Abstract
Dooyeweerd noted that the idea of cosmic order is present throughout the history of philosophy. The legacy of Plato and Aristotle was uprooted by modern nominalism which challenged the Greek-medieval realistic metaphysics by eliminating what Christianity saw as the God-given order for (law for) creatures and the orderliness of creatures. Denying universality outside the human mind eliminated any God-given order for and orderliness of creatures. This created a vacuum quickly filled by nominalism, for now human understanding took over the role of law-giver (Kant). Historicism and the linguistic turn pursued the road to an unbridled irrationalism and relativism. All of this adds up to a systematic elimination of the idea of a creational order. Clearly these diverging developments bring to expression the abyss between the spirit of modern humanism and reformational Christianity. Alternatively, reformational philosophy explores the idea of a creational order by turning away from an epistemic point of departure towards an ontic perspective, making possible a new approach towards the various dimensions of reality. This new approach is designated as the transcendental-empirical method. It advances a new way of articulating the foundational role of a creational order or a cosmic law-order. This is illustrated by the provision of a definition of a natural law and of norming principles. The argument concludes by pointing out that the future of the idea of a creational order depends on a proper understanding of the constancy and universality of such an order—embedded in a non-reductionist ontology.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
- 1.
The persistence of this view is still found in the famous papal encyclical “Quadragesimo anno” (15 May 1931), which explicitly states: “Surely the church does not only have the task to bring the human person merely to a transient and deficient happiness, for it must carry a person to eternal bliss ” (cf. Schnatz 1973, 403).
- 2.
In general, Dooyeweerd defines rationalism as an absolutization of the law-side of reality and irrationalism as the absolutization of the (individual) factual side of reality. However, if one accepts universality on the factual side of reality and in addition accepts that conceptual knowledge always embraces what is universal (either the universal law for or the universality of what is lawful), it is clear that one should rather say that rationalism absolutizes conceptual knowledge and that irrationalism absolutizes idea-knowledge (that is, concept-transcending knowledge). Interestingly, in his contribution to the Festschrift of Van Til , Dooyeweerd actually defines rationalism correctly: “Rationalism as absolutization of conceptual thought” (Dooyeweerd 1971, 83). Nominalism is rationalistic and irrationalistic at once, for it acknowleges universality within the human mind and what is purely individual outside the human mind.
- 3.
- 4.
- 5.
In Vollenhoven ’s “Notes” (Aantekeningen) to this work he mentions places in the writings of Calvin where this formulation is found: “The places are De aeterna-praedestinatione, 1552 (Corpus reformatorum 36, colomn 361) and Commentarius in Mosis libros V, 1563 (Corpus ref. 52, colomn 49 and 131)” (Vollenhoven 1933, 27; see n. 480).
- 6.
“De evolutietheorie is het ‘formulier van eenigheid,’ dat op dit oogenblik alle priesters der moderne wetenschap in hun geseculariseerden tempel vereenigt.”
- 7.
See the introductory chapter to this volume where Gerrit Glas and Jeroen de Ridder articulate a brief understanding of these basic distinctions within reformational philosophy .
- 8.
Kurt Gödel was very “fond of an observation that he attributes to Bernays ”: that a “flower has five petals is as much part of objective reality as that its color is red ” (quoted in Wang 1988, 202). To account for “mathematical objects” Gödel introduces the idea of “semiperceptions” which may represent “an aspect of objective reality” (ibid., 304).
- 9.
- 10.
Kock underscores the same point: “We believe, however, with the philosophy of the cosmonomic idea , that religion (as pre-scientific root-dynamics ) provides only orientation and direction to thought and that by it no single scientific problem is brought to a solution ” (Kock 1973, 11; see 12).
References
Appleby, Joyce Oldham, Elizabeth Covington, David Hoyt, Michael Latham, and Allison Sneider. 1996. Knowledge and Postmodernism in Historical Perspective. New York: Routledge.
Berger, Peter L., and Thomas Luckmann. 1969. The Social Construction of Reality: A Treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge. London: Allen Lane.
Bohatec, Josef. 1940. Autorität und Freiheit in der Gedankenwelt Calvins. Philosophia Reformata 5 (1): 1–28.
Cassirer, Ernst. 1910. Substanzbegriff und Funktionsbegriff. Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft.
———. 1971. Das Erkenntnisproblem in der Philosophie und Wissenschaft der neueren Zeit. Vol. 2. 3rd ed. Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft.
Comperz, Theodor. 1964. A History of Ancient Philosophy, 7th imp. London: William Clowes & Sons Ltd.
