Berkeley on Miracles and Transubstantiation
It was the custom among 17th and 18th century English philosophers to take as many potshots at the Roman Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation as possible. Sometimes it almost seems that a desideratum for a theory of metaphysics is that it should be inconsistent with that doctrine. This desideratum is, of course, easily satisfied: most theories of metaphysics are inconsistent with transubstantiation. All versions of the doctrine require that it be metaphysically possible for flesh to exist under the 'species' of bread, and a conservative interpretation of the doctrine popular in the early modern period further required that numerically the same...
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Topic(s):
Anglican Communion
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G. W. Leibniz
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George Berkeley
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Historical Thinkers
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John Locke
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Miracles
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Philosophy
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Philosophy of Religion
,
Protestantism
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Roman Catholic Church
,
The Church
,
The Eucharist
,
Theology
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Locke and Berkeley on Cartesian Skepticism
Descartes's First Meditation is one of the most striking texts in the history of philosophy. As anyone who has taught the text can attest, students are immediately gripped by the problem, and often despair of a way out. John Locke was evidently not such a student, for he responds to these doubts primarily with ridicule: If any one say, a Dream may do the same thing [as sense perception], and all these Ideas may be produced in us, without any external Objects, he may please to dream that I make him this Answer, 1. That 'tis no great matter, whether...
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Quote of the Day: Philosophers and Platitudes
It is the profession of philosophers to question platitudes that others accept without thinking twice. A dangerous profession, since philosophers are more easily discredited than platitudes.
David Lewis, Convention, p. 1
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