Papers by John Cottingham
Think
Descartes's arguments in support of his claim that the mind is an immaterial substance are ex... more Descartes's arguments in support of his claim that the mind is an immaterial substance are examined and found wanting. But despite the flaws in his dualistic view of the mind, Descartes has fascinating and important things to say about how much of human experience involves an ‘intermingling’ of mind and body. There are still philosophical lessons to be learnt from Descartes's legacy.
1. Beyond isolationism In the film Shadowlands, about the marriage of C. S. Lewis, there is a som... more 1. Beyond isolationism In the film Shadowlands, about the marriage of C. S. Lewis, there is a sombre yet strangely affirmatory scene where Lewis and Joy Gresham, his desperately ill wife, are walking together in a favourite spot in Herefordshire. Joy’s cancer is in remission, and, though they both know the reprieve cannot last long, they feel elated and at peace. Lewis remarks that this is his kind of happiness – when the present moment is entirely self-contained, untarnished by any fleeting thought of what has gone before or what may come later. But Joy gently rebukes him for this temporal isolationism. The happiness, she suggests, cannot be genuine if it involves shutting off the past or the future; indeed, she goes further and says that what is yet to come in the future infuses the very texture of what is now experienced: “The pain then is part of this happiness now. That’s the deal!” To unravel the full meaning of this claim would probably require a detailed analysis of the cont...
Philosophy, Spirituality, and the Good Life
Philosophy and Theology, 2012
New Blackfriars, 2025
Pascal stressed the importance of 'reasons of the heart' in leading us to God, and insisted that ... more Pascal stressed the importance of 'reasons of the heart' in leading us to God, and insisted that the God to whom he turned during his 'night of fire' on 23 November 1654 was 'not the God of the philosophers and scholars', but the God of the patriarchs and of Jesus Christ. This suggests a very different approach from that of Thomas, who characterises God in seemingly abstract terms, such as 'being itself ' and 'goodness itself '. This paper first explores the methodological and epistemological lessons to be drawn from Pascal's notion of 'reasons of the heart' and argues that we have good reason to take them seriously. The second half of the paper discusses Aquinas's apparently more impersonal conception of the deity, as an 'infinite ocean of substance' (John of Damascus) on which all things depend. But it then explores Aquinas's account of the passage in Exodus where God addresses Moses in personal terms, and argues that this account, together with what Aquinas has to say on the subject of prayer, indicates that the God of his philosophical deliberations can indeed be reconciled with the intensely personal God of Scripture to whom Pascal turned during his night of fire.
John Henry Newman and Contemporary Philosophy, 2025
Newman's writings on conscience bring out four of its important features: first, its imperatival ... more Newman's writings on conscience bring out four of its important features: first, its imperatival aspect, as a 'commanding dictate' within the human breast; second, its normative character as 'a law, an authoritative voice'; third, its cognitive aspect as a source of instruction; and fourth, its phenomenological aspect, as involving a certain 'peculiarity of feeling'. Despite his interest in this last aspect, Newman never reduces conscience to a mere internal feeling (after the manner of J. S. Mill); his account also contrasts strongly with the sceptical or deflationary view of conscience found in different ways in the work of Nietzsche and Freud. In some ways Newman's approach is closer to that of Kant, as when he talks of conscience as implying a 'judgment' or 'tribunal', though he avoids Kant's contortions about how to derive the authority of conscience from a purely 'internal forum'. Drawing on these various comparisons and contrasts, the paper proceeds to examine one of Newman's most distinctive philosophical contributions, namely his claim that the phenomenon of conscience plays a key role in support of an argument (for Newman, the clinching argument) in favour of theistic belief. It is argued that at the very least Newman presents us with a powerful challenge-the challenge of whether we can in integrity deny the presence within us of a faculty, made up of a potent fusion of cognitive and affective elements, that points us towards something 'exterior to ourselves', before whom our conduct, and indeed our lives as a whole, are subject to authoritative judgement. * This is a typescript of a paper the definitive version of which was published as chapter 12 of
New Blackfriars, 2024
This paper argues that being there, actually existing, is a notion that cannot be explicated by f... more This paper argues that being there, actually existing, is a notion that cannot be explicated by formal logicians, cannot be defined in terms of conscious perception, and cannot be satisfactorily explained using the theories of mathematics or natural science. So, must we turn to theology to make up for the deficiencies of the methods so far canvassed? The paper concludes by considering the Thomistic identification of God with existence itself, but argues that it would be a mistake to suppose that the mystery of actual existence is thereby dispelled.
