Prof. Piotr Gutowski
Head of the Department of the History
of Modern and Contemporary Philosophy of KUL
President of the Philosophical Committee
of the Polish Academy of Sciences (PAN)
An opinion
on conferring the Degree of Doctor Honoris Causa
of the John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin
on Professor Richard Swinburne
Since the times of David Hume and Immanuel Kant, two influential philosophers of the Enlightenment era, the Western intellectual elite have become fixed in their belief that religious views, including the most fundamental claim about the existence of God, could not be rationally investigated, and as such were a subject of faith. This attitude made natural theology groundless. As long as religion enjoyed an influential and secure position in society, this did not really matter, since it could be argued that although science supplied many useful inventions, it was religion that dealt with matters of real significance for human life. However, when, as a result of various historical events, religion lost its prominence, religious beliefs, having lost their intellectual support, have become extremely vulnerable in the increasingly rationalistic society. This situation has changed in the last fifty years, greatly due to Richard Swinburne, the most prominent European philosopher of religion of our time. He demonstrated that, contrary to the arguments put forward by Hume and Kant, theism and the main Christian doctrines could be subject to rational discourse, and provided new justification for them. Such justification needs to be separated from that based on the historical systems of Christian philosophers that failed to account for the advances made in contemporary logic, epistemology and philosophy of science, and, consequently, is unconvincing for the increasingly critical Western societies.
Richard Granville Swinburne was born on 26 December 1934. In the private secondary school he attended, he learned Greek and Latin, and during his military service he mastered Russian when he was being prepared to serve as an interpreter in the event of a conflict between the UK and the USSR. He studied in Oxford, completing an undergraduate degree in philosophy, politics and economics in 1954-57, and a graduate degree in philosophy and theology in 1957-59. For some time he intended to be ordained in the Church of England, but later abandoned this idea. He spent the next three years at the University of Leeds, where, having received a research fellowship, he studied the history and philosophy of science, and the basics of natural science, especially physics. He started his academic career in 1963 as a lecturer in philosophy at the University of Hull, and in 1972 he became Professor of Philosophy at the University of Keele. Having published several books, especially the widely debated trilogy on natural theology, he was offered the Nolloth Professorship of the Philosophy of the Christian Religion at Oxford University. He used that time (from 1985 until his retirement in 2002) mainly to write a tetralogy on Christian Doctrines, the subject of which closely corresponds to the name of the chair he held at that time. In 1992, Richard Swinburne was nominated as a member of the British Academy. It is also important to note that during his life he became disillusioned with the more and more liberal Anglicanism and became a member of the Orthodox Church, which he believed to have best retained the original spirit and doctrine of Christianity. This decision was, to some extent, inspired by his knowledge of the Russian language and interest in Russian culture, which he developed during his military service and has had ever since.
The clarity of his lectures and books, high quality of his arguments, combined with the topics he explored, that inspired great interest, have made him a frequent visitor to a number of academic centres worldwide. Professor Swinburne accepted an invitation extended by the Faculty of Philosophy at the Catholic University of Lublin and in November 2002 delivered a series of Stanisław Kamiński lectures, designed as a semester's worth of lectures distilled into a dozen-or-so-days-long monographic course. As a result, some KUL graduates not only received his signature in their student's books, but even passed his examination.
