Humanism, Antitheodicism, and the Critique of Meaning in Pragmatist Philosophy of Religion

Sami Pihlström is professor of philosophy of religion at the University of Helsinki.

• IntroductionChapter 1: A Pragmatist Perspective on the Philosophy of ReligionChapter 2: Meaning, Metaphysics, and Humanism: Between Pragmatism and Analytic Philosophy of ReligionChapter 3: The Plurality of Pluralisms in William JamesChapter 4: A Poetic Pragmatism? Some Literary Voices in (and after) James’s Humanistic Philosophy of ReligionChapter 5: The Problem of Suffering, (Secular) Theodicies, and Humanistic AntitheodicismChapter 6: Natural and Transcendental Illusions in Kantian-Pragmatist Philosophical AnthropologyChapter 7: Losing (One’s) Religion? Conclusion: Our Tragic Search for Meaning

In this highly original approach to the limits and scope of our search for meaning, Pihlström combines pragmatism, humanism, a Kantian outlook, and what he calls “antitheodicism.” The result is a carefully crafted line of argument culminating in a pragmatic critique of meaning as it is available for humans. His focus on human practices and concerns, foremost on human suffering, as opposed to a metaphysical search for some alleged cosmic meaning from a God’s eye view, helps to reinvigorate many deadlocked debates in philosophical anthropology and the philosophy of religion.