PHIL 4420 Philosophy of Religion

Prerequisite: PHIL 2010. Religious experiences have been playing a most important role in human activities and social evolutions. From certain perspective, the manifestations of religious feelings are much wider than the faith and ceremonies of any set of consecrated doctrines. We can observe religious implications - or what Freud calls "oceanic feelings" - in a hodgepodge of phenomena including football festivities, spending sprees, stock market skyrocketing, obsessive gambling, sexual exhilarations, substance addictions, intellectual enlightenments, aesthetic engrossments, patriotic fanaticisms, and suicide bombings. With a view to untangling some hidden mysteries underlying various religious feelings, this course intends to explore the nature and origins of religious experiences from a combination of philosophical, psychoanalytical, and comparative approaches.