Adriaan Theodoor Peperzak - Böcker

Adriaan Theodoor Peperzak contends that while many Catholic philosophers try to practice a modern, autonomous style of thinking, their experience of a faith-guided life necessarily compels them to integrate their scholarly pursuits with their Christian faith. He writes, "Christians who think cannot separate their thought from their faith and theology." Indeed, he argues that the work of Christian, particularly Catholic, philosophers loses its vitality when philosophers try to restrict their reflections to natural reason alone. In this book he explores the essential unity of philosophical and theological thought from various perspectives and pleads for a radical change of method in philosophy. Peperzak maintains that the interdependencies of philosophy, theology, and the sciences must collectively determine the character of a Catholic university. For him, all serious philosophy has a profoundly religious character and is the quest for a kind of wisdom unhampered by arbitrary boundaries. His plea for a paradigm shift in philosophy and theology concentrates on the idea of speaking God's word in a way that provokes appropriate responses, including praise and prayer.

Adriaan Theodoor Peperzak contends that while many Catholic philosophers try to practice a modern, autonomous style of thinking, their experience of a faith-guided life necessarily compels them to integrate their scholarly pursuits with their Christian faith. He writes, "Christians who think cannot separate their thought from their faith and theology." Indeed, he argues that the work of Christian, particularly Catholic, philosophers loses its vitality when philosophers try to restrict their reflections to natural reason alone. In this book he explores the essential unity of philosophical and theological thought from various perspectives and pleads for a radical change of method in philosophy. Peperzak maintains that the interdependencies of philosophy, theology, and the sciences must collectively determine the character of a Catholic university. For him, all serious philosophy has a profoundly religious character and is the quest for a kind of wisdom unhampered by arbitrary boundaries. His plea for a paradigm shift in philosophy and theology concentrates on the idea of speaking God's word in a way that provokes appropriate responses, including praise and prayer.

Although Emmanuel Levinas is widely respected as one of the classic thinkers of our century, the debate about his place within Continental philosophy continues. In Beyond: The Philosophy of Emmanuel Levinas, Adriaan Theodoor Peperzak shows Levinas's thought to be a persistent attempt to point beyond the borders of an economy where orderly interests and ways of reasoning make us feel at home--beyond the world of needs, beyond the self, beyond politics and administration, beyond logic and ontology, even beyond freedom and autonomy.Peperzak's examination begins with a general overview of Levinas's life and thought, and shows how issues of ethics, politics, and religion are intertwined in Levinas's philosophy. Peperzak also discusses the development of Levinas's relations with Husserl and Heidegger, demonstrating thematically the evolution of both Levinas's anti-Heideggerian view of technology and his critical attitude toward nature.

The book begins with the problem of the relationship between systematic philosophy and the history of philosophy. Why does philosophy attach so much importance to history? Consideration of this question is an essential part of metaphysics, and it has important consequences for the methodology of both history and philosophy.An analysis of the problem that begins the book leads to many other fundamental questions concerning the nature of philosophy. In treating these issues the author discusses positions taken on them by Russell, Rorty, Heidegger, Gadamer, Levinas, Ricoeur, Derrida, and others of our century. He also draws inspiration from Plato, Plotinus, Augustine, Spinoza, Kant, Hegel, and Nietzsche.