God and the Knowledge of Reality

Molnar, Thomas

ISBN 10: 156000665X / ISBN 13: 9781560006657

Published by Transaction Publishers, 1993

About this Item

Num Pages: 237 pages. BIC Classification: HPK; HRAB1; HRCM. Category: (G) General (US: Trade); (UU) Undergraduate. Dimension: 150 x 226 x 18. Weight in Grams: 454. . 1993. 2. Paperback. . . . . Books ship from the US and Ireland.

Seller Inventory # V9781560006657

Bibliographic Details

• Title: God and the Knowledge of Reality
• Publisher: Transaction Publishers
• Publication Date: 1993
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 156000665X
• ISBN 13: 9781560006657
• Binding: Soft cover
• Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

Written simply yet comprehensively, Molnar's anlaysis of the history of philosophy and false mysticism leads him to conclude that a return to a moderate realism will save the philosophical enterprise from a series of epistemological and societal absolutes that are embodied in contemporary rationalism and mysticism alike. Issues that have been systematically excluded from discourse will have to be reintroduced into the discussion of person and providence.

Molnar divided the philosophical systems into two groups according to their vision of God, and consequently of reality.

One group removes God from the human scope, therefore rendering the world unreal, unknowable, and meaningless. The second group holds that God is immanent in the human soul, thereby emphasizing the human attainment of divine status, and reducing the extra-mental world to a condition of utter imperfection. Either way, the result is a pseudo-mysticism, a denial of the creaturely status of human beings.

What is most needed, Molnar claims, is a theory of knowledge whose ideal is not fusion but distinction―between God and Man, subject and object, the self and the society. By thus raising the question of philosophy over against magic Molnar seeks to awaken the reader from neo-dogmatic assumptions and restore speculative thought to its traditional place. Upon publication, Dale Vree in The Review of Politic^, said that "this book will go a long way in establishing Professor Molnar as one of the distinguished conservative philosophers of our time."

About the Author

Thomas Molnar is professor emeritus of philosophy at CUNY and at present is a visiting professor at Bupapest University.