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On distinctions

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Abstract

The paper discusses the importance of making distinctions for philosophy of religion. It argues that metaphysics is the philosophical attempt to draw out a system of distinctions that help us to make sense of our life in the world. Metaphysics is not a theoretical or speculative but a practical enter prise. Its task is not to offer ultimate explanations and “explain the world” in terms of its fundamental structure, but provide comprehensive orientation by unfolding a practice of orientation such as everyday life or the life of faith or a religious practice.

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Notes

  1. Cf. Wittgenstein (1980, p. 66e).

  2. Spencer-Brown (1969), notes to Chap. 2.

  3. On the concept of orientation employed here cf. Dalferth (2003, Teil I, 2010) and Dalferth and Berg (2011), Stegmaier (2005, 2008).

  4. Cf. Dalferth ( 2003, pp. 463–466, 493–509).

  5. Traugott Krug (1833): “Orientiren (sich) heißt eigentlich den Orient oder den Ort im Horizonte suchen, wo die Sonne zur Zeit der Tag- und Nachtgleiche aufgeht, wodurch dann auch die übrigen Weltgegenden leicht bestimmbar sind” (131). Or as Kant put it, "To orient oneself, in the proper sense of the word, means to use a given direction—and we divide the horizon into four of these—in order to find the others, and in particular that of sunrise." (AA VIII 134; Reiss 2003, p. 238).

  6. Sider (2012).

  7. “Homines sumus, humani nihil a nos alienum putimus,” (Terrence).

  8. Modelled on some well-known lines by Hilaire Belloc.

References

  • Dalferth, I. U. (2003). Wirklichkeit des Möglichen. Hermeneutische Religionsphilosophie. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck.

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  • Dalferth, I. U. (Ed.). (2010). Malum. Theologische Hermeneutik des Bösen (pp. 1–14, 519–547). Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck.

  • Dalferth, I. U., & Berg, S. (Eds.) (2011). Gestalteter Klang—gestalteter Sinn. Orientierungsstrategien in Musik und Religion im Wandel der Zeit, Leipzig: EVA.

  • Reiss, H. (Ed.) (2003). Kant: Political writings (pp. 237–249) (H. B. Nisbet, Trans.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

  • Sider, T. (2012). Writing the book of the world. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

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  • Spencer-Brown, G. (1969). Laws of form. London: Allen & Unwin.

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  • Stegmaier, W. (Ed.). (2005). Orientierung. Philosophische Perspektiven. Frankfurt a. M.: Suhrkamp.

  • Stegmaier, W. (Ed.). (2008). Philosophie der Orientierung. Berlin: de Gruyte.

  • Traugott Krug, W. (Ed.). (1833). Allgemeines Handwörterbuch der philosophischen Wissenschaften nebst ihrer Literatur und Geschichte (Vol. 3, 2nd edn.). Leipzig: F. A. Brockhaus.

  • Wittgenstein, L. (1980). Culture and value, introduction by G. von Wright, and translated by P. Winch. Oxford: Blackwell.

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  1. Claremont Graduate University, Claremont, USA

    Ingolf U. Dalferth

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  1. Ingolf U. Dalferth
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Correspondence to Ingolf U. Dalferth.

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Dalferth, I. On distinctions. Int J Philos Relig 79, 171–183 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11153-016-9566-1

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