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[German Version] I. Philosophy – II. Philosophy of Religion – III. Fundamental Theology I. Philosophy An object (Ger. Gegenstand) is anything to which a predicate can be applied, or to which identificatory reference can be made by way of a proper name, designation, or deictic expression, hence anything with regard to which statements can be made and judgments can be passed. (“Individual,” “entity,” or “object” [Ger. …

[German Version] I. Philosophy – II. Fundamental Theology…

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[German Version] (Gk ὀρϑότης/ orthótēs; Lat. rectitudo). Plato employed ὀρϑότης in the sense of correctness in epistemological (cf. Rep. 515 d), philological (cf. K…

[German Version] I. Terminology and Problem ¶ The meaning of the word truth – Greek ἀλήϑεια/ alḗtheia, ἀληϑής/ alēthḗs; Hebrew אֱמֶת/ ʾĕmet; Latin veritas, verus – depends on the context where it appears. The meaning of the word truth in a particular context is not the same thing as the definition of the term truth; it is also not the same thing as the “function or role that can be or is ascribed to the expression or term . . . in the various contexts and discourses of daily life, the sciences, and philosophy (and theology)” (Puntel, 927). For Christian theology, the biblical use of the term truth is…

[German Version] I. Philosophy Realism in a given area B means the ontological thesis that names or terms used in a theory of B refer to things that exist independently of human thought. For example, in natural realism the existence of stones, trees, and ¶ tables is assumed; in scientific realism, that of electrons, force fields, and quarks (see V below); in mathematical realism, that of numbers and quantities; or in ethical realism, that of moral values. Critics of realism object, for example, that moral values are an expression of value attitudes and are thus human constructions, just as numbers or quantities are only constructions of the human mind. Since it is not possible, according to philosophical skepticism, to prove the existence of things in an outer world “around us,” it may be that even electrons and stones are only constructions or ideas in the human mind – as claimed by Idealism, the classical opposite to Realism (G. Berkeley). I. Kant took up a middle position on the existence of the natural external world; he claimed that there is an external world, but that we can only recognize it as it appears to us, according to our capacities for knowledge (Kant 294–315)…