The Last Superstition
A Refutation of the New Atheism
Edward Feser

luotu 12.5.2025 klo 18:49

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Sivuja: 312

Kustantaja: St. Augustine's Press, 2010

ISBN-13: 9781587314520

ISBN-10: 1587314525

Tilaa Adlibrikselta – tuet Puolustajan Polkua!

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Kirjan takakannesta:

The central contention of the ”New Atheism” of Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, Sam Harris, and Christopher Hitchens is that the centuries-old ”war between science and religion” is now over and that religion has lost. But as Edward Feser shows in The Last Superstition, there is not, and never has been, any war between science and religion at all. There has instead been a conflict between two entirely philosophical worldviews: the classical ”teleological” vision of Plato, Aristotle, Augustine, and Aquinas, on which purpose or goal-directedness is as inherent a feature of the material world as mass or electric charge; and the modern ”mechanical” vision of Descartes, Hobbes, Locke, and Hume, according to which physical reality is comprised of nothing more than purposeless, meaningless particles in motion.

This modern ”mechanical” view of nature has never been proved, and its hold over the contemporary intelligentsia owes more to the rhetorical sleight-of-hand and political expediency that to rational argument. For as Feser demonstrates, the existence of God, the immortality of the soul, and the traditional natural-law conception of morality are rationally unavoidable given the classical ”teleological” philosophical worldview. Hence modern secularism crucially depends on the false insinuation that the ”mechanical” philosophy has somehow been established by science.

But as Feser shows, this ”mechanical” picture of the world is in fact demonstrably false – and, into the bargain, utterly incompatible with the very existence of morality, rationality, and science itself. Recent developments in philosophy and science confirm this judgment, showing as they do how human thought and action, cause and effect, and the findings of the empirical sciences from physics to biology cannot even be described coherently without reference to purpose or goal-directedness. The ”teleological” vision of the ancients and medievals is thereby rationally vindicated, and with it the religious and moral worldview they based upon it.

Moving beyond what he regards as the pointless and point-missing dispute between ”Intelligent Design” advocates and Darwinians, Feser holds that the key to understanding the follies of the ”New Atheism” lies not in quibbles over the evolutionary origins of this or that biological organ, but in a rethinking of the philosophical presuppositions of the scientific method itself back to first principles. In particular, it involves a recovery of the forgotten truths of classical philosophy. When this is accomplished, religion can be seen to be grounded firmly in reason, not blind faith. And despite its moral and intellectual pretensions, the ”New Atheism” is exposed as resting on very old errors, together with an appalling degree of intellectual dishonesty, philosophical shallowness, and historical, theological, and scientific ignorance.

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Katolinen mielen-, politiikan-, uskonnon- ja moraalifilosofi Edward Feser toimii filosofian professorina (Pasadena City College, CA). Häntä on luonnehdittu yhdeksi nykyajan parhaimmista filosofiaa käsittelevistä kirjoittajista. Feser ylläpitää hänen omaa nimeään kantavaa blogia.