In 1924, B. Russell claimed the crucial importance of relations to our understanding of many unresolved philosophical problems. Such observation is more than fundamental for the contemporary philosophical agenda: ontology, philosophy of religion and several other theoretical fields require an explanation for the very nature of what a relation is and how it works. Collecting several contributions on the very meaning of relations, the volume aims to expand the international debate in the field from a philosophical perspective. Ranging from history of philosophy to ontology, from philosophy of religion to the history of religious doctrines, leading scholars from all over the world come together to address this timely topic.
Daniele Bertini (Pietrasanta, 1973) achieved his graduation from the University of Pisa (2000) and obtained his Ph.D. at the University of Parma (2006). He is an analytic epistemologist and philosopher of religion. At present he works at the University of Rome II, Tor Vergata, and he is currently leading a group of philosophers and theologians working on Evolution, morality and the notion of God.
Damiano Migliorini (Vicenza, 1987) graduated in Philosophy at the University of Padua and in Religious Sciences at Istituto Superiore di Scienze Religiose (Padua). At present he is a Ph.D. student in Human Sciences at the University of Verona. His interests focus on analytical philosophy of religion, ontology, Trinitarian theology and gender studies.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Contributors
Introduction – Daniele Bertini, Damiano Migliorini
PART ONE
HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY OF RELATIONS
1. Relations in British Idealism – Guido Bonino
2. Russell and the Question of Relations – Federico Perelda
3. Relation and Process in Process Philosophy – Sofia Vescovelli
4. Anthropology of Relation. Karl Löwith’s Mitanthropologie and the Principle of Disappointability – Agostino Cera
PART TWO
ANALYTIC ONTOLOGY OF RELATIONS
5. Taxonomy of Relations. Internal and External – Jani Hakkarainen, Markku Keinänen, Antti Keskinen
6. Bradley’s Regress: A Matter of Parsimony – Michele Paolini Paoletti
7. On Quantum Physics, Metaphysics, and Theism – Paolo Di Sia
8. Social Worlds Are Relational – Daniele Bertini
PART THREE
RELATIONS IN PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION
9. Radical Divine Alterity and the God-world Relationship – Mario Micheletti
10. Beyond the Transcendence. The Feminist Critique of the Concept of God – Vera Tripodi
11. Troubles with Trinitarian (Relational) Theism: Trinity and Gunk – Damiano Migliorini
12. Constituent vs Relational Ontologies: What about Their Availability for Natural Theology? – Marco Damonte
13. God and the Flow of Time – Ciro De Florio, Aldo Frigerio
PART FOUR
THE USE OF RELATIONS IN RELIGIOUS THOUGHT
14. God Not Without Qualities: The Unavoidable Relation Between God and His Qualities in Viśiṣtādvaia Vedānta – Elisa Freschi
15. Anekāntavāda: The Jain Ontology of Complexity and Relationality and its Implications for the Philosophy of Religions – Jeffery D. Long
ٜ16. The Folk-Metaphysics of Relations in Old Testament Extensions of Generic Divinity – Jaco Gericke
17. A Logical Scheme and Paraconsistent Topological Separation in Byzantium: Inter-Trinitarian Relations According to Hieromonk Hierotheos and Joseph Bryennios – Basil Lourié