William L. Rowe

William L. Rowe

William Leonard Rowe (born 1931) is a professor emeritus of philosophy at Purdue University who specialises in the philosophy of religion. His work has played a leading role in the "remarkable revival of analytic philosophy of religion since the 1970s". [cite encyclopedia| first=Nick |last=Trakakis |authorlink=Nick Trakakis |title=ROWE, William Leonard |encyclopedia=Dictionary of Modern American Philosophers |editor=John R. Shook |publisher=Thoemmes Press |year=2005 |id=ISBN 1843710374] He is most notable for his formulation of the evidential argument from evil. [cite encyclopedia |first=Nick |last=Trakakis |authorlink=Nick Trakakis |title=The Evidential Problem of Evil |url=http://www.iep.utm.edu/e/evil-evi.htm#H2 |encyclopedia=Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy |year=2006 |accessdate=2007-04-20]

Background

According to Rowe, he became an evangelical Christian during his teenage years and planned to become a minister, eventually enrolling at the Detroit Bible Institute for his collegiate education. He later transferred to Wayne State University.

After his graduation from Wayne State, Rowe began his post-graduate education at the Chicago Theological Seminary (CTS). He reports that it was at this time he began to take a more critical look at the Bible, learn about its origins and meet theologians who, unlike himself, did not have a fundamentalist perspective. The result was that his own fundamentalism began to wane.

He received a Master of Divinity degree from CTS, and then went on to pursue a Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Michigan. He completed his doctorate in 1962, taught briefly at the University of Illinois and later that year, joined the faculty of Purdue University.

Rowe has described his conversion from Christian fundamentalist to, ultimately, an atheist as a gradual process, resulting from "the lack of experiences and evidence sufficient to sustain my religious life and my religious convictions." He has said that his examination of the origins of the Bible caused him to doubt its being divine in nature, and that he then began to look and pray for signs of the existence of God. "But in the end, I had no more sense of the presence of God than I had before my [evangelical] conversion experience. So, it was the absence of religious experiences of the appropriate kind that . . . left me free to seriously explore the grounds for disbelief," Rowe has said. [Citation
title=Purdue philosophy professor a gentle atheist
newspaper=Terre Haute Tribune-Star
year=2005
date=April 1, 2005
.
]

Friendly atheism

Rowe introduced the concept of a "friendly atheist" in his classic paper on the argument from evil. A friendly atheist is a person who accepts that some theists are justified in believing in God, even if it is the case that God doesn't exist. This view is criticized by atheist philosopher Michael Martin. [cite web | first=Michael |last=Martin |authorlink=Michael Martin |title=Friendly Atheism |year=1996 |url=http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/michael_martin/friendly.html |accessdate=2007-04-20] One consequence of Rowe's philosophical friendliness is his adherence to the principle of charity. [cite web |first=Keith |last=Burgess-Jackson |title=Book Review |publisher=Philosophy @ UTA blog |url=http://philosophyatuta.blogspot.com/2006/11/book-review.html |accessdate=2007-04-20] He has published in defence of theist arguments, and is even considered a supporter of the cosmological argument. [cite encyclopedia |first=Charles |last=Taliaferro |title=Philosophy of Religion |encyclopedia=Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy |url=http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/philosophy-religion/ |accessdate=2007-04-20]

Work

Influential papers

* “The Problem of Evil and Some Varieties of Atheism” (1979)

Books

* "The Cosmological Argument". Princeton University Press, 1975. ISBN 0823218856.
* "Philosophy of Religion: An Introduction". Wadsworth Publishing, 1978. ISBN 0495007250.
* "Thomas Reid on Freedom and Morality". Cornell University Press, 1991. ISBN 0801425573.
* "Can God Be Free?" Oxford University Press, 2004. ISBN 0199204128.

About his work

* Trakakis, Nick. "The God Beyond Belief: In Defence of William Rowe's Evidential Argument from Evil". Springer, 2007. ISBN 978-1-4020-5144-9.

Notes and references


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем написать реферат

Look at other dictionaries:

  • William Earl Rowe — William Earl Rowe, PC (May 13, 1894 ndash; February 9, 1984), was a politician in Ontario, Canada. He served as the 20th Lieutenant Governor of Ontario from 1963 to 1968. He also had four children, one of which died during labour.Rowe was born in …   Wikipedia

  • William B. Rowe — Infobox Artist name = William B. Rowe Born = Chicago, Illinois imagesize = 220px caption = Leading member of the Art Institute of Buffalo birthname = birthdate = 1910 location = Chicago, Illinois deathdate = 1955 deathplace = Taos, New Mexico… …   Wikipedia

  • William Rowe — may refer to:*William L. Rowe (b. 1931), American philosopher of religion *William Earl Rowe (1894 1984), politician in Ontario, Canada *William B. Rowe (1910 1955), American artist and art educator *Sir William Rowe (died 1593), Lord Mayor of… …   Wikipedia

  • Rowe — as family name:* Andrew Rowe, British politician * Arthur Rowe (athlete), English shot putter * Brad Rowe (actor) made several guest appearances on NewsRadio * Deborah Jeanne Rowe * Dick Rowe * Dorothy Rowe, Australian psychologist and author * F …   Wikipedia

  • William Hearst — Pour les articles homonymes, voir Hearst. Sir William Howard Hearst …   Wikipédia en Français

  • William Randolph Hearst II — (born 1942) was one of John Randolph Hearst s sons. Within the family he is often referred to as Billy. He attended the University of San Francisco and married Jennifer Gooch. They have a son, Jason Hearst. William and Jennifer divorced and… …   Wikipedia

  • William Roper — von Hans Holbein, ca. 1536 Sir William Roper (* zwischen 1495 und 1498 in Kent; † 4. Januar 1578 in London), war ein englischer Rechtsgelehrter und Angehöriger des englischen Parlaments. Als Ehemann der gebildeten Mar …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • William Stratton — Mandats 32e gouverneur de l Illinois 1953 – 1961 Prédécesseur Adlai Stevenson Successeur Otto Kerner …   Wikipédia en Français

  • William III of England — William III II William III by Sir Godfrey Kneller Prince of Orange Reign 4 November 1650 …   Wikipedia

  • William Rowe Lyall — (February 11 1788 February 17 1857) was Dean of Canterbury from 1845 to 1857. He was born in Stepney, Middlesex, the fifth son of John Lyall and Jane Comyns. He died at Canterbury, Kent. His career is describe Clive Dewey in his book The Passing… …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”