Infidels and Unreasonable Gods: Do Not Necessarily Despair of Being Possessed by Unreasonable Ideas

By James Morrison

To understand the world, you must have a basic understanding of Western philosophers and the philosophers who have shaped the world.

This concise, jargon-free, plain-language layman’s guide examines the writings of the major modern philosophers, including Socrates, Diogenes, Plato, Nietzsche, Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz, and others.

These philosophers seek to answer questions such as:
• Can science explain the world?
• Is a wise person necessarily rational?
• Should one aspire to authenticity?
• Is God unbelievable?

Throughout the book, God and faith – and what history’s greatest thinkers have said on those topics – are major themes. For instance, Schopenhauer preferred Oriental mysticism to Enlightenment rationalism and scheduled his university lectures to clash with Hegel, whose grand vision of reasonable progress he hated.

The author also examines what modern philosophers said about how we can live heroically, conflicts between Protestantism and Catholicism, and reconciling faith and reason.

Find out why the gods will always exist and what their mere existence says about humanity by following what history’s greatest philosophers have argued.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse UK
• Release date: Mar 6, 2020
• ISBN: 9781728398457

James Morrison

James Morrison is a reader in journalism at Robert Gordon University. He spent over a decade as a staff reporter for newspapers including the Independent on Sunday as well as working as a freelance writer for the Guardian. His previous books include Scroungers: Moral Panics and Media Myths.

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© 2020 James Morrison. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 03/13/2020

ISBN: 978-1-7283-9846-4 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-7283-9847-1 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-7283-9845-7 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2020904473

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CONTENTS

Introduction

Antiquity

Christendom

Descartes

Spinoza

Leibniz

Locke

Hume

Rousseau

Kant

Hegel

Schopenhauer

Kierkegaard

Nietzsche

Heidegger

Wittgenstein

Sartre

Camus

Foucault

Derrida

Conclusion

Moral of the Book

INTRODUCTION

Most deeds are neither so good as to be inspired by God nor so evil as to be inspired by Satan. Most deeds are inspired by more ambiguous gods.

There are many standards of ethics or aesthetics; therefore, there are many gods. Nonetheless, the monotheistic ideas of God and Satan radicalise polytheism and in this respect can be seen as progress.

Myths about the gods, both religious and philosophical, are the invention of mortals, but the gods themselves are real. That is to say, inspiration is real, so for all intents and purposes, the gods are real. The gods are real, even though one has to make-believe in them.

Gods will exist as long as mortals exist.

The gods are unreasonable; they are mysterious and fearsome. There is little else one can know