Philosophy Quotes

Brady, F. Neil.

"Ethics." In Daniel H. Ludlow (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Mormonism (New York: Macmillan, 1992).

The scriptures affirm that questions of the good and the right are intertwined with questions of the holy and with the primal Jewish-Christian imperative "Be ye holy for I am holy." (1 Pet. 1:16; cf. Lev. 11:44) Daily tensions between the sacred and the secular are part of the ethical dilemma, and Latter-day Saints seek help from the scriptures and classical sources.

Philosophers often distinguish two approaches to ethics: teleology and deontology. The teleological approach appraises the morality of an act by its relation to an end or purpose, while the deontological approach understands morality primarily in terms of duty or response to law. In Christian ethics, these views have proved difficult to reconcile. For Latter-day Saints, however, both obedience to divine imperatives and pursuit of ultimate happiness are correlative elements in the maturation of human beings. The conflict between duty and desire is overcome as one grows closer to God through faith and service and finds joy in upholding divine counsels and commandments.

Ethicists likewise contrast performance and motive in the religious life. Rabbinical tradition, for example, emphasizes the continuous study and scrupulous observance of Torah, while Reformation Protestantism stresses motive. Again, Latter-day Saints reject this perennial division; both are crucial in the religious life. "Ye shall know them by their fruits" (Matt. 7:16). Grace transforms men toward a Christlike nature. But purity of heart is manifest in scripture study and vigorous service; thus, mastery of law and inner change go hand in hand as components of discipleship and joyful living.

Carter, K. Codell.

"Epistemology." In Daniel H. Ludlow (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Mormonism (New York: Macmillan, 1992).

The Western philosophical tradition, like Western thought generally, emphasizes knowledge in the sense of knowing facts. But this emphasis may not be appropriate, especially from a gospel perspective. Some scriptures teach that other kinds of knowledge may be more important. Thus, Jesus prays, "This is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent." (John 17:3) This is knowledge by acquaintance more than "knowledge about." (cf. JST Matt. 7:32-33) There are also indications that factual knowledge alone is not sufficient for salvation: "But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only." (James 1:22) At the request of President Spencer W. Kimball, a prophet, the words in a LDS children's hymn were changed from "Teach me all that I must know" to "Teach me all that I must do," because it is not enough just to know; one must do the will of the Lord.

A related gospel theme is that knowing comes from doing. "If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself." (John 7:17) The Prophet Joseph Smith taught, "We cannot keep all the commandments without first knowing them, and we cannot expect to know all, or more than we now know unless we comply with or keep those we have already received." (TPJS, p. 256)

In formal philosophy, "knowing," in the sense of knowing facts, is often defined to mean true belief together with good reasons. In other words, a person knows some statement X if and only if that person believes X, and if X is true, and if the person has good reasons for believing X. The European-American philosophical tradition recognizes two kinds of reasons that support the claim to know: rational argument and empirical evidence. Within the Church these are tacitly accepted as sources of knowledge, sometimes even of religious knowledge. For example, after reviewing the traditional arguments for the existence of God, James E. Talmage observed that some were "at least strongly corroborative" of God's existence. (AF, p. 29)

However, there is a continuing tradition, based on the scriptures and reinforced by modern Church leaders, that specifically religious knowledge requires a different and distinctively spiritual source. "We believe that no man can know that Jesus is the Christ, but by the Holy Ghost. We believe in [the gift of the Holy Ghost] in all its fulness, and power, and greatness, and glory." (TPJS, p. 243; D&C 76:114-16) It is widely accepted by Latter-day Saints that gospel knowledge must ultimately be obtained by spiritual rather than exclusively rational or empirical means. (e.g., 1 Cor. 12:3) Thus, in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, there is no clear counterpart to the Roman Catholic tradition of natural theology.

One of the most suggestive and frequently cited scriptures in LDS teaching makes the point: "And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things." (Moro. 10:4-5) This scripture is usually taken to apply to all knowledge. This suggests that both rational argument and empirical evidence, the two traditional approaches to knowledge, can be either supplanted by or encompassed within spiritual knowledge. Of course, the scripture does not say that knowledge comes only by the Holy Ghost. Yet, within the Church, it is often held that what might be thought of as secular learning, for example, modern scientific knowledge, is directly associated with the restoration of the gospel and is rooted in divine inspiration throughout the world.

Faulconer, James E.

"Neither Jew Nor Greek: The Contemporary Challenge to Education." Proceedings of the Laying the Foundations Symposium (Provo, UT: Brigham Young University, 1991), pp. 85-91.

