This module homes in on the relationships between faith and reason, religion and philosophy. We shall approach these topics, historically, by considering how they were discussed by some key figures in nineteenth-century European philosophy. We shall begin with Kant’s rejection of traditional arguments for the existence of God, and his positive emphasis on both the moral dimension of religious belief and the possibility of a distinctively philosophical approach to religion. We shall then consider how these ideas were taken up in Hegel’s attempts to reconcile faith and reason, religion and philosophy. Finally, we shall look at some critical perspectives in the work of Feuerbach, Schopenhauer and Kierkegaard.
- Module Supervisor: Daniel Watts