New Blackfriars, 2022
The 'naturalizing' agenda in contemporary secularist philosophy is often presented in opposition ... more The 'naturalizing' agenda in contemporary secularist philosophy is often presented in opposition to traditional theism. But looking at the history of the terms 'nature' and 'natural' reveals a discontinuity between how these terms are currently understood and how they were understood in the past. The modern 'naturalist', in insisting that all phenomena should be brought within the domain of the natural, is advancing a thesis that many classical, medieval and early-modern philosophers and theologians would have regarded as fairly self-evident. What has changed is not that there is a new determination to include within the natural domain what was previously excluded from it, but rather that there is a radical shift in how the natural domain is to be understood. This paper argues that the philosophically interesting question is not whether or not we should be naturalists, but which of two naturalisms we should adopt: secular naturalism, with its neutralist conception of nature in general and of human nature in particular, or theistic naturalism, according to which the natural world and our own nature bear the stamp of the divine. It turns out the former (secularist) view is vulnerable to serious difficulties, on both the epistemic and the moral fronts.
New Blackfriars, 2024
In the first part of this paper I draw on some reflections offered by Descartes and Malebranche o... more In the first part of this paper I draw on some reflections offered by Descartes and Malebranche on the dangers of anthropomorphic conceptions of God, in order to suggest that there is something misguided about the way in which the so-called problem of evil is commonly framed. In the second part, I ask whether the problem of evil becomes easier to deal with if we adopt a non-personalist account of God, of the kind found in Aquinas. I consider the sense in which God is termed 'good' on this latter conception, and while not proposing that it can justify or explain the evil and suffering in the world, I suggest that the world's manifest imperfections are compatible with the existence of a loving creator who is the source of the existence of the world and of the goodness found in created things.
New Blackfriars, 2023
This paper looks first at the scope of religious experience, offering some representative example... more This paper looks first at the scope of religious experience, offering some representative examples of phenomena that typically give rise to spiritual experiences. This leads on a consideration of the phenomenology of such experiences-the particular way in which they present themselves to the conscious subject. Lastly, the paper tackles the vexed question of the source of such experiences, and suggests that this is best understood in terms of a (certain kind of) theistic framework.
European Journal for Philosophy of Religion, 2012
This paper questions the idea that theism can function as an explanatory hypothesis to account fo... more This paper questions the idea that theism can function as an explanatory hypothesis to account for the nature and origins of the cosmos. Invoking God cannot dissolve the mystery of existence, and the characteristic religious response here is one of awe and humility. I then address David E. Cooper’s challenge of showing how a ‘doctrine of mystery’ can have any discursible content. It is argued that certain aspects of our human experience (of the wonders of nature and art and the demands of morality) afford us glimpses of the divine nature – intimations of the transcendent, which shine through from the ineffable source of our being to the human world we inhabit.
The Oxford Handbook of Meaning in Life, 2022
Atheism and naturalism have become the default positions in academic philosophy, and this is refl... more Atheism and naturalism have become the default positions in academic philosophy, and this is reflected in much of the contemporary work on meaning in life, which assumes what might be called a broadly 'immanentist' perspective: the sources of meaning must be sought entirely within the sphere of our purely human pursuits and activities. This chapter, by contrast, lays stress on the yearning for transcendence that seems an ineradicable part of our nature. It is argued that no human life can be fully meaningful if it denies or supresses that yearning, and that this in turn points to the need for humans to find a vehicle whereby they can enact their longing for an ultimate source of meaning and value that might bring fulfilment and completion to their lives.
The Philosophy of Reenchantment, 2021
The "disenchantment" of the world can be traced back to the tendency (from the early modern perio... more The "disenchantment" of the world can be traced back to the tendency (from the early modern period onwards) to relegate meaning and value to the subjective domain, leaving us with a bleached out, value-free conception of objective reality. What might it be to recover a reenchanted understanding of the world, where meaning and value regain their objective status? Given that human beings appear to have an ineradicable need to "enchant" their world in some way or another, it might be supposed that rejecting a theistic foundation for meaning and value leaves us free to devise alternative frameworks of our own to do the job. But could such a project succeed? The difficulty here is that of seeing how meaning and value could be constructed or invented, as opposed to being discovered or responded to. Yet if theism is true, we do not have to "reenchant" the cosmos, since it is already enchanted, though not in any magical or "spooky" sense, but because it is replete with objective beauty and goodness. Our task will then be to cultivate responsiveness to the properties that are already there. But the idea of a halfway house, where we can resist theism but preserve genuine objective value is an illusion. If we buy into a worldview that strips out value from the world, then nothing we can do will serve to put it back again.
