In the case of his 'philosophical psychology', the base is directly philosophical, via 'psychologia rationalis' (note his use of 'rational psychology', in Chapman), with a nod to the irrelevancies of Wundt. In the case of 'eschatology', the epithet 'philosophical' is meant to qualify it as different from the common or garden 'theological' branch (Grice, WoW:xix)
I have elsewhere considered the most recalcitrant items that the eschatologist notes down in his shopping list. For now, the excursus from the OED:
eschatology. Theol. [f. Gr. e'´sxato-j last + -logi´a discourse: see -logy; cf. Fr. eschatologie.]
a The department of theological science concerned with `the four last
things: death, judgement, heaven, and hell'.
1844 G. Bush Anastasis (1845) Pref. v, Scriptural Eschatology. 1858 J. Martineau Stud. Chr. 228 The Eschatology of the Apocalypse and the Epistles. 1879 Baldw. Brown in Chr. World 24 Dec. 825/3 Eschatology, the science of the last things, is, as a science, one of the most baseless.
b In recent theological writing, esp. as `realized eschatology' (see quot. 1957), the sense of this word has been modified to connote the present `realization' and significance of the `last things' in the Christian life.
1950 Scottish Jrnl. Theol. III. 90 Correspondingly for Christians..eschatology is being anticipated in the here and now, and the glory of the parousia throws its light backwards into the present life of the Church. 1957 Oxf. Dict. Chr. Ch. 462/1
In modern Protestant theology eschatology has been given a new meaning, esp. through the studies of A. Schweitzer... Acc. to him, primitive Christianity was exclusively an eschatological preaching of judgement and salvation. Eschatological considerations are also a dominant factor of the teaching of K. Barth and his school..which sees the life of the individual Christian and of the Church as a series of `decisions' invested with an eschatological character... Recently many attempts have been made to draw out the present and abiding significance of future eschatological happenings, e.g. by C. H. Dodd in his conception of `realized eschatology'.
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_Philosophical_ eschatology is, for Grice, "the theory of category and category-barriers"(Grice invented it). The study of
ReplyDeletemetaphor, Grice notes, belongs in Eschatology. And so does the study of Simile. Grice writes:
"For a start, I might distinguish three directions as being ones in which the philosophical eschatologist might be expected to deploy his [sic] energies"; the third direction being: "An investigation of
the notion of Analogy, and a delineation of its links with other seemingly comparable notions, such as Metaphor and Parable." (Studies in the Way of Words, p.305)