James C. Edwards

Reprint of the original, first published in 1875.

What could it mean to be religious in a world where religion no longer retains its former authority? Posing this question for his fellow Western intellectuals who inhabit just such a world, James C. Edwards investigates the loss of religion's traditional power in a culture characterized by what he calls "normal nihilism"—a situation in which one's commitment to a particular set of values is all one really has, and in which traditional religion is only a means of interpretation used to preserve what one most cares about. Recognizing the important historical role of religion in making us the people we are, he seeks to establish a viable understanding of religion without traditional beliefs and within the context of contemporary skepticism. The Plain Sense of Things is a book more interested in the power of religion that in its truth and in what happens to that power when the claims to truth slacken their grip.

"Ethics Without Philosophy is the first full-scale attempt to relate Wittgenstein's ethical and religious concerns to his philosophical work. The attempt is splendidly carried out. I have found it more useful in helping me to understand Wittgenstein than any other book about him which I have read." --Richard Rorty, Princeton University