On Being Human: Philosophy and Faith

G.M. Brown, Ph. D.

Table of Contents

THE TALE OF THE FIVE LIVES

• EPISODE 1: The Plight of the Primitive Polyp Moral: A life consisting of a mere succession of individual sensations is sub-human and not worth human living.
• EPISODE 2: The Predicament of the Solitary Orphan Moral: The life of a solitary orphan would be tragically impoverished as compared with the life of the average human being.
• EPISODE 3: The Life of the Average Citizen Moral: Social conventions are man's greatest blessing and his greatest curse. The wise know how to use them and not be used by them.
• EPISODE 4: The Satisfactions and Shortcomings of the Specialist
• EPISODE 5: The Vision of the End

REFLECTIVE THINKING

• I. Some Rules of Reasoning
• II. How Thinking is Influenced
• III. Better Thinking

AMERICA INHERITS RELIGION

• I. Religion and Everyday Culture a. Our folkways are religious b. We talk Religion c. Religion confronts us in art
• II Religion and our Deepest Ideas of Life a. We behave like religious people b. Our dearest prejudices are religious c. Religion provides our common beliefs
• III Religion and Hostile Modern Moods a. Fundamentalism fights science b. Nationalism confronts religion c. Popular morals offend the church

WHAT IS RELIGION?

• I The Ascent of Religions a. Animism: tree-and-stone religion b. Spiritism: idol religion
• II Many-God World Religions
• III One-God World Religions a. Judaism: one God of justice and mercy b. Mohammedanism: one God of autocratic might
• IV What is Religion?

WAYS PEOPLE "FIND GOD"

• How do people "get religion"?
• I The Intuition Path a. The mystic's intuition b. Revival enthusiasm c. A "religious sixth sense"
• II The Reason Path a. "People have always believed in God" b. "All things demand a first cause, which must be God" c. "Our world shows predominant purpose, which must be God's" d. "Human consciences say God exists" e. The reason path: a summary
• III The Everyday-Life Path
• IV Can Religion Be Proved? a. Psychology is not equipped to affirm or deny God b. "Scientific proof" leaves religion personal.
• V Looking Back on this Section

AMERICA'S RELIGION: HOW WE INHERIT IT

• I Immigrant Religion a. The colonial South: state church or toleration? b. Colonial New England: "theocracy" and Calvinism c. The Middle Colonies: denoininationalism d. Later immigrant religion
• II Frontier Religion a. The "Great Awakening," 1740-1750 b. The new nation: revivals replenish religion
• III Organized Religion a. Denominational colleges b. Nineteenth-Century crusades

RELIGION, WHAT NOW?

• I America: In Church, Out of Church a. America in church b. America out of church Is America religious?
• II Tasks Which Only Religion Can Do a. Tasks in personal life b. Tasks in Social Life c. What this Section has said
• III What American Religion Is Doing a. The everyday job b. Faith and social action i Economic injustice ii International war iii Racial inequality iv Drug traffic v The "continental Sunday" vi Church unity
• IV Rethinking Religion

SCIENCE AND THE MODERN WORLD

• I Co-Operation Within Science
• II The Public's Place in Science
• III Some Problems Growing Out of Science
• IV Is Science at Fault?
• V The Same Science Turned to Peace
• VI Human Inertia
• VII The Long Journey
• VIII More People
• IX Science Helps to Solve the Food Problem
• X Longer Life-Better Health
• XI The More Abundant Life
• XII Critics of Science
• XIII Science Increases Interdependence
• XIV Science and Nerves

WHO ARE THESE SCIENTISTS AND HOW DO THEY WORK?

