Aquinas and Solovyov: Unified Christian ontological-epistemology in critique of epistemic reductivism

Callum D Scott

doi:10.4102/ve.v39i1.1891

Abstract

Modern positivism reduced ‘being to knowing’, considering being as cognitively inaccessible and its study as meaningless. In recent ‘scientistic’ scholarship, these presuppositions have found new life. However, Christian ontologically founded epistemology is concerned by this dismissal of being. In search of an ecumenical response, this work attempts a multi-patrimonial Christian, philosophical counterargument to reductive anti-metaphysical epistemology. A comparative analysis between the ontological epistemologies of Saint Thomas Aquinas (as representative of the Mediaeval Occidental Christian tradition) and Vladimir Solovyov (a modern, eastern Christian philosopher-theologian) is made. In this contrast, it is argued that a harmonic Christian philosophical voice is evident. In both Western and Eastern approaches, the causal complexity of being – by the fact that being is – implores the philosopher for a unified account, in contradiction to anti-metaphysical reductivism in any of its forms. Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: Bringing the Christian metaphysics and epistemology of Aquinas and Solovyov into conversation, which the author has not seen done in other literature, this work brings together Epistemology and Metaphysics, leading to a unified practical application in the critique of issue within contemporary Philosophy of Science, scientism.

Highlights

The contemporary person – whether of faith, science or both – is located within the context of a much-debated academic dialectic
The aim of this research is to address this existential problematic. This will be achieved by presenting an ecumenical Christian philosophical response to one of the underlying factors of the tension, namely, a reductivist epistemology that oftentimes denigrates metaphysics
From the perspective of ontologically founded epistemology, the diminution of the primacy of being and the cessation of researching causes for the indulgence of empiricism, is suggestive of a ‘science’ that is devoid of depth

Summary

Introduction

The contemporary person – whether of faith, science or both – is located within the context of a much-debated academic dialectic. A scholar like Richard Dawkins supposes that science is the only reasonable epistemological method ([2006] 2009). Oftentimes scientists of faith have argued for a more integrated perspective thereupon when compared to their fundamentalist kin (Numbers [1992] 2006; Peacocke 2001; Polkinghorne 2000). The person of faith and the scientist find their being within a non-integrated, contended milieu. The aim of this research is to address this existential problematic. This will be achieved by presenting an ecumenical Christian philosophical response to one of the underlying factors of the tension, namely, a reductivist epistemology that oftentimes denigrates metaphysics

Objectives

Methods

Conclusion