Hegel and Religion: Avoiding Double Truth, Twice
25 Pages Posted: 12 Dec 2010
Date Written: December 11, 2010
Abstract
Hegel distinguishes religious representations from philosophical statements. In medieval times this issue led to accusations of "double truth" (that religion and philosophy are inconsistent with one another but both are true). This paper argues that Hegel skirts but avoids affirming double truth, two ways, because he removes religion from making factual statements about empirical matters, and for him philosophy is not about the career of a big cosmic entity. The paper makes an extensive comparison of how Hegel saw philosophy relating to empirical natural science with how he saw it relating to religious representations, which for him include much of what was called "natural theology." Hegel's Logic is not a study of any empirical or met-empirical entities.
Keywords: Hegel, Religion, Metaphysics, Vorstellung, Science
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