Lecture Books

One Another’s Equals: The Basis of Human Equality

This series of Gifford Lectures from noted expert of law and contemporary philosophy Jeremy Waldron concerns itself with the concept of equality. Despite the vast array of differing capabilities among humans generally, there is a long tradition of maintaining that humans are, in some way, equal. On this rests much of the Western liberal and egalitarian tradition, perhaps most famously exemplified in the United States Constitution or, in a modern example such as the UN declaration of human rights.

Oneself as Another

A dense—and often deeply challenging read—this book of Ricoeur’s Gifford Lectures, delivered at Edinburgh in 1986, is a stimulating examination of the role of personal identity and presents a brilliant insight into Ricouer’s own views on subjectivity and the hermeneutics of the self.

Persons in Relation

Persons in Relation presupposes the conclusions of The Self as Agent to complete Macmurray’s analysis of the form of the personal by establishing the Self as an agent constituted by his relationship to the Other, that is, by mutual relationships with other persons. Macmurray argues that an isolated agent is a self-contradiction because agency requires relationship with the Other as resistance and support to his actions in order to be able to do anything (i.e., in order to be an agent).

Philosophy and Development of Religion, vol. 1

Volume I of Philosophy and Development of Religion focuses on the relationship between religion and morality in its historical and philosophical context. Pfleiderer argues for an interpretation of history and nature which is teleological and indicative of God’s ultimate purpose in the world: humanity reaching an ideal state. He dispels an understanding of miraculous divine intervention in the world and Calvinistic providentialism, as well as a doctrine of original sin which defines individuals as inherently guilty. Instead, Pfleiderer places the onus of fulfilling God’s purpose on humanity’s fostering that which is morally good in society. This is facilitated by learning from the revelation of the Logos through history and the natural order. Critics of Pfleiderer’s lectures, including Robert Rainy, Dr Marcus Dodds and Rev. Professor Orr, accused him of stripping Christianity of its supernatural elements.

Philosophy and Development of Religion, vol. 2

In the second volume of his Philosophy and Development of Religion, Pfleiderer charts the progression of revelation from the Old Testament through the Reformation, arguing that its purpose is the transformation society.

The Philosophy of Plotinus: The Gifford Lectures At St Andrews 1917-1918

The Gifford Lectures of William Ralph Inge, professor of Divinity at Cambridge, are presented in a two volume edition, which serves as an excellent introduction to Inge’s concerns around neo-Platonic thought, Plotinus and the tradition of Christian mysticism. Beginning from a basic introduction to Plotinus, Inge presents the philosopher as a great thinker of mysticism. From there Inge begins to define the ideas of mystical philosophy from the legacy of Plotinus’s work and the legacy of neo-Platonism, ‘the result of seven hundred years of untrammelled thinking.’ (p.

The Philosophy of the Christian Religion

One of the advantages of the longevity of the Gifford Lectures is that the modern reader is able to engage with over a century of theological history. As a result, contemporary readers are able to trace the ways in which intellectual trends and fashions have waxed and waned. From the 1970s the trend was toward philosophy of mind, whilst the lectures of the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century tended toward idealism and systematic natural theology (a trend almost certainly halted by Barth’s lectures of 1937/8).

The Philosophy of Theism

Philosopher, educator and free church minister, the Rev Professor Alexander Campbell Fraser delivered the Gifford Lectures at the University of Edinburgh during 1894–5. Well known for his work of Berkley, as well as Locke and Coleridge, these two volumes of his lectures represent a major insight into a towering figure in Scottish philosophy as well as a record of philosophical interest as shortly after these lectures interest would turn away from the old ‘common-sense’ school of philosophy towards a more Hegelian idealism.  

Philosophy and Theology

In his Gifford Lectures, Stirling says his objective is to fulfil Lord Gifford’s own religious aim – to seek proofs of the existence of God. Stirling starts his lectures by defining Natural Theology as being precisely this task – to “know” religion: “We not only feel, we know, religion. Religion is not only buoyed up on a sentiment of the heart, it is founded also on ideas of the intellect.” For this reason, Stirling holds in high regard Kant’s belief in the existence of à priori truths.

Physical Religion

In Lecture I, ‘How to Study Physical Religion', Müller begins with a brief summary of Natural Religion, his first and introductory series of Gifford Lectures, explaining that this course of lectures will focus on physical religion, that is, on religion inspired by nature, as one of three manifestations of natural religion; the two courses of lectures to follow will treat the other two manifestation, anthropological and psychological religion, respectively.

Pierre Bayle ou l’obsession du mal

Who was Pierre Bayle, the Huguenot philosopher whose Dictionnaire historique et critique influenced Leibniz, Hume, Kierkegaard, and Melville? Was he, as some of his critics called him, “un dangereux ennemi de la Religion” [“a dangerous enemy of religion”] (177), or was he, as others suspect, an absolute fideist? And if this enigma cannot exactly be unraveled, can it at least be illuminated?

The Place of Minds in the World

Enigmatic, Australian philosopher William Mitchell presented two series of Gifford lectures in Aberdeen between 1924–1926. In 1933, Mitchell reworked, expanded, and reorganised his initial series of lectures, publishing them as The Place of Minds in the World.

The Problem of Evil

In his 2003 Gifford Lectures, Peter van Inwagen argues that the problem of evil—i.e. an argument proceeding from the existence of evil to the non-existence of God—is a failure. On Van Inwagen’s view, however, there are very few, if any, arguments for significant philosophical theses which evade a diagnosis of failure, and so, his conclusion is somewhat unsurprising (cf. Lecture 3).

The Problem of Metaphysics

Donald Mackinnon’s The Problem of Metaphysics (Cambridge University Press, 1974), which is the revised version of his Gifford lectures delivered at the University of Edinburgh in the springs of 1965 and 1966, might be suspected by its readers to be deceptively titled. Though beginning with an overview of Kant’s and Aristotle’s ‘descriptive metaphysics’ (as opposed to ‘revisionary’–Mackinnon takes the distinction from P.F.

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