Title:
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Transcendence matters : rethinking transcendence, materialism and the divine in philosophical context
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Where there has been a shift by certain strands of modern! postmodern thinkers
towards rethinking 'transcendence' and the 'the divine' in strictly material and
immanent terms, this thesis hopes to show that such a shift leads to problematic
formulations of material immanence. Given such concerns a move is made towards
developing an ontology that will properly sustain otherness (transcendence) within
material immanence. Significantly, it will be suggested that this ontology is best
supported given a theistic framework, where a more traditional understanding of
divine transcendence is acknowledged.
The turn towards thinking transcendence and! or the divine as entirely inherent within
the world, rather than discontinuous with it in any way, is prompted by the worry that
the affirmation of traditional, theistic understandings of divine transcendence
invariably encourages the discrediting of the material world and inaugurates every
kind of unwelcome hierarchical dualisms, for example, God! World, Transcendence/
Immanence, Spirit! Matter, etc. This thesis examines the philosophies of Giles
Deleuze, Luce Irigaray, Jacques Derrida and Theodor Adorno to see how they might
enable us to re-conceptualise 'transcendence' and! or 'the divine' in this-worldly,
immanent terms. Specifically, I look at Deleuze's reading of Spinoza, Jrigaray's
notion of the 'sensible transcendental', Derrida's 'differance', and Adorno's 'negative
dialectics' in order to assess whether these deliver an account of material immanence
broadly characterised by the otherness and becoming of embodied life. Through a
careful analysis of their arguments I hope to demonstrate that these thinkers are
unable to successfully account for otherness within material immanence in the ways
that they claim.
In light of the difficulties ascertained in these 'immanentist' philosophies, I argue for
what I call a 'strong' ontological realism with respect to upholding otherness within
material immanence. Such a realist ontology, I maintain, is most successfully
accounted for given the reality of divine transcendence conceived in a monotheistic
sense. I thus urge for a reconsideration of a more traditional conception of divine transcendence as one that actually secures otherness or difference within the material
world rather than negates this.
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