I will make three points today. First, I will argue that the kind of philosophy that seeks for foundations is idolatrous. This is the faith I will try to undermine. I will call that philosophy Greek philosophy, though I do not intend that name to be taken as a simple historical appellation. It has much more to do with an average, often unspoken understanding of Greek philosophy than it has to do with thinkers like Plato and Aristotle themselves. It has most to do with the understanding of Greek philosophy that begins in the Renaissance. Second, I will point out that contemporary continental philosophy is an attack on the idolatry of Greek philosophy, an attack that can be understood as a Jewish rejection of paganism. Finally, I will suggest that Christianity may offer an alternative to the idolatry of Greek philosophy in one of its central metaphors, that of rebirth. (p. 85)

. . .

As we have seen, death is the point of Greek thinking. As we have also seen, continued life is the point of Jewish thinking. At first glance, that would seem enough. But I think something still remains, namely the place of the personal. Greek thought is obviously impersonal. The whole point is to be impersonal, in other words, objective. If the Greek One is not impersonal, then nothing is. The Jewish critique of Greek thinking is an attack on that impersonality. It is not a subjectivist attack, because unlike subjectivism, it does not elevate the subject to the status of a Greek god and replace the fissured Greek One with the new god, the subject. But the Jewish critique results primarily in a negative point: the continual, necessary undoing of the Greek project is not a positive project itself. If we take up the contemporary continental--Jewish--point of view, the Greek remains the positive pole of education, even if we see that it is necessarily supplemented by the negative pole. But persons do not necessarily appear in any of this. Ethereal abstraction still holds sway.

For the Greek, to be is to know. For the Jew, to be is to respond. For the Christian, to be is to be reborn, and we cannot reduce rebirth either to knowledge or to response, though it results in both. . . . The point of Christian life and, therefore, of Christian education, is rebirth. I must be reborn. I must help others to be reborn. I must be related to others in such a way that rebirth occurs. (p. 88-89)

Hancock, Ralph C.

"Reason and Revelation." In Daniel H. Ludlow (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Mormonism (New York: Macmillan, 1992).

LDS teaching encourages a distinct openness to the intrinsic as well as instrumental goodness of the life of the mind, an openness founded on the continuity between the human and divine realms. The full exercise of human reason under the direction of revelation holds a high place among the virtuous and praiseworthy ends to be sought by the Saints (A of F 13), for the scripture promises that "whatever principle of intelligence we attain unto in this life, it will rise with us in the resurrection," and the more "knowledge and intelligence" one gains through "diligence and obedience," the greater "the advantage in the world to come." (D&C 130:18-19) This emphasis on intellectual development in human progress toward godhood accords with the fundamental doctrine that is the official motto of Brigham Young University--namely, that "the glory of God is intelligence." (D&C 93:36)

Equated with "light and truth," such intelligence by nature "forsake[s] that evil one." (D&C 93:37) It cannot be simply identified with conventional measures of "intelligence" or with the Greek philosophic idea of a pure, immaterial, and self-directed intelligence, a concept that was very influential in medieval theology. For Latter-day Saints, the attainment of intelligence must be integrated with the labor of shaping the material world and binding together families and generations, for "the elements are eternal, and spirit and element, inseparably connected, receive a fulness of joy." (D&C 93:33) To the doctrine that "the glory of God is intelligence," one must add God's statement to Moses that "this is my work and my glory--to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man." (Moses 1:39)

Rasmussen, Dennis.

"Metaphysics." In Daniel H. Ludlow (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Mormonism (New York: Macmillan, 1992).

TENTATIVENESS. LDS metaphysics stands apart, because the Church has not developed a traditional metaphysical theology and does not aspire to one. It has not been much influenced by philosophical thinking. LDS faith springs from two sources, scripture and ongoing religious experience. The absence of any systematic metaphysics of the Church follows from the belief that scripture, as the record of divine revelation, may be supplemented by new revelation at any time. A metaphysical system, to be true, must be all-inclusive. But faith in continuing revelation precludes the certainty that such a system exists. Thus, LDS metaphysics remains incomplete, tentative, and unsystematic, subject to revision in the light of things yet to be revealed by God. This tentativeness about metaphysical ideas has saved the Church from the crises that can arise when a religion's beliefs are tied to philosophical ideas which are later abandoned or discredited. The Church's lack of a systematic metaphysical theology has prompted some students of its doctrines who are used to such theology to assert that it has no theology at all, but it would be more accurate to say that its metaphysics and theology are not systematically formulated.