Religious Studies, 2019
O God, You are my God; I shall seek You earnestly. My soul thirsts for You, my flesh yearns for Y... more O God, You are my God; I shall seek You earnestly. My soul thirsts for You, my flesh yearns for You, in a dry and weary land where there is no water. Psalm 63:1-2. Abstract: The paper begins with the journey towards knowledge of the infinite that is traced out in Descartes's Meditations. Drawing on Levinas's construal of the argument in the Third Meditation, I argue that Descartes's reflections on God as infinite can be a starting point for deepening our understanding of the religious quest-the paradoxical human search for that which, by its very nature, is incomprehensible to the human mind. The second half of the paper argues that this search is from first to last structured by desire and longing, and that something prima facie non-cognitive and non-epistemic, namely the desire for God, has a cognitive and epistemic role to play. Perhaps desire can be our human way, or a human way, whereby we can (in Descartes's words) 'in a certain manner attain to' the infinite perfection that is God.
This paper maintains that Swinburne’s argument that the body is not essential to who I am is vuln... more This paper maintains that Swinburne’s argument that the body is not essential to who I am is vulnerable to a similar objection to that put forward by Arnauld against Descartes: how do I know that my self-identification furnishes a complete and adequate account of the essential “me,” sufficient to show I could really continue to exist even were the body to be destroyed? The paper goes on to criticize Swinburne’s “hyper-Cartesian” position, that we are simply “souls who control bodies,” and thus only contingently human. This denial of our essential humanity compares unfavorably with Descartes’s own more intuitively attractive view that the human being is a genuine entity in its own right.
Philosophy
This paper starts by examining the language used in some well known scriptural passages where the... more This paper starts by examining the language used in some well known scriptural passages where the importance of mercy or compassion is stressed. Such passages underline the ethical importance of a direct, physically and emotionally involved response. This leads on to a critique of the shortcomings of approaches to ethics which advocate the impersonal promotion of welfare; our lives as ethical beings depend intimately on the immediate responses arising from our encounters with others in our day-to-day lives. The paper then further explores the special status of loving kindness and mercy in the Judaeo-Christian tradition, and argues that secular ethical systems, whether grounded in human nature or in the supposed requirements of rationality, are unlikely to be able to underwrite this kind of status. The final section reflects further on the ‘cosmic’ significance of love in a theistic worldview.
Royal Institute of Philosophy Supplement, 2019
Much contemporary philosophy of religion suffers from an overly abstract and intellectualized met... more Much contemporary philosophy of religion suffers from an overly abstract and intellectualized methodology. A more ‘humane’ approach would acknowledge the vital contribution of the emotions and passions to a proper cognitive grasp of the nature of the cosmos and our place within it. The point is illustrated by reference to a number of writers, including Descartes, whose path to knowledge of God, often thought to depend on dispassionate argument alone, in fact relies on a synergy between intellect and emotions.
