I grew up on the "Provo Bench" now known as Orem, Utah. My neighborhood in the late 70s and in the 80s was full of BYU Profs and their families.

My Sunday School teachers lectured me more than taught me. So maybe my Mormonication was significantly different that many Mormons. I sat at the feet of the BYU faculty. And one thing they all seemed to share was an aversion to "the philosophies of men." And they interpreted them as the corrupting influence in the original Church of Jesus Christ.

This is why I read this as I did.

https://www.exmormon.org/phorum/read.php?2,2204837,2205338#msg-2205338

And I probably am drawn more to philosophy as a result. It was taught to me as the domain of the light of Lucifer in crafting a host of counterfeits to the church.

Anyone get a different take on the philosophies of "men?"

I remember discussing the "idea of the good" in Plato's Republic, which was a big part of my political philosophy class with my father. Dad was taken aback that this "philosophy" didn't seem so bad. He wondered why it got so many people off base with the LDS Church.

I think this phrase out of the temple ceremony does leave the impression with LDS members that philosophy has cooties.

snowball Wrote:
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> I remember discussing the "idea of the good" in
> Plato's Republic, which was a big part of my
> political philosophy class with my father. Dad was
> taken aback that this "philosophy" didn't seem so
> bad. He wondered why it got so many people off
> base with the LDS Church.

Love it. IT literally is "the good" from a Classical religious standard.

I don't know why your father didn't see it in competitive terms. The Mormons teaching me were all about the Satan crafting appealing alternatives...

"The philosophies of men," is another favorite go-to phrase the Mormons use to discredit fact and reason. It is a very useful tool for those plagued with cowardly/lazy thinking and lacking in integrity.

ALL religions are the the philosophies of men.

More broadly all moral systems, whether religious or philosophic, are of men.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/14/2019 11:03AM by dogblogger.

and not women.

Dave the Atheist Wrote:
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> and not women.
English does lack that useful neuter generic plural. Can we blame Lilith as the scapegoat for our linguistic relativity in English?

Well there is the word humanity, but in this case it should be stated that broadly speaking all moral systems are the philosophies of the society that implements them.

Even more generally speaking, morality is simply a mystical term for ethics. And backing out to 30,000 feet ethics are simply the codification of consequences. The simplest way of thinking of this is that if you choose to live in a society where it is ethical to steal than the likely-hood that your stuff will be stolen is pretty high.

The quid pro quo of ethical systems is that individuals in society agree to abide by these systems in return for others doing the same. In the end the philosophies of humanity are boiled down to nothing special, just courtesy.

The reason why religion rails on the philosophies of humanity isn't that they are wrong, but because they render the religion impotent.

I disagree. Philosophy more often then not has a method or a system. Religions tend towards crazy talk. Both Philosophy and Religion can be crazy but I just don't think they are exactly the same kind. I might be straining at gnats.