Dictionary of Philosophy of Religion

BEAUTY

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for its subversive criticism of human
pretensions.

BEAUTY. Beauty is a central object of
interest for Platonists and a recurring
theme in Platonic forms of Judaism,
Christianity, and Islam. Beauty has been
defined as an inherent objective property
(perfect symmetry) or as a relational
property (something is beautiful if it
should generate pleasure or delight). In
the modern era, some philosophers have
promoted non-normative and non-
cognitive concepts of beauty, but beauty
persists as an ongoing theme in norma-
tive accounts in which God, justice,
human love, and so on, are considered
beautiful. Beauty is also one of the main
topics in contemporary aesthetics.

BEAUVOIR, SIMONE DE (1908–1986).
Her critique of patriarchy in religious and
secular culture helped promote feminist
philosophy of religion, as well as expose
the vices of male-dominated institutions
and personal, oppressive practices. She is
the author of The Second Sex (1949) and a
variety of other works including philo-
sophical novels and an autobiography.

BEHAVIORISM. A movement that seeks
to replace subjective and introspective
psychology with an analysis of overt and
implied action or behavior. Behaviorism
is often part of an overall naturalist phi-
losophy of nature that is materialistic.

BEING. While logical positivists eschewed

the intelligibility of being as a concept,

being has been an object of philosophical

inquiry since Parmenides. Some identify

God as being itself or as the ground of

being (e.g., Paul Tillich).

BEING, THE GREAT CHAIN OF. The

intellectual historian, A. O. Lovejoy,

employed this term to refer to the hierar-

chical relationship between levels of

reality with God at the highest point of

this order. The material world is at the

lowest level with plants, animals, human

persons, and angels in an ascending order.

These interwoven stages or levels may

be found in medieval philosophy but

came under attack in modern science.

The Great Chain of Being was a teleologi-

cal (purposive) order as distinct to a non-

purposive, mechanical view of nature.

See also LOVEJOY.

BELIEF. In philosophy, belief is usually

treated in propositional terms. To believe

that God exists is to hold (or accept or

maintain) that it is true that God exists

or, technically, that the proposition “God

exists” is true. Some philosophers and

theologians also recognize types of belief

that are not propositional in a narrow

sense. For example, one might believe in a

person (and thereby have trust in her) or

believe in a cause (and thereby hold that

the cause is worthy). Some philosophers

argue that there is always evidence for