What is likely to have helped Richard Swinburne to reach a wide audience with his ideas was his position as Professor, and now Professor Emeritus, at the University of Oxford, one of the most renowned and distinguished academic centres in the world, whose contributions to the development of science can hardly be overestimated. The works of Richard Swinburne, translated into over 20 languages and published in a vast number of copies, have contributed to the great achievements of that University, while also building on its Christian origins. The titles of his books, which I'm listing below in chronological order (excluding those he edited or co-edited) clearly present the issues he has explored: Space and Time (MacMillan and Co., London 1968); The Concept of Miracle (MacMillan and Co., London 1971); An Introduction to Confirmation Theory (Methuen, London 1973), The Coherence of Theism (Oxford University Press 1977, revised ed. 1993; Polish version published by Znak, Kraków 1996), The Existence of God (Oxford University Press, 1979, revised ed., 1991; extended and revised ed., 2004; a shorter, more accessible and popular version of this book Is There a God? Oxford University Press,1996, revised ed., 2010; Polish title: Czy istnieje Bóg? W Drodze, Poznań 1999), Faith and Reason (Oxford University Press 1981, revised ed., 2005), The Evolution of the Soul (Oxford University Press 1986, revised ed., 1997), Responsibility and Atonement (Clarendon Press, Oxford 1989), Revelation (Oxford University Press 1991; revised and extended ed., 2007), The Christian God (Oxford University Press 1994), Providence and the Problem of Evil (Oxford University Press 1998), Epistemic Justification (Oxford University Press, 2001), The Resurrection of God Incarnate (Oxford University Press 2003), Was Jesus God? (Oxford University Press 2008 - a short version of the rationale for Christian doctrine, as presented before in several separate books; Polish title: Czy Jezus był Bogiem?, Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Kazimierza Wielkiego, Bydgoszcz 2014); Mind, Brain, and Free Will (Oxford University Press 2013).
The core of Richard Swinburne's academic output comprises seven books that cover two research areas: The Coherence of Theism, The Existence of God and Faith and Reason that make up the trilogy on The Philosophy of Theism; and Responsibility and Atonement, Revelation, The Christian God, and Providence and the Problem of Evil that constitute the tetralogy on the Christian Doctrines. Other books and articles (about two hundred) generally build on, particularise and popularise the ideas entertained in these works, prepare groundwork for them or provide justification for the views put forward in them.
The groundwork for the philosophy of the theism and philosophy of the Christian doctrine was laid by two of his books. The first, Space and Time, includes analyses of the philosophy of physics, regarding such issues as simultaneity, absolute time and space, the number of possible dimensions of reality, causality, and various theories o spatiotemporal properties. The second, An Introduction to Confirmation Theory, in a way more important for his subsequent philosophy of religion, deals with the empirical confirmation of scientific hypotheses on the basis of inductive logic. Richard Swinburne reaches the conclusion that there is no clear division between scientific hypotheses and theism or more detailed religious beliefs considered as hypotheses. Such division was, on the one hand, suggested by neopositivists, with their hostile attitude towards religion, and, on the other, by fideists, who defended religion in their own specific way and were inspired e.g. by the philosophy of Wittgenstein or post-Kantian German theology. Religious hypotheses can be examined just like scientific hypotheses, i.e. by expecting them to be comprehensible and internally coherent, to explain the respective phenomena better than any rival hypotheses, and to be simple. In his successive works, Richard Swinburne has attempted to demonstrate that both theism and the leading Christian doctrines meet these criteria after appropriate clarification. The specific character of these views is connected with the fact that they seek to provide ultimate explanations, the formulation of which some scientists and philosophers of science would, wrongly, like to block. His knowledge of physics, physical cosmology, history of science, and philosophy of science allowed Richard Swinburne to present new versions of the classical arguments for the existence of God. Their credibility was enhanced precisely because they took account of the current scientific picture of the world, the possibilities and limitations of science, as well as modern epistemology, philosophy of science and logic.
