Why Believe?

Why Believe?

by JohnCottingham (Author)

Synopsis

Why Believe? sees John Cottingham, a philosopher of searing intellectual honesty, examine our society's struggle with the concept of belief. Religious belief, or its lack, is something that touches our integrity very deeply. It goes to the heart of who we are, what we take ourselves to be doing with our lives, and how we locate ourselves in relation to others. Much philosophy tackles belief in God as if it depended entirely on abstract intellectual argument, but John Cottingham's carefully reasoned yet impassioned account shows how the religious outlook connects with our deepest human longings, how it links up with our moral and aesthetic experience, how it is integrally involved in the quest for self-understanding, and how it is not after all in conflict with a scientific understanding of the world. Rigorously argued yet maximally accessible, this book cuts through the sterility of much modern debate and offers a new and exciting perspective on the conflict between secularism and spirituality.

$20.85

Quantity

20+ in stock

More Information

Format: Paperback
Pages: 208
Edition: Reprint
Publisher: Continuum Publishing Corporation
Published: 17 Mar 2011

ISBN 10: 144114305X
ISBN 13: 9781441143051

Media Reviews

Himself a believing philosopher, Cottingham explains how he is able to meld his secular and religious inclinations. Sometimes, he warns, he gets a bit more rhetorical than is considered proper in an academic paper. He covers belief and its benefits; belief, reason, goodness; belief and the unknown; obstacles to belief; belief and meaning; learning to believe; and believing and living. -Eithne O'Leyne, BOOK NEWS, Inc.


Reviewed in the Catholic Herald, 27th August

'Wonderful crowd-dividing meditations'


Reviewed in the Catholic Herald, 27th August

'Wonderful crowd-dividing meditations'

Author Bio
John Cottingham is Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at the University of Reading and an Honorary Fellow of St John's College, Oxford. His much acclaimed recent titles include Philosophy and the Good Life, On the Meaning of Life and The Spiritual Dimension, and he is also well-known for his extensive writings in the history of philosophy and in ethics. He is President of the British Society for the Philosophy of Religion, and Editor of the journal Ratio.