tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2232903554513250778.post931889195301072112..comments2023-09-05T05:04:38.668-05:00Comments on Philosophy Foosball: The SmithsHendrik van der Breggenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04149481975577863835noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2232903554513250778.post-29469834095378904402011-02-27T15:49:17.068-06:002011-02-27T15:49:17.068-06:00I would add yet another Smith into the mix: R. Sco...I would add yet <i>another</i> Smith into the mix: <a href="http://www.biola.edu/faculty/profiles/profile.cfm?n=scott_smith" rel="nofollow">R. Scott Smith</a>.<br /><br />I think that R. Scott Smith's work helps anchor the Critical Realism that Christian Smith favours, when the latter Smith writes, "First we come to terms with what we believe is and what it is like, then we examine the possibilities for knowing about it." Without addressing Christian Smith directly, R. Scott Smith's work addresses Christian Smith's "[coming] to terms with what we believe is and what it is like" and grounds it (rightly I think) in something like <i>simple seeing</i>, a species of knowledge by direct acquaintance (which I've written about over at <a href="http://apologiabyhendrikvanderbreggen.blogspot.com/search/label/Seeing" rel="nofollow">Apologia</a>). Without such a grounding, it seems to me that Critical Realism (which, not so incidentally, I think is the way to go) gets disconnected from our knowing the world itself -- i.e., gets disconnected from the metaphysics that Christian Smith is seeking to emphasize -- and collapses into some sort of pragmatism or instrumentalism (as my colleague Daryl Climenhaga has observed in a comment at <a href="http://apologiabyhendrikvanderbreggen.blogspot.com/2011/01/its-all-interpretation-part-1.html" rel="nofollow">Apologia</a>).<br /><br />Here are some writings by R. Scott Smith: R. Scott Smith, "Reflections on McLaren and the Emerging Church," in <i>Passionate Conviction: Contemporary Discourses on Christian Apologetics</i>, eds. P. Copan & W. L. Craig (B&H Academic, 2007), 227-241; R. Scott Smith, "'Emergents,' Evangelicals, and the Importance of Truth," in <i>Evangelicals Engaging Emergent: A Discussion of the Emergent Church Movement</i>, eds. W. D. Henard & A. W. Greenway (B&H Academic, 2009), 129-156.Hendrik van der Breggenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04149481975577863835noreply@blogger.com