The purpose of this research is to examine philosophy from a Christian perspective. The plan of the research will be to set forth a review of the principal philosophical traditions and disciplines, including reference to methodology, tools, and persistent issues, and then to discuss the relationship of Christianity to such philosophical views.
In order to examine philosophy from a Christian perspective, it is useful to be aware of the main categories of philosophical investigation. According to Geisler and Feinberg, one of the difficulties in this regard is the problem of definition; that is, various names have been given to branches of philosophy. However, Geisler and Feinberg cite two main categories: (1) analytical philosophy or conceptual analysis, and (2) speculative philosophy (Geisler and Feinberg 13-14). Within these categories, which deal with analysis or clarification on one hand and with description or normative prescription on the other, are contained various explorations of what is true or known (epistemology and logic), real (metaphysics, ontology, and cosmology), or valuable or good (axiology/aesthetics, ethics).
Prevailing methodological conventions of philosophy have changed from the ancient to modern periods. Geisler and Feinberg (39-43) identify three major ancient methods of philosophical argument, associated, respectively, with Socrates, Zeno, and Aristotle. The Socratic method is one of interrogation, a persistent questioning that elicits answers in a way that allows the person answering to use innate reason to arrive at insight. At the heart of the method, say Geisler and Feinberg, is a "presupposition . . . that truth is inborn, or native to the human mind" (40). Zeno's method is characterized as reductio ad absurdum, which arrives at insight or the truth of a philosophical argument by reducing competing arguments to absurdity; Geisler and Feinberg describe this method as a "negative test for truth" (41). ...