His numerous works on the relation between the mind and the body, personal identity and free will, served to provide the justification for the views that underlie the philosophy of the Christian doctrine. The books in question include e.g. Mind, Brain, and Free Will (2013), which is one of his latest publications that harks back to The Evolution of the Soul (1986), and Personal Identity, written together with Sydney Shoemaker, another distinguished analytical philosopher (Blackwell, Oxford 1984). Richard Swinburne opposes the views which deny personal identity over time and, contrary to the dominant naturalistic approach in contemporary philosophy, advocates mind-body dualism, postulating that personal identity has its source in an immaterial soul, while also defending the view of the freedom of the human soul that is now being challenged in various ways. What is really important, however, is not the very fact that he recognises these views, but the way he does so. For he does not rely on the old philosophical terminology (e.g. Aristotelian, still used by many Thomists), but on the language of modern-day debates in analytical metaphysics, epistemology and theory of action. Due to such attitude his solutions and arguments are treated seriously and widely discussed. Richard Swinburne needs the concepts of personal identity over time, the mind-body dualism, and freedom, inter alia, to justify the argument for the possibility of human immortality and as the basis for certain ethical doctrines of Christianity. However, it is important to note that these concepts are present not only in his metaphysical considerations but also in his methodology, as he recognises two distinct types of explanations, i.e. scientific, that relate to non-intentional causes, and personal, that relate to intentional causes. Personal explanations are not specific to the theist hypothesis and other Christian doctrines, since they are also used e.g. in the social sciences and in the humanities.
By approaching the aforementioned works only as prolegomena to the philosophy of theism and the rationale for Christian doctrine, Richard Swinburne could be accused of treating philosophy merely as an instrument for defending independently accepted religious world view. This accusation would, however, be unjust, for three reasons. Firstly, to some extent all great philosophers can be seen as defending their views of the world and, in this sense, their systems are apologetic in nature. In other words, people can hardly be blamed for trying to harmonise the views they consider true to produce a coherent system. Secondly, the classification of Swinburne's works, as presented above, emphasises his achievements in natural philosophy and philosophy of Christian doctrine, but, in fact, all his academic results can be approached otherwise, namely as a work of an extraordinary philosopher, who takes up central issues in his field — from logical, to epistemological, metaphysical and ethical problems, to develop a comprehensive world view. Indeed, in the light of the above, Richard Swinburne challenges the stereotype of an analytical philosopher, who would show no interest in such a synthesis. Finally, although in his natural and philosophical theology he defends theism defined in basically traditional terms, he does make some major adjustments there (often anticipated by the early Church thinkers) to make the interpretation of the Christian doctrine more accurate on the basis of contemporary knowledge. These aspects of his works are particularly noteworthy.
Above all, Richard Swinburne values highly scientific knowledge, and has a good grasp of its current state. Contrary to some American philosophers of religion and theologians, he does not try to disprove the theory of evolution, but rather attempts to show that although it is suitable to explain how bodies were created, it falls short when it comes to the creation of minds or souls. At the same time, he does not deny the causal connection between body and soul in the sense that the animal brain that had undergone appropriate evolution gave rise to the emergence of the soul. Even though he emphasises the exceptionality of humans, manifested in their capacity for logical thinking, freedom, moral awareness and an integrated system of beliefs and desires, he thinks that all animals with brains similar to human brain (i.e. all vertebrates) have a mental life, and so they also have souls. This position leaves room for both the evolution of the soul (similar to that of the body) and moral concern for the well-being of animals. It also reduces the emphasis on the traditional anthropocentrism present in Christian theology that sees the world as created for humans. According to Richard Swinburne, the very existence of a non-personal world would be a good-enough reason for God to create it. He believes that Darwin did a great job in demonstrating that the universe is a sort of machine for creating animals and humans, but anyone who would like to approach his theory as an ultimate explanation overlooks an important question: "do factors that serve to explain our existence (such as natural selection) in this theory can be explained themselves?" Theism provides a more reliable answer to this question than atheism. Although such atheists, as Richard Dawkins, Swinburne's fellow researcher from Oxford, do not accept this answer, the way he has formulated and justified it has won him their respect.