• I How Science Grew Up
• II The Domain of Science
• III The Scientific Method
• IV Old and New Sciences
• V The Scientific Attitude
• VI The Realm of Probability
• VII The Question of Values
• VIII Putting Emotions in Their Place
• IX Science for the Citizen

THE LIVING WORLD

• I The Common Pattern of Life
• II A Billion Years Ago
• III What Is Life?
• IV Is It Alive?
• V Is Life More Than Chemistry?
• VI Microbes Must Have Parents
• VII Back to the Beginning
• VIII The Staff of Life
• IX The Ensemble
• X The Course of Evolution
• XI Cooperative Biology
• XII Feeding the Brute
• XIII Little Bits of Matter
• XIV The Full Circle

THE NON-LIVING WORLD

• I Structure of the Universe
• II The Sub-Microscopic World
• III The Conservation of Matter and Energy
• IV Formation of Mineral Deposits
• V Finding the Minerals
• VI Putting the Minerals to Work
• VII The Use and Misuse of Metals
• VIII The New Stone Age
• IX Tapping New Sources of Supply
• X Nuisances into Values
• XI Eyes to the Sea
• XII Feeding Hungry Plants
• XIII The Energy Supply
• xiv The Years Ahead
• XV Atoms into Energy

LIVING TOGETHER

• I The Important Facts of Life
• II Freedom from Toil
• III Our Increasing Income
• IV Education
• V The Rising Tide of Leisure
• VI How We Use Our Leisure Time
• VII Leisure Without Lethargy
• VIII What Every Voter Should Know
• IX Provincialism
• X Biology and the Community
• XI Prevention versus Cure
• XII On Dining Well
• XIII What Education Should Do
• XIV What These Science Sections Did Not Do

HOW DO WE DO IT?

• I Beginning at the Beginning
• II Observation
• III Controlled Experiment
• IV Blunt Tools
• V Man is a Machine
• VI What Is Consciousness?
• VII Are We Morally Responsible?
• VIII Seeing
• IX Learning
• X "Conditioning" a Child to Obey
• XI Emotions and Where They Begin
• XII Trial-and-Error Learning
• XIII The Drive

WHY DO WE DO IT?

• I The Drive and the Mechanism
• II Hunger Drive
• III Emotional Drives
• IV The Development of Drives into Motives
• V Sex
• VI Motives Based on the Emotions
• VII Adience
• VIII Secondary Motives
• IX Conflict
• X Good and Bad Solutions
• XI Compensation
• XII Withdrawal
• XIII Rationalization
• XIV Unsolved Conflicts

MAN'S INFLUENCE UPON MAN

• I We See Things the Way We Are Taught to See Them
• II Imitation
• III Influencing Others Through Words
• IV Objective and Emotional Meaning of Words
• V Thingizing
• VI The Importance of Language in Life
• VII Propaganda
• VIII Suggestion in Propaganda
• IX Why You Believe What You Read
• X Why We Believe Those Who Have Prestige
• XI Getting on the Band Wagon
• XII Name Calling
• XIII Competition and Social Facilitation
• XIV Effect of Praise and Reproof
• XV Group Effects upon Individual Thought
• XVI Crowd Behavior

CONDUCT

• I Rationalization and Purposive Thinking
• II Confused Thinking and Conduct
• III Conduct and the Limits of Thinking
• IV Clear Thinking and Conduct
• V Standards of Conduct
• VI Christian Ethics
• VII Buddhism
• VIII Idealism
• IX The Idealism of Plato
• X Aristotle
• XI Stoicism
• XII Plotinus
• XIII Christianity and Idealism: St. Thomas
• XIV Kant and Hegel
• XV Materialism

WORLD VIEWS

• I The Religious World-View
• II Christianity
• III The Buddhist World-View
• IV The Scale of Being
• V Dualism
• VI Monism
• VII The Medieval Controversy
• VIII Later Idealism: Spinoza, Berkeley, Hume
• IX Materialism; Primitive and "Dialectic"
• X Heraclitus and Democritus
• XI French Materialism of the Eighteenth Century
• XII Marx and Engels

RATIONALISM RAMPANT

• I Lord Bacon and Scientific Method
• II Deductive and Inductive Reasoning
• III The Work of Francis Bacon
• IV Locke and Rationalistic Psychology
• V The Age of Reason
• VI Rationalism and Modern Science
• VII Rationalism and Religion
• VIII The Church of England
• IX The Puritan Rebellion
• X Eighteenth-Century Rationalism
• XI "The Religion of Humanity"
• XII Rationalism and Skepticism
• XIII David Hume
• XIV The Problem
• XV Skepticism and Social Action