENNY A DAY (Not such a large sum to invest for eternity) WUl give spiritual sight to the blind HOW? For information write to THE CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE BLIND 430 East 141st St. - - - - New York 54, N . Y . Chas. E. Gremmels, Pres.; J. E. Bennet, Treas. EYE EXAM INATIONS Dr. H. C. Forsyth, Optometrist 610 S. Broadway— 327 Story Bldg. Satisfaction A ssu red T U . 8 5 8 1 pure-being) through lower levels with more and more raw-stuff until one reaches the place where, theoret ically at least, the raw-stuff is not organized at all. Two Questions for Orthodoxy The extent to which this scale-of- being notion has entered into Western thought is not properly understood by many who are engaged in the task of Christian witness. Orthodoxy must ask itself, first, whether it is possible for the modern mind to un derstand the meaning of a theology cast in terms which deny the funda mental character of an unending continuity of being. There are some continuities in orthodox Christian thought; but ultimately God and His universe have not been considered co existent. In the second place ortho doxy must ask itself whether the ethical implications of Christian the ism, so radically disturbing in nature, can be grasped by a mind which is committed to a system in which radi cally disturbing discontinuities do not exist in any fundamental sense; and in which, therefore, ethical radical ism cannot endure either. e n d . 23 Very Low Charges A CHRISTIAN SERVICE FOR CHRISTIAN FOLK
ln
Life
Paul M. Aijian, Ph.D. Prof, of Apologetics, Talbot Theological Seminary Metaphysics
T he technical philosopher and the lay thinker approach a common ground of interest more nearly in metaphysics than in any other area of philosophic concern. Here it is that the mind of man seeks to probe the nature of the ultimate constitution of things-as-they-are. Not satisfied with the obvious appearance of things as a final answer, the philosopher has endeavored to fathom the depths of reality. To the lure of the mysterious by which all men are fascinated there is added the challenge of what is essentially practical in this intellec tual adventure. To understand nature and to know more of her being is not only a game which the mind enjoys playing for the sake of the game, but it is the way by which man establishes his mastership over many natural processes. The Problem of the One and the Many In resolving the major issues in the field of metaphysics philosophers have reduced the alternatives to two. Ultimate reality is either of the na ture of a unitary one, or it is of the nature of a multiplicity of many. In either case the problem is to relate this ultimate reality to the phenome nal aspects of the universe, that is, to that which man experiences in his universe. Under the impact of sci entific investigation and lead by the insights of the world’s high religions the ultimate has come to be con ceived as a one which must be re lated to the many of the phenomenal world of experience. Plato: The Scale-of-Being From the early philosophers of Miletus to the Golden Age of Greek thought as epitomized in Plato men sought to establish a “reasonable” relationship between the organizing principle at work in the universe and the world of experience in such a fashion as to provide a continuity of existence or being. Plato’s magnifi cent scheme of universal organiza tion has stood as the definitive work
in the field. This master philosopher conceived a world in which the par ticular things which men experience and the particular abstract ideas which men employ get their recog nizable character because they have in them some element of a universal form or idea. This is to say, that any particular expression of justice in a human court is justice to the degree in which it embodies and makes manifest the already existing and universal form of .justice. Or again, a particular horse is a horse because it embodies the form of “ horseness” making the already existing idea an experiencable thing for the world of men. Without this connection with the form, one may not speak of a particular at all in the proper sense, but only of the raw-stuff. This fun damental notion was modified by Aristotle who concluded that the uni versal aspect of a particular justice or a particular horse did not exist prior to the particular manifestation, but only in such a manifestation. In both of these schemes the one (which is the form or universal idea) is related to the many (which is the particular justice or horse) by way of participation. Later thinkers, among whom Plotinus was a leader, posited an ultimate source of being out of which, as water from a foun tain, poured the stream of a vital and dynamic organizational factor to mix with the raw-stuff or “moulding-clay” of the world to make the clay after the likeness of the ultimate being. Whether one takes the position of Plato and Aristotle, or whether one stands with Plotinus in his neo-pla- tonic system, he has to deal with these two elements: the always-exist ing form or idea or being source, and the raw-stuff of co-existing matter which is shaped by contact with being as a dynamic principle. This means, then, that one establishes a scale-of-being from the highest level where there is no raw-stuff (only
A U G U S T 1 9 5 3
Made with FlippingBook Online newsletter