42 – Reflection: asking questions and proposing answers
For example, you might decide to answer ‘No’ to the last
question. You would then be able to answer the ‘why’ question by
pointing out that Freud was trying to reinterpret religious ideas as
a psycho-social phenomenon which accords with his own theory of
personality, rather than as a metaphysical phenomenon; that what
he means is that these ‘wishes of mankind’ must therefore be taken
seriously even though they are ‘illusions’ which could gradually be
stripped away by some kind of social psychotherapy; and that in some
respects he is right if we accept the boundaries he himself places on
the meaning of ‘religious ideas’. These considerations bring us back
to the main question: all this might be of significant anthropological
or psychological interest, but none of it seriously affects metaphysical
questions about the existence of God.
Background knowledge
Since each of us brings a partly idiosyncratic general knowledge and
experience to a given topic, it is not possible to generalise about the
point at which any one of us should open a book. But, in putting
off any reading until we have worked out a few particular things
we want to find out about, we can create mental space for the kind
of formal analysis of the topic we shall study in the next section.
Postponing detailed reading also gives us the chance to articulate
whatever general knowledge and experience we are able to bring
to the issue in question. The list of suggestions I put forward on
p. 36 to account for how General MacArthur honoured his promise
to return to the Philippines owes nothing to reading I have done on
MacArthur. I have never read any book on MacArthur. But I have
read books on, and memoirs by, other generals from Cromwell to
Eisenhower. I have seen (as most of us have) many TV movies about
modern war, and read newspaper articles. It is in such very general
storehouses of the mind that we can look for a few tentative ideas to
get our thinking going. The richer and more articulate your initial
‘personal response’, the better your library research will be.
When we think of knowledge we do not only have in mind
a store of information about a subject, though that is clearly part of
it. Knowledge also includes knowing how to approach information.
For example, you might decide to answer ‘No’ to the last
question. You would then be able to answer the ‘why’ question by
pointing out that Freud was trying to reinterpret religious ideas as
a psycho-social phenomenon which accords with his own theory of
personality, rather than as a metaphysical phenomenon; that what
he means is that these ‘wishes of mankind’ must therefore be taken
seriously even though they are ‘illusions’ which could gradually be
stripped away by some kind of social psychotherapy; and that in some
respects he is right if we accept the boundaries he himself places on
the meaning of ‘religious ideas’. These considerations bring us back
to the main question: all this might be of significant anthropological
or psychological interest, but none of it seriously affects metaphysical
questions about the existence of God.
Background knowledge
Since each of us brings a partly idiosyncratic general knowledge and
experience to a given topic, it is not possible to generalise about the
point at which any one of us should open a book. But, in putting
off any reading until we have worked out a few particular things
we want to find out about, we can create mental space for the kind
of formal analysis of the topic we shall study in the next section.
Postponing detailed reading also gives us the chance to articulate
whatever general knowledge and experience we are able to bring
to the issue in question. The list of suggestions I put forward on
p. 36 to account for how General MacArthur honoured his promise
to return to the Philippines owes nothing to reading I have done on
MacArthur. I have never read any book on MacArthur. But I have
read books on, and memoirs by, other generals from Cromwell to
Eisenhower. I have seen (as most of us have) many TV movies about
modern war, and read newspaper articles. It is in such very general
storehouses of the mind that we can look for a few tentative ideas to
get our thinking going. The richer and more articulate your initial
‘personal response’, the better your library research will be.
When we think of knowledge we do not only have in mind
a store of information about a subject, though that is clearly part of
it. Knowledge also includes knowing how to approach information.