Sunday, October 06, 2013

Robert D. Knudsen's Calvinistic Philosophy lectures (Disks 16)

This is a continuation of the class lectures on Calvinistic Philosophy given by Robert D. Knudsen at Westminster Theological Seminary.  As before, the information in the audio recordings have not been validated for accuracy (use at your own risk).


Dooyeweerd, part 2 (disk 16)

Intergral to this position that it is possible only from the law idea of the Christian faith to conceive of the order God has placed in the cosmos.  From any other position we cannot see the cosmic coherence in its true proportions and relationship to the origin.  Apostate thinking will absolutize one or more of the created aspects of reality.  That will lead to elevating one or more of these aspects to the origin of meaning or we shall try to arrange to aspects under a logically conceived denominator.

We have the idea of the origin, the deeper unity and the coherence of the meaning of the cosmos.  The cosmos in its meaning concentrates on the heart of man, man in his totality as he looks out on his origin.  The Archimedean point is found in the religious community in which one participates.

Given any theoretical statement, an investigation by way of a transcendental critique is in order to discover whether its underlying motives are in conformity to the message of the scriptures.

After the publication of WdW in 1935-36, Dooyeweerd began sharpening his position. 

Dooyeweerd attempted to show that the critique is involved in very structure of the theoretical attitude of thought.  As soon as one thinks in a theoretical fashion he is already involved in doing certain things that may be brought to light by a step-by-step analysis.  This step-by-step analysis is a formalization of the less strict argument from before.  This step-by-step analysis is the transcendental critique.  It is in this form that it has received the most criticism.

The critique happens in 3 or 4 steps.  There is a certain progression and the number of steps is not the formal concern.  The argument proceeds in a certain way.  The steps are intended to show the following:

1.     Show that theoretical thinking is dependent upon a pre-theoretical structure of time.  Every act of theoretical thinking in a particular kind of abstraction from the temporal coherence of meaning will manifest its dependence upon a pre-theoretical structure.  What is abstracted from in the gegenstand relation and how is this abstraction possible?  Dooyeweerd maintained that one who tries to maintain neutrality will try to suppress this question.
2.     Ask about the focus of the synthesis of the abstracted aspects.  What do you do with them?  Dooyeweerd recognized that in every theoretical position, there is already a synthesis in some sort of logical unity.  From what standpoint is it possible to unite in the theoretic synthesis the aspects that are distinguished and set apart in the theoretical attitude of thought.
3.     Dooyeweerd attempts to account for the pattern that this focus takes.  If we are able to find the focus only in reflecting upon ourselves can we really find the focus of the theoretical synthesis.  What is the character of this self-knowledge and how is it possible?

The critique itself is not productive of the religious impulse underlying the true or false direction of thought.  It is only a way of bringing to awareness of what is actually the case in every theoretical train of thought.

1.     There is an abstraction of the coherence of the meaning of the aspects.
2.     There is a particular kind of synthesis having its focus on the self.
3.     This reflection on the self is always determined by a religious motive.

MY NOTE: Here Knudsen spends a lot of time talking about Dooyeweerd and Van Til’s disagreement in Van Til’s festschrift, Jerusalem and Athens.  ISBN: 0875524893.

Criticisms of the Transcendental Critique
Some in Toronto (MY NOTE: my guess is that he is referring to the Institute for Christian Studies) have rejected this transcendental critique.  A good number think they don’t need this and develop their response based upon gut reaction.

Dooyeweerd developed a bit of neutrality into his position to communicate it better and lapsing into a kind of scholasticsm (Van Til’s criticism).

Douglass Vickers spoke of a residual emmentism.

This idea of communication, that indeed you cannot communicate with the apostate thinker until you have subjected his position and your own to a transcendental critique.  Because only in terms of depth understanding, do the concepts appear.

Dooyeweerd is criticised of developing a second way due to his first being too dogmatic.

Dooyeweerd is criticised of abandoning the starting point of the Calvinistic world-view to one that is more accepted to non-Christian thinkers and having common ground.  Dooyeweerd was never that way.  Dooyeweerd always wanted to show to relation of theoretical thought and religious roots.