William James: Hümanizmi ve Din Felsefesi

Hümanizm düşünce tarihinin kilit kavramlarından biridir. Kavramın çeşitli dönemlerde, farklı amaçlarla kullanıldığı gözlenmektedir. Sofistlerin retorik düzeyindeki hümanizminden, orta çağın Hristiyan hümanizmine, Rönesans’ın yazınsal hümanizminden Comte’un hümanizmine kadar birbirinden farklı hümanizm türleri mevcuttur. Başka bir deyişle, yekpare bir hümanizmden bahsedilemez. Bu yaklaşım çeşitliliğinde karşımıza çıkan problemlerden biri, hümanizm ile din arasındaki ilişkidir. Kimi hümanist yorumlar din dışı ve hatta din karşıtı bir yaklaşımı ön plana çıkarmaktadır. Peki, hümanizmi din karşıtı bir öğreti olarak görmek zorunlu mudur? James’in hümanizmi bu soruyu cevaplamak bakımından önemli veriler sunmaktadır. Bir ucunda radikal bir ampirist epistemolojinin, diğer ucundaysa anti-teistik bir paradigmanın egemen olduğu James’in hümanizmi dinî inancı dışlamamaktadır. Aksine, hem dinin pratik açıdan verimli yönlerini özenle korumakta, hem de insanı merkeze alan bir din felsefesi geliştirmektedir. Başta Tanrı’nın varlığı, Tanrı-evren ilişkisi, kötülük problemi ve dinî tecrübe olmak üzere, klasik din felsefesinin çeşitli problemleri James tarafından hümanistik bir yaklaşımla ele alınmaktadır. Çalışmamız, James’in zikredilen din felsefesi problemlerine verdiği cevapları kendi özgün hümanizmi çerçevesinde irdelemektedir.

Anahtar Kelimeler:

William James, Tanrı, Din Felsefesi, Hümanizm, Radikal Ampirizm

William James: His Humanism and Philosophy of Religion

Humanism is one of the key concepts of the history of thought. It is employed for different purposes in different eras. There are various types of it, ranging from the rhetorical humanism of Sophists to the Christian humanism of middle ages, and from literary humanism of Renaissance to the humanism of Comte. In other words, there is not a monolithic humanism. One of the problems encountered within this diversity of approaches is the relationship between humanism and religion. Some humanistic interpretations foreground an anti-religious approach. Is it necessary to regard humanism as anti-religious? James’s humanism provides important data to answer this question. His humanism, at one end of which there is a radical empiricist epistemology while at the other end there lies an anti-theistic paradigm, does not exclude religious belief. Rather, it both carefully preserves the practically productive aspects of religion and develops a philosophy of religion that puts human being in the center. Several problems of classical philosophy of religion, particularly the existence of God, His relationship with universe, the problem of evil and religious experience, are handled with a humanistic approach by James. And this study examines James’s answers to those problems of philosophy of religion within the framework of his genuine humanism.

Keywords:

William James, God, Philosophy of Religion, Humanism, Radical Empiricism,

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