Tracy notes on Mitch

philosophical, religious and scientific symbols

oswald O. Schrag

Starts by connecting philosophy with wonder, and that 'being' is the object it studies. This wonder or awe, caused by an experience of incompleteness is the motivation for there being religion. And god is the object of religion. The quest for understanding the relation between things is the motivation behind scientific enquiry. Space-time is the object.

The problems of knowledge are in the relation between object and subject. These structures are modes of being but are "being" cannot be fully understood through a singular mode.

Talks about Jasper's philosophy of the encompassing: The object reveals itself enough to be recognized but can't be fully comprehended. Talks about routes to understanding being more through classifying and quantifying things

Scientists and theologists in comparison cannot completely determine an idea of what science or religion actually is because they cannot have access to all of the knowledge relating to their concerns. In search of knowledge they both enter into a faith relationship.

On the basis of our experience we develop symbols to place on and classify scientific inquiries and theological ideas, in an attempt to gain a comprehension of them. Scientist collects data but from this data, they hypothesize a conclusion. We make containers (symbols) for information that have conclusion points in order to make sense of "being".