MATTER AND SPIRIT. In the absence of a metaphysical system, the LDS faith still displays some characteristic metaphysical ideas. Latter-day Saints regard matter as a fundamental principle of reality and as the primary basis for distinguishing particular beings. The import of this view reveals itself most strikingly in the doctrine concerning the material embodiment of God: "The Father has a body of flesh and bones as tangible as man's; the Son also." (D&C 130:22) This is not to be understood crassly; the matter of exalted bodies is purified, transfigured, and glorified. LDS teachings draw no ultimate contrast between spirit and matter. Indeed, "all spirit is matter, but it is more fine or pure." (D&C 131:7) This position avoids traditional difficulties in explaining the interaction of spirit and body.

The reality of matter implies the reality of space and time. Scripture speaks of the place where God dwells and of "the reckoning of the Lord's time." (Abr. 3:9) So God himself exists within a spatial and temporal environment. In accepting space, time, and matter as constitutive of reality, Latter-day Saints take the everyday world of human experience as a fairly reliable guide to the nature of things. But this acceptance is no dogma, and their belief remains open to the possibility that these three ideas, as presently understood, may be auxiliaries to more fundamental ideas not yet known.

PLURALISM. LDS thought clearly emphasizes the importance of the fundamental plurality of the world, with its continuing novelties, changes, conflicts, and agreements: "For it must needs be, that there is an opposition in all things." (2 Ne. 2:11) The world is not static but dynamic, not completed but still unfolding. This unfinished and future-oriented aspect of things provides the basis for growth and improvement. A monistic world or universe in which all differences are finally absorbed in a higher unity is viewed as impossible. The LDS Church has been less inclined than some other religions to regard the world of common experience as an inferior order of that which must be distinguished from a higher and altogether different realm. Heaven itself is regarded as offering the hope of endless progression rather than the ease of final satisfaction.

NATURAL AND SUPERNATURAL. Latter-day Saints see a continuity between the traditional categories of natural and supernatural. They do not deny the distinction, but view it as one of degree, not of kind. God's creative act, for example, is not, as traditionally conceived, a creation ex nihilo, but an act of organizing material that already exists. (Abr. 3:24) And creation is not a single, unique event, but an ongoing process that continues through the course of time: "And as one earth shall pass away . . . so shall another come." (Moses 1:38) God acts upon matter within the context of space and time. In comparison with human attributes, God's attributes are supreme and perfect. But the difference between God and mankind remains one of degree. God seeks to provide the guidance and the necessary help for human beings to overcome the differences and become like him. The injunction to be perfect "even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect" (Matt. 5:48) is taken to mean that mankind may indeed become like God by faithfully following his commandments. The principles or laws of goodness that underlie these commandments have their own abiding reality. God exemplifies them but does not arbitrarily create them.

FREEDOM AND PERFECTIBILITY. Nothing is more central to LDS metaphysics than the principle of freedom. The weaknesses of humanity that lead to error and sin are acknowledged. But the claim that human nature is totally depraved is denied. The LDS Church affirms that ideally "men are instructed sufficiently that they know good from evil" and that "men are free according to the flesh, . . . free to choose liberty and eternal life . . . or to choose captivity and death." (2 Ne. 2:5, 27) Human experience has as its final goal the development of virtue and holiness in a world that is not totally the product of God's will. Reality itself poses the challenge to overcome obstacles and achieve greater good. Everyone's life is a response to this challenge.

Riddle, Chauncey C.

"Philosophy." In Daniel H. Ludlow (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Mormonism (New York: Macmillan, 1992).

Latter-day scriptures do not present a philosophical system, but they do contain answers to many classic philosophical issues. These scriptures preclude ex nihilo creation, idealism (immaterialism), a chance theory of causation, and absolute determinism. They affirm the eternality and agency of the individual person, the necessary existence of evil apart from God, a nonrelativistic good (righteousness), and the doctrine that all mortals are the offspring and heirs of God. God is affirmed as a perfected physical being who governs all things in pure love and who continues to communicate with his children on earth by personal revelation.

Observers of the LDS position have ascribed philosophical labels and tendencies to it, but that position usually will not fit neatly into the stock answers. It is empirical, yet rational; pragmatic, yet idealistic; oriented toward eternity, yet emphasizing the importance of the here and now. Affinities are found with the Cartesian certainty of personal existence, the positivist insistence on sensory evidence, the Enlightenment emphasis on elimination of paradox, and the postmodern respect for the "other." The ultimate standard for all being, truth, and good is Christ himself.