Dooyeweerd, Herman. 1950. De strijd om het schriftuurlijk karakter van de wijsbegeerte der wetsidee. Mededelingen van de Vereniging voor Calvinistische Wijsbegeerte, July 1950: 3−6.
———. 1971. Cornelius Van Til and the Transcendental Critique of Theoretical Thought. In Jerusalem and Athens: Critical Discussions on the Philosophy and Apologetics of Cornelius Van Til, ed. E.R. Geehan, 74–89. Nutley: Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Company.
———. 1997. A New Critique of Theoretical Thought, The Collected Works of Herman Dooyeweerd, Series A. Vol. 1−4. Lewiston: Edwin Mellen Press.
———. 2012. Roots of Western Culture: Pagan, Secular, and Christian Options, The Collected Works of Herman Dooyeweerd, Series B. Vol. 15. Grand Rapids: Paideia Press.
———. 2013. Christian Philosophy and the Meaning of History, The Collected Works of Herman Dooyeweerd, Series B. Vol. 13. Grand Rapids: Paideia Press.
Galileo, Galilei. (1683) 1973. Unterredungen und mathematische Demonstration über zwei neue Wissenszweige, die Mechanik und die Fallgesetze betreffend. Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft.
Holz, Friedrich. 1975. Die Bedeutung der Methode Galileis für die Entwicklung der Transzendentalphilosophie Kants. Philosophia Naturalis 15 (3): 344–358.
Huxley, Sir Julian. 1960. The Evolutionary Vision. In Evolution After Darwin: The University of Chicago Centennial, Issues in Evolution, ed. Sol Tax and Charles Callender, vol. 3, 249–261. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. https://archive.org/stream/evolutionafterda03taxs/evolutionafterda03taxs_djvu.txt. Accessed 10 April 2017.
Kant, Immanuel. (1783) 1969. Prolegomena einer jeden künftigen Metaphysik die als Wissenschaft wird auftreten können. Hamburg: Felix Meiner.
Kock, Pieter de Bruyn. 1973. Christelike wysbegeerte: Standpunte en probleme. Bloemfontein: VCHO.
Kuyper, Abraham. 1959. Het Calvinisme, 3rd imp. Kampen: Kok.
Olthuis, James. 1989. The Word of God and Creation. Tydskrif vir Christelike Wetenskap 25 (1st & 2nd quarter): 25−37.
Schindewolf, Otto H. 1993. Basic Questions in Paleontology: Geologic Time, Organic Evolution, and Biological Systematics. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Schnatz, Helmut, ed. 1973. Päpstliche Verlautbarungen zu Staat und Gesellschaft, Originaldokumente mit deutscher Übersetzung. Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft.
Schutz, Alfred. 1974. Der sinnhafte Aufbau der sozialen Welt. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp. First published 1932.
Strauss, Danie F.M. 2009. Philosophy: Discipline of the Disciplines. Grand Rapids: Paideia Press.
———. 2011a. Normativity I – The Dialectical Legacy. South African Journal of Philosophy 30 (2): 207–218.
———. 2011b. Normativity II – An Integral Approach. South African Journal of Philosophy 30 (3): 105–128.
———. 2011c. Relasiebegrippe in die lig van die vraag of Einstein in die eerste plek ’n “relatiwiteitsteorie” ontwikkel het. Suid-Afrikaanse Tydskrif vir Natuurwetenskap en Tegnologie 30 (1), art. #28, 8 pages. https://doi.org/10.4102/satnt.v30i1.28.
Veenhof, Cornelis. 1939. In Kuyper’s lijn. Oosterbaan: Goes.
Vollenhoven, Dirk H.Th. 1933. Het Calvinisme en de Reformatie van de wijsbegeerte. Amsterdam: H.J. Paris.
von Weizsäcker, Carl F. 2002. Große Physiker, Von Aristoteles bis Werner Heisenberg. Munich: Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag.
Wang, Hao. 1988. Reflections on Gödel. Cambridge: MIT Press.
Zwaan, J. 1977. On Evolution and Evolutionism. Beweging 41 (June): 40.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2017 Springer International Publishing AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Strauss, D. (2017). Is the Idea of Creation Order Still Fruitful?. In: Glas, G., de Ridder, J. (eds) The Future of Creation Order. New Approaches to the Scientific Study of Religion , vol 3. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-70881-2_3
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-70881-2_3
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-70880-5
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-70881-2
eBook Packages: Religion and PhilosophyPhilosophy and Religion (R0)