Concept in Definition ABC

lilen gomez | Jan. 2022
Professor in Philosophy

dogmatic theology

Theology is the study of the divine. A dogmatic theology is one that deals with the divinity, its attributes and perfections, taking as The starting point is revealed principles—namely, religious dogma—which are accepted as a matter of faith.

It should also be noted that, in a thought like that of San Agustín de Hipona (354 d. C - 430 AD C.), faith does not consist of a mere dogmatism, but there is a mutual relationship between faith and reason, insofar as both constitute complementary instruments in the search for truth. In this sense, he will say that “faith seeks, understanding finds”. The intellect does not occupy the role of basing the existence of God, but it is a means to approach him and accept the truths of faith, as revealed data.

Philosophy and dogmatism

The passage from the Critique of Pure Reason is well known in which Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) affirms that the empiricist David Hume “awakened him from his dogmatic sleep”. In philosophy, "dogmatic" is understood as the type of thought that aspires to establish a necessary and, therefore, universal knowledge, independently of the physical world, strictly speaking, metaphysics. The "dogmatic dream” to which Kant refers is the dream of reason for knowing immediately (without resorting to the sensitivity) the essence of all things.

What the philosopher points out is that this type of intuition is only possible for a divine being, but not for knowledge within the limits of human cognitive faculties. Men, as finite beings, do not have an infinite intuition of the world, but rather, in order to know, both concepts and sensitive (ie empirical) intuitions are needed. A metaphysics that suppresses dimension empirical knowledge is, then, dogmatic, because without the experience he cannot substantiate his concepts; therefore, it cannot be constituted as a science.

Science and dogmatism

As we have seen, there are relationships between reason, faith and philosophy, which could call into question a sharp division between dogmatism and argumentatively based thought. What difference, then, to the dogma of science, if in none of the cases is it possible to base ultimate truths?

In science, certain "truths" are usually accepted as starting points that do not require justification. We call these postulates “axioms”. However, what differentiates these groundless truths from dogmas is that the axioms of a theory are determined arbitrarily and conventional, that is, they can always be replaced by other axioms. This makes the edifice of science entirely reviewable, since if part of a theory is proven false, it can be eliminated.

On the other hand, what characterizes the dogma is its unquestionability, insofar as the dogma rejects any verification. While the truths of science are provisional truths, which are accepted based on a pragmatic interest, because they are useful for a certain purpose, dogmatic truths are accepted as revealed truths, whose permanence in time is never seen threatened, to exception of the case in which the totality of the doctrine that is based on such dogmas is rejected.

Bibliographic references

Gómez Santibanez, G. (2017) Saint Augustine: Faith and Reason. CIELAC.

Santayana, G. (2002) Dogmatism and skepticism. Theorem, Vol. XXI/1-3, p. 95-102.

Garcia Cubillos, J. TO. (2012) The Copernican inversion and the limits of knowledge in Hume and Kant. Dissertations Magazine, N°3. ISSN: 2215-986X. Pp. 116-134.