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  • Pragmatic Realism, Religious Truth, and Antitheodicy

    On Viewing the World by Acknowledging the Other

    Sami Pihlström

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    As a traditional theological issue and in its broader secular varieties, theodicy remains a problem in the philosophy of religion. In this remarkable book, Sami Pihlström provides a novel critical reassessment of the theodicy discourse addressing the problem of evil and suffering. He develops and defends an antitheodicist view, arguing that theodicies seeking to render apparently meaningless suffering meaningful or justified from a ‘God’s-Eye-View’ ultimately rely on metaphysical realism failing to recognize the individual perspective of the sufferer. Pihlström thus shows that a pragmatist approach to the realism issue in the philosophy of religion is a vital starting point for a re-evaluation of the problem of theodicy. 

    With its strong positions and precise arguments, the volume provides a new approach which is likely to stimulate discussion in the wider academic world of philosophy of religion.

    Sami Pihlström is professor of philosophy of religion at the University of Helsinki. He has published widely on, e.g., the pragmatist tradition, the problem of realism, and the philosophy of religion.

    "With this fresh and highly stimulating book on pragmatism, realism and antitheodicy, Sami Pihlström consolidates his most important thinking to-date into one coherent account. While demonstrating how his take on pragmatism can have bearing on the debate on realism and anti-realism, fact and value, truth and pluralism, Pihlström also brings his position to bear on the failures of theodicy. Bringing added richness to the pragmatist tradition, Pihlström fruitfully draws on Kant’s transcendentalism, Levinas’ alterity, along with Wittgenstein’s view of language and its limits. Rich, lucidly written and carefully argued, this book deserves a broad readership."

    - Professor Espen Dahl, University of Tromsø – The Arctic University of Norway

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    Book Reviews (4):

      Review from 18 May 2022: SATS: Northern European Journal of Philosophy
      Book Review of Pihlström, Sami. 2020. Pragmatic Realism, Religious Truth, and Antitheodicy: On Viewing the World by Acknowledging the Other. Helsinki University Press.

      John R. Shook

      Summary: Realism is at the heart of Pihlström’s book before us. Different chapters discuss ‘realism’ in quite different terms, even among sorts of realisms that Pihlström can endorse. For Pihlström, pragmatic realism disagrees with Rortyan nonrealism, because anti-representationalism need not give up the world. Many realisms survive this sharp anti-metaphysical razor.

      The full review cannot be displayed due to copyright restrictions.

      Review from 14 Apr 2021: Transactions of the Charles S. Peirce Society, Vol. 56, No. 4
      Book review: Pragmatic Realism, Religious Truth, and Antitheodicy: On Viewing the World by Acknowledging the Other by Sami Pihlström

      Ulf Zackariasson

      Summary: This volume is an important addition to pragmatic philosophy of religion by its consistent insistence that pragmatist philosophers of religion should not just enter the debates within contemporary philosophy of religion with the question ‘which side should I choose?’ Instead, they need to remind both themselves and others of the importance of a philosophy of religion with a human face, one that refuses to abstract from central features of human life, including suffering.

      The full review cannot be displayed due to copyright restrictions.

      Review from 14 Dec 2020: European Journal of Pragmatism and American Philosophy
      Book review: Review of Sami Pihlström, Pragmatic Realism, Religious Truth, and Antitheodicy. On Viewing the World by Acknowledging the Other

      Ana Honnacker

      Summary: Beyond discussing objections and caveats, Pihlström thematizes his very own situation as a thinker, unfolding the contextuality of (philosophical) theorizing performatively. Whereas underlining the importance of self-examination is a common move in philosophical statements, the critical impetus all too often stops at the doorstep of one’s own position. Pihlström incorporates self-criticism in his overall project of defending a moral point of view. The book, thus, is not only of interest for philosophers of religion or those interested in pragmatist research. It is an example of how philosophy today could wrestle with “the problem of life”.

      Read the full review here

      Review from 12 Dec 2020: Cognitio: Revista de Filosofia
      Book review: Resenha

      Michael L. Raposa

      Summary: Sami Pihlstrom’s important new book explores the significance of pragmatism as a resource for philosophers of religion confronted with the problem of evil. It is important to observe, however, that Pihlstrom is not recommending any kind of pragmatic ‘solution’ to that problem. This observation will require further commentary here, but it explains why the proposal in his book is best regarded as an ‘antitheodicy’. After sketching that proposal in the overview supplied by his introductory remarks, the author directs his attention to other relevant issues, later returning to the topic of theodicy toward the end of the book. Crucial among these is the question about how best to understand pragmatism itself, indeed, how one might productively reconfigure traditional accounts of pragmatism by carefully exploring its roots in and links to Immanuel Kant’s transcendental philosophy. As a result, Pihlstrom has produced a book that, while somewhat modest in length, is by no means modest in its ambitions.

      Read the full review here



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    How to cite this book
    Pihlström, S. 2020. Pragmatic Realism, Religious Truth, and Antitheodicy: On Viewing the World by Acknowledging the Other. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.33134/HUP-2
    Pihlström, S., 2020. Pragmatic Realism, Religious Truth, and Antitheodicy: On Viewing the World by Acknowledging the Other. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.33134/HUP-2
    Pihlström, S. Pragmatic Realism, Religious Truth, and Antitheodicy: On Viewing the World by Acknowledging the Other. Helsinki University Press, 2020. DOI: https://doi.org/10.33134/HUP-2
    Pihlström, S. (2020). Pragmatic Realism, Religious Truth, and Antitheodicy: On Viewing the World by Acknowledging the Other. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.33134/HUP-2
    Pihlström, Sami. 2020. Pragmatic Realism, Religious Truth, and Antitheodicy: On Viewing the World by Acknowledging the Other. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.33134/HUP-2




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    This is an Open Access book distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license (unless stated otherwise), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Copyright is retained by the author(s).

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    This book has been peer reviewed. See our Peer Review Policies for more information.

    Additional Information

    Published on Feb. 3, 2020

    Language

    English

    Pages:

    223

    ISBN
    EPUB 978-952-369-006-6
    Mobi 978-952-369-007-3
    Paperback 978-952-369-004-2
    PDF 978-952-369-005-9

    DOI
    https://doi.org/10.33134/HUP-2



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