Richard Swinburne sees God as having traditional attributes such as omniscience and omnipotence, but, contrary to voluntarist interpretations, and in line with the thought of St. Thomas Aquinas and John Duns Scotus, he applies them only to what is logically possible (God could not think or create anything that is inconsistent) and what is morally right (God could not command that, e.g., the genocide or torturing of children become morally right). What this means is, in effect, a certain autonomy, not only of logic but also of ethics in relation to God's commands. This poses a certain problem in justifying the role of God in our moral life, but allows a theist to maintain a respectful attitude towards atheists, who might have a cognitive access to objective moral truths. Here, the theist is at an advantage by having a deeper understanding of what these truths really are. Richard Swinburne also tries to reach an agreement with atheists on another matter. He claims that the existence of God is not necessary in the sense that His non-existence is possible. This means, inter alia, that any evidence for the existence of God must be probabilistic in nature and that the underestimation of theism's validity by an atheist is less of an error than ignoring necessity of theism. This further means that the rational foundations of theism and Christian doctrines do not preclude the need for religious faith, but rather prevent it from being blind.
Although Swinburne in principle follows the line of thought represented by St. Thomas Aquinas, he rejects some of his views, such as the argument for God's eternity and immutability (earlier advocated by St. Augustine). Swinburne argues that the notion that God is a timeless or atemporal being is internally incoherent and incoherent with other important religious beliefs, such as the belief that God interacts with the world, i.e. that he forgives, punishes, warns, etc. A typical way of responding to this objection to the incoherence of this concept is by arguing that religious language is analogical. Swinburne emphasises that theists have a strong reason for referring to the analogical meanings of words (e.g. when they claim that God is a person), but when they overuse them, the sentences they formulate become empty of content. He believes, however, that the explication of God's eternity does not require the use of analogy or the use of all Aristotelian terminology with which the doctrine of the timelessness of God is associated. It only needs to be acknowledged that God is eternal in the sense that He has always existed and will continue to exist for ever.
The purpose of all these and other interpretations of our understanding of God and Christian doctrines, as proposed by Swinburne, is to develop a theistic, Christian world view, that will be internally coherent and coherent with both the biblical accounts and contemporary scientific and philosophical knowledge, and also expressed in a comprehensible language. Only on the basis of such a coherent view can one formulate arguments, always inductive in nature, to justify theism or other religious doctrines. Richard Swinburne builds on the contemporary understanding of inductive arguments in science, which very often postulate the existence of non-observable factors to explain various facts. This allows him to claim that the hypothesis of the existence of God (understood in a coherent way) can provide an explanation for some facts, such as the orderly nature of the world. To put it in different words, this hypothesis explains why science can explain anything. He further believes that there is a number of facts, not only the orderly nature of the world, for which the existence of God provides a better explanation (in the technical sense of ,better') than any rival, e.g. naturalist, hypotheses. His arguments for this claim support one another to create something that Swinburne defines as the cumulative inductive argument for the existence of God. On its basis one can then justify more specific religious views by applying the same rule, i.e. that a view is acceptable when it explains the facts at hand better than any other view (hypothesis). This is how Richard Swinburne is building his philosophy of Christian doctrine.
The importance of the philosophy of religion he has formulated can hardly be overestimated, as it
- 1) defends theism and Christian doctrines using essentially traditional interpretation, but rejecting views that lead to incoherence,
- defends natural theology by preferring inductive explanations to deductive ones,
- combines an analytical way of thinking with a systematic goal to arrive at something of a summa of major Christian beliefs presented by reference to their rational foundations,
- boldly and intelligently uses modern philosophical language and contemporary philosophy of science to establish and reinforce the position of Christianity in the context of state-of-the-art knowledge.
In terms of its spirit, this philosophy resembles the thought of St. Thomas Aquinas. It is quite likely that had the Doctor Angelicus known contemporary science and philosophy and could evaluate the output of 20th-century Christian philosophers, he would consider Richard Swinburne, rather than any of the Thomists, as his main pupil.
I can hardly think of a better candidate for the Degree of Doctor Honoris Causa of the John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin than Professor Richard Swinburne. I am delighted to fully support the decision of the Senate of the Catholic University of Lublin on awarding this honorary Degree to him.
Lublin, 10 May 2015