The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy and Psychoanalysis, 2019
New Models of Religious Understanding, 2017
We know there is a continuing decline in religious belief, at least in the developed Western Worl... more We know there is a continuing decline in religious belief, at least in the developed Western World. But what is it that people are rejecting? The answer may at first seem clear: they are rejecting the classical theistic worldview that held sway in the West for many centuries, up until the modern age. But what exactly is this classical theism that is now losing its hold on many peoples' allegiance, or which they seem to find it increasingly hard to accept? According to one its most distinguished expositors, the philosopher Richard Swinburne, theism is an 'explanatory hypothesis, which purports to explain why certain observed data are as they are.' These observed data include certain very general features of the universe, such as the law of gravity, and the fact that these laws are such as to bring about from an initial state (the Big Bang) 'the eventual existence (some 13 billion years later) of human beings; and that these humans are conscious beings.' 1 If the main focus of theism is indeed on an explanatory hypothesis of this kind, then I think it is not hard to see how it has lost its appeal. For the features just cited are precisely the kind of thing modern science aims to account for; and so great has been its success to date that I suspect a great many people would be inclined to accept the physicist Brian Cox's claim (in a much praised television broadcast) that science is 'very close' to explaining the general features of the cosmos and our own eventual emergence from the slowly unfolding process since the Big Bang. 2 In his broadcast, Professor Cox invoked Einsteinian relativity, quantum mechanics, and the elegant mathematical theory called 'inflation', in order to account for the unfolding of the universe over the last 13 or so billion years. Add to that the success of the Darwinian model of evolution by random mutation and natural selection, coupled with modern genetic science, and we have an extraordinarily rich explanatory structure, worked out in the crucible of a rigorously constrained methodology, and meticulously tested against a formidable body of observational evidence. So brilliant is much of this work that even the gathering and processing of the relevant data is an achievement meriting Nobel prizes in its own right. Set against an explanatory apparatus of this calibre, it's not hard to see why contemptuous eyebrows are raised when someone says 'I actually have an alternative and rather better hypothesis: a person did it, a person willed it all, a person created it all and keeps it in existence.' It has become fashionable for theologians and philosophers of religion to disparage the attacks on religion mounted by militant atheists such as Richard Dawkins, but I think integrity requires us to acknowledge just how exasperating the alternative theistic 'hypothesis' must seem to Dawkins and to many of those like him who have a detailed knowledge of the magnificent and hard-won achievements of science. Imagine for a moment what a field day an advocatus diaboli would have with the explanatory hypothesis of theism. A person, we are told, is responsible for the cosmos. "A person? What kind of person?" Well, an invisible person. "You mean we can't see his body?" No, he doesn't have one. "Doesn't have one? How then can he exercise any power over the universe?" Well (to quote from Swinburne),'ordinary human persons exist for a limited This is a typescript the definitive version of which was subsequently published in Fiona Ellis (ed.
Spirituality and the Good Life: Philosophical Approaches, 2017
The role of philosophy Philosophy has long been a contested subject, and there have been, and sti... more The role of philosophy Philosophy has long been a contested subject, and there have been, and still are, many different and often conflicting conceptions of its proper scope and aims. But if we go back to how its founding father, Socrates, conceived of the philosophical enterprise, we find one element which has continued to be central to much if not all subsequent philosophizing, that of critical scrutiny or examination (in Greek exetasis), encapsulated in Socrates' famous pronouncement at his trial, 'the unexamined life is not worth living for a human being'. 1 For Socrates, such 'examination' meant, in the first place, a careful scrutiny of the meaning of our concepts: What do we really mean by justice, or piety, or courage? Can we define these notions?; Do we really understand the criteria for their use? … and so on. And of course this basic feature of philosophizing remains central today. Philosophers continue to be preoccupied with language, and with the correct analysis of concepts, both in general use and in the specialised disciplines; indeed, for a fair time during the latter part of the twentieth century, it was held that the analysis of language was the only proper object of philosophy. 2 Yet alongside what may be called this technical or professional concern with meaning and language, philosophers have very often also had a commitment to 'examination' in a deeper sense: they have felt a powerful drive to stand back from our day-today preoccupations and concerns and to inquire into the overall direction and purpose of our lives, and the significance of our human existence. This deeper project of examination also has its roots in Socrates, who was patently committed, like many of his successors in the Classical and Hellenistic philosophical worlds, to the search for a life of integrity and virtue. The wording of Socrates' famous pronouncement at his trial should remind us that philosophical 'examination', for Socrates, involved not just a series of abstract conceptual puzzles but a critical scrutiny of the entire character of one's life (bios). What is more, as is made clear in the Apology, Socrates' philosophical vocation was linked with an unwavering allegiance to the dictates of his conscience, the 'divine sign', as he put it, whose inner voice demanded his obedience. 3 Socrates reproaches his Athenian accusers for being very concerned with things like money and reputation, but not having the faintest concern for the improvement of the most precious part of themselvestheir souls. 4 And he goes on to explain that the very activity for which he was famousengaging his interlocutors in philosophical dialoguewas explicitly designed to 'persuade young and old to make their first and chief concern not for their bodies or their wealth, but for the best possible condition of their souls.' 5
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Papers by John Cottingham