Question What's the difference between a philosophy and a religion?

Accepted:
October 10, 2005

Comments

Philosophers tend not to speak of "a philosophy" the way that phrase is used in ordinary language. You will see people talk, for example, about Russell's philosophy of mind, but that just means Russell's theory about the mind. In so far as people speak of Russell's philosophy, they just mean Russell's work or, again, theories. There's no significant relation between "philosophies" of this kind and religious belief.

In the ordinary sense, I suppose "a philosophy" is a set of values or principles. A particular religion might then have a "philosophy" associated with it, but particular "philosophies" will not necessarily have religious elements.

One might mark the difference between philosophy and religion by looking at the different bases given for claims in these two domains. Philosophical claims are justified by arguments, which provide reasons to believe those claims; religious claims need not rest on arguments, but appeal to faith.

To be sure, philosophers have sought to give arguments for religious claims: such argument are part of what is called natural religion. Nevertheless, certain claims--such as the claim that Jesus is the son of God, or the doctrine of the Trinity--are recognized to lie outside the scope of rational justification, and therefore are considered to be part of revealed religion.

Arguably, philosophy began to be distinguished from religion in the work of the Pre-Socratics, and one can track the emergence of rational justification for claims as one reads through their fragments.

Question What's the difference between a philosophy and a religion? Accepted:October 10, 2005

Question What's the difference between a philosophy and a religion?

Accepted:
October 10, 2005