Saints, Heretics, and Atheists

Jeffrey K. McDonough is Professor of Philosophy at Harvard University. His research focuses on the intersection of philosophy, science, and religion in the early modern era. He has written numerous articles on philosophy in the early modern period. His Leibniz's Miracle Creed and Teleology: A History were recently published by Oxford University Press.

The discussions are balanced and clearly presented, if occasionally simplistic, and each chapter ends with a list of accessible readings for further study. There is a useful index.

• AcknowledgementsPreface 1. Plato's Euthyphro: What is Piety? 1.1. The setting 1.2. First attempt: examples of piety1.3. Second attempt: what is dear to the gods1.4. Third attempt: what all the gods love1.5. Fourth attempt: piety is the part of justice that concerns the gods1.6. Fifth attempt: the pious is what is dear to the gods 2. Augustine's On Free Choice of the Will: Where Does Evil Come From?2.1. The setting 2.2. What is the cause of evil? 2.3. The well-ordered person2.4. Sin and ignorance2.5. An objection and two conclusions2.7. Freedom and determinism 3. Augustine's On Free Choice of the Will: Why Do We Have Free Will?3.1. Set up and structure3.2. How is it manifest that God exists?3.3. Do all things, insofar as they are good, come from God? 3.4. Should free will be counted as a good thing that comes from God? 3.5. Happiness and immortality 4. Augustine's On Free Choice of Will: Why Do We Sin?4.1. Why do we sin, and who is to blame? 4.2. Is libertarian freedom consistent with divine foreknowledge?4.3. Can't God be blamed for creating beings that he knows will sin?4.4. Is it the case that some of us must sin?4.5. Three views on divine foreknowledge 5. Anselm's Proslogion: Does Reason Prove that God Exists?5.1. The setting 5.2. Anselm's ontological argument5.3. A Perfect Island?5.4. Two Objections 6. Ibn Sina's The Book of Salvation: What is the Nature of the Soul?6.1. The setting 6.2. What does the intellect do? 6.3. Is the soul immaterial? 6.4. Is the soul immortal? 6.5. What am I? 7. Al-Ghazali's The Rescuer from Error: Is Religious Belief Founded in Reason? 7.1. The setting7.2. Three views on faith and reason7.3. The quest for certainty7.4. Three false foundations7.5. Is God hidden? 8. Al-Ghazali's The Rescuer from Error: Is Religious Belief Founded in Experience?8.1. Al-Ghazali's turn to mysticism8.2. Three accounts of religious experience8.3. Is religious experience a good reason for belief? 9. Aquinas's Summa Theologica: Does Experience Prove that God Exists?9.1. The setting9.2. Is the existence of God self-evident?9.3. Can we prove that God exists?9.4. The argument from motion, the first step9.5. The argument from motion, the second step 9.6. The argument from motion, the conclusion 9.7. The argument from providence 10. Aquinas's Summa Theologica: What is the Impersonal Nature of God?10.1. Is God simple? 10.2. Is God perfect?10.3. Is God infinite?10.4. Is God one?10.5. Analogical predication 11. Aquinas's Summa Theologica: What is the Personal Nature of God?11.1. The big picture11.2. Divine knowledge11.3. Divine will11.4. Divine love 11.5. Is God masculine? 12. Porete's The Mirror of Simple Souls: What is Salvation? 12.1. The setting12.2. Assent and annihilation12.3. Heaven12.4. Hell12.5. Life after Death? 13. Pascal's The Wager: Should We Bet on God?13.1. The setting13.2. A wager13.3. Pascal's wager13.4. Background assumptions13.5. Objections and replies 14. Spinoza's Ethics: Is God Nature?14.1. The setting14.2. Substance monism14.3. The Master Argument14.4. "Deus sive Natura" (God or Nature)? 15. Spinoza's Ethics: Are We Modes of God?15.1. Substance, attributes, modes15.2. Human beings15.3. Against libertarian freedom 15.4. For compatibilist freedom15.5 Moderating the passions 16. Spinoza's Ethics: Good without God?16.1. Two accounts of goodness16.2. Beyond egoism16.3. Good without God? 17. Hume's Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion: Is the Universe Designed?17.1. The setting17.2. The limits of reason17.3. Cleanthes's first design argument17.4. Cleanthes's second design argument 17.5. Is the universe fine-tuned? 18. Hume's Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion: Design without a Designer?18.1. The regress objection18.2. The design argument and traditional theism18.3. An immanent designer?18.4. No designer at all?18.5. Contemporary criticisms 19. Hume's Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion: True Religion?19.1. The "causal" argument 19.2. The problem of evil 19.3. Consistency, evidence and evil 19.4. "True religion" 19.5. Two contemporary views on the problem of evil 20. Shepherd's The Credibility of Miracles: May we believe in miracles? 20.1. The setting20.2. Against miracles20.3. What is a miracle?20.4. Believing in miracles? 21. Mills' Essays on Religion: Is Religion Useful?21.1. The setting21.2. On Nature21.3. Raising the question21.4. Is religion publicly useful?21.5. Is religion privately useful?21.6. What is secular humanism? 22. Nietzsche's On the Genealogy of Morality: What do Good, Bad and Evil mean?22.1. The setting 22.2. Three big ideas22.3. Genealogy of values 22.4. Inversion of values 22.5. Evaluation of values22.6. Debunking morality and religion? 23. Nietzsche's On the Genealogy of Morality: Whence Conscience, Bad Conscience and Guilt?23.1. The origin of conscience23.2. The origin of bad conscience 23.3. The origin of moral guilt 23.4. Should we obey our conscience? 24. Nietzsche's On the Genealogy of Morality: No Alternative?24.1. What do ascetic ideals mean?24.2. The puzzle of ascetic ideals24.3. The "vale of tears"24.4. "pointless suffering"24.5. "the ascetic priest"24.6. No alternative? 25. William James's Will to Believe: The Right to Believe?25.1. The setting25.2. The ethics of belief25.3. The varieties of belief25.4. A first argument25.5. A second argument25.6. Returning to Plato