Warner, C. Terry.

"Truth." In Daniel H. Ludlow (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Mormonism (New York: Macmillan, 1992).

The LDS conception of truth does not fit any of the categories in which it has been discussed in the Western philosophical tradition. For Latter-day Saints, truth is found in living the type of life exemplified by Jesus Christ.

In the Western philosophical tradition, truth is the characteristic or quality of an idea or statement that justifies belief in it. What this characteristic might be has been the subject of long-standing philosophical debate; some have said it is the correspondence with reality that true statements possess; some, their "tie-in" or coherence with other statements; some, their consequences or practical usefulness. So devastating have been the attacks upon each of these theories that in recent times many philosophers have abandoned altogether the traditional assumption that a firm or absolute kind of truth is possible. These philosophers say that because our knowledge of the world is heavily conditioned by the peculiarities of the particular language in which it is expressed, it is an interpretation at best; we have no basis for claiming we can ever know "how things really are," they argue, and therefore, whatever truth exists is relative to the speaker's language, culture, and situation. Absolute truth, thought of as a property of ideas or statements, is a concept that has fallen on hard times.

Commonly it is supposed that for Latter-day Saints truth is absolute in a way that makes it vulnerable to the relativist's arguments. But for Latter-day Saints, as their scriptures and everyday discourse reveal, truth is not primarily a matter of the correctness of ideas or statements, and consequently their view is not to be found among the traditional alternatives or any combination of them. Though they do speak of the truth of statements, they most often use the word "truth" to signify an entire way of life--specifically, the way of life exemplified, prescribed, and guided by Jesus Christ.

. . .

Because Christ perfectly embodies the virtue of being true and faithful (in his case, to the life his Father required of him), there is a crucial sense in which he himself is the truth. "I am the way," he said, "the truth, and the life." (John 14:6) He "received a fulness of truth." (D&C 93:26) His cosmic influence, called "the Light of Christ," is also the light of truth, giving life to everything and enlightening human minds. By means of this light, he is "in all and through all things" (D&C 88:6), a permeating presence. Given this sense of the word "truth," it is not odd, as it otherwise would appear, to say, as does a key doctrinal revelation, that "truth shineth." (D&C 88:6-13)

. . .

For Latter-day Saints, salvation is a matter of growing in truth and particularly in knowledge of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Joseph Smith taught that "a man is saved no faster than he gets knowledge" (HC 4:588) and that "it is impossible for a man to be saved in ignorance." (D&C 131:6) In context these statements mean that one cannot be saved in ignorance of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Latter-day Saints who recognize that truth is not merely a property of language but is central to a life of obedience to the Savior do not interpret these passages to mean that the learned--the scholars and scientists--have a better chance of being saved. Gaining knowledge and becoming more godlike are two aspects of a single process, which helps explain the Latter-day Saint emphasis on education and personal scriptural mastery as well as on righteous living.

Yarn, David H., Jr.

"Some Metaphysical Reflections on the Gospel of John." BYU Studies 3, Autumn 1960, pp. 3-10.

As one reads John's Gospel with the metaphysical concepts in mind it is most revealing to see how completely everything is oriented in the Lord. For example, some of the categories one might consider are being, becoming, relation, potency, unity, duality, teleology, change, process, and causation. Let me offer three brief illustrations and some general observations [on "Being," "Relation," and "Duality"].

"'Wisdom' (Philosophy) in the Holy Bible." BYU Studies 13(1), Autumn 1972, pp. 91-103.

For the student of philosophy, perhaps it is most interating and directly relevant to attempt to determine what constitute the full content of the meaning of the word wisdom from it use in the Bible . . .

Predominantly, wisdom denotes instruction in morals, knowledge of God (specifically Jesus Christ), and righteousness of life. Consistent with this meaning, we are told that wisdom is of greater value than silver or fine gold, more precious than rubies, and that all things that can be desired are not to be compared to it. (Proverbs 3:14-15.) Heavenly (God's) wisdom is distinguished from earthly (man's) wisdom, and men are warned against trusting in their own widsom and knowledge. Finally, the higher wisdom, that which can be known only through the Spirit and power of God, is "peaceable, gentle, easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality (wrangling), and without hypocrisy" (James 3:17-18); and gives happiness, peace, freedom from fear, sleep that is sweet, and is life unto the soul. (pp. 92, 102-103)