E-Book: Phenomenology of World Religion

Historical, Doctrinal and Philosophical Study of World Religion and its Culture ©

by

Keith Allen Lehman

Preregistered copyright, U.S.C. 17 408(f), 1986 & ©2009, LOC Number Pending

Index

Chapter 1 - Introduction to Phenomenology of Religion

Chapter 2 – Ancient Greece, Hellenistic Hebrews and Influence of Zarathustra

Chapter 3 – Religion of the Pharaohs

Chapter 4 - Hebrews – Children of Israel - Ancient Historians

Chapter 5 – Religion-Culture of the Americas

Chapter 6 –

Chapter 7 –

Chapter 8 –

Chapter 9 –

Chapter 10 –

Appendix A – Bibliography

___________________________________________________________

Foreword

Of the panorama of man’s religious life is, in its outward form, selected mundane data symbolizing the more mundane, then the task of the student of religion is to know those data but to consider them not in themselves but in their role in our lives. Our concern is not primarily the doctrines and scriptures and prayers and rites and institutions; but rather, what these do to us. Not the tribal dancing; not the caste system, so much as what kind of person the Hindu becomes within it, or without it; not the events of Sinai, so much as what role the recounting of these events has played on both Jewish and Christian life over the centuries; not the Qu’ran, so much as what the Qu’ran means to a Muslim.
Wilfred Cantwell Smith, Religion as Symbolism

Religion, as defined by the American Heritage dictionary, is divided into three definitions:

(1) A system of faith in and worship of a deity; (2) devoutness: dedication to a holy life; (3) doctrine or custom accepted faith.

But, a more acceptable definition is given by Hans Küng in the book entitled Christianity and the World Religions, translated by Peter Heinegg, Doubleday, NY, 1986:

Religion is a social and individual relationship, vitally realized in a tradition and community with something that transcends or encompasses man and his world: with something always to be understood as the utterly final, true reality. … In contrast to philosophy, religion is concerned at one with a message of salvation and the way to salvation … Religion provides a comprehensive meaning for life, guarantees supreme values and unconditional norms, creates a spiritual community and home.

In the past, attempts have been made to discover an essential ingredient in all religions by contrasting the sacred and the profane, and the cultural and historical relationship to the development of humans on this world. These historical and theological studies have been difficult to pursue because of the wide variety of religions and cultures of human kind across the planet. For example, worship is typical of all religions, but it is not essential and neither is it easily categorized, and therefore it cannot be cross examined.

Theology is the study of the nature of God and religious truth. Therefore, in the study of religion, it is not feasible to use the established methods of theology; because one will automatically assume that everyone believes the same ideology, in the same god, or only one god, or in any deity at all. There is the study of Christian Theology, Judaic Theology, Hindu Theology, Islamic Theology, Buddhist Theology, et cetera.

The object of this examination of religions of the world is historical, combined with interest in philosophical thought, as well as an endeavor to establish intellectual knowledge concerning faith, spirituality and the speculation of the very reason of existence of humanity and key doctrine, rituals and rites as well what it basically means to a believer. Although it is discussed in certain instances in this book, it is not meant to be a comparative study, like the works of theologians and philosophers like Hans Küng between one religion and another, nor a critique of any of the religions studied – although certain factual and/or analytical observations will be noted. It is meant to enlighten the reader about the aspects of the different religions and any comparisons that appear are based upon their historical origins and any influences made upon one religion to another during the couse of human history and civilization. If any critique occurs it is because of the nature of the text and history obtained as a guideline, and if so, the critique is upon the historical content, not the people who have faith in that particular religion, thereby being an observation and not a critique of what one may believe.

In addition, it is not intended to be a dissection of any specific religion in a negative way, nor is it a shopping guide, or to perform an act of denouncement of a particular religion/sect, except in any instance where violence or human sacrifice is required by the followers of that religion. The reader may formulate ideas and prejudices, but I merely wish to convey information based upon scholarly works and the books written for and about that particular religion by those who believe in it and participate in its doctrine and rites, as well as philosophy behind it – whenever applicable. Therefore, scholarly texts are broken down into plain English so all can enjoy the subject material at hand, not intended to be just in the form of scholarly text.

Obviously those religions that have fallen into the fog of history are not included in that scenario. Pre-historical religions are mentioned briefly where its concept is relevant, but not dwelled upon. The major religions are sometimes broken down because of the various sects developed over a period of time by those who have either rebelled against the original religious authority, like Jesus Christ did against the hypocrisy of the temple and the patriarch leadership of the day, and as Mohammad did against the inconsistency of monotheism in the Semitic world of antiquity. I have personal opinions, especially those that pertain to the philosophical historical aspect of a religion or cult, but the subjects have been researched with objectivity in mind with no prejudice and/or few concrete conclusions. The historical aspect of the religions is based upon known archaeological evidence and sacred texts that have survived the rise and fall of civilizations throughout human history.

Neutrality is difficult when discussing or writing about religion; even if the author chooses an agnostic point of view, with no personal preference or claim to any specific religion. This attempt to be descriptive about religious beliefs and practices without judging them has been dubbed “epoch” or “bracketing” by scholars in the fields of philosophy and theology. The idea has been borrowed from the German philosopher, Edmund Hasseri [*] (1859-1938), who is considered to be the founder of phenomenology. Phenomenology refers to the attempt to describe religious phenomena in a way that brings out the beliefs and attitudes in the religion under investigation, but without endorsing or rejecting these beliefs and attitudes, activity, beliefs, and institutions relating to human progress in our world’s history. Therefore, phenomenology is the philosophical aspect of theology, which has become my forte’. While doctrine, rituals and other aspects of religion – such as prayer – is examined, this work is meant to be viewed as if the investigator was not of this planet, so to speak, and only based upon historical record and the personal ideology of the person who has faith in a particular religion. This must be performed by being objective and without presenting faith claims in religious discussion – a subject that concerns theologians and philosophers alike. While faith is extremely important to the follower of a religion, logic and historical evidence are the tools used here. This may offend or appall some individuals or religious groups, but that is not the intention. Using Christianity as an example – if God, assuming a person believes in a Supreme Being, did not intend for us to ask questions, he would have not provided us with the intelligence we are capable of. If God did not intend for us to have a choice, he would not have forbade us or presented to the first couple in the Book of Genesis the temptation within the symbolic tale of the tree of knowledge. This was a special gift, freedom of choice, and with it comes the acceptance of what occurs when our choices are not good. This concept was emphasized during the birth of the United States by its Founders, a nation conceived by those who had general beliefs of the Judeo-Christian background, yet established constitutional law providing freedom of the People of the United States to believe or not believe in a religion of their choice. Recently, the minority atheist movement in the United States have claimed that public display of rites, symbols and traditions of a religion, specifically Christianity, have come under scrutiny within the judiciary of the United States Supreme Court, based upon the concept and misphrased terminology of separation of state and church. Whereas this argument is quite simple to address, because although one has the right not to believe in any religion at all, they do not have the right to tell another person whose belief is in a religion, to not be allowed to profess that religion, display its symbolism and its traditions. For example, the display of the Ten Commandments in government buildings, of which also concerns the building of the Supreme Court itself. It is because the formation of our nation was based upon Judeo-Christian ideology, and its moral and ethic values, of whose laws are the foundation of nation laws around the globe. They also depict and display other important documents and replications depicting other important steps of humanity during the course of human history. This does not mean that the US government sanctions or establishes Christianity as a national religion, but regards it and Judeo theological thought as the founding principles that set the course of the important documents that established a new nation, under the concept of a democratic republic. But this is a digression into political thought, and will not be presented here.

Some of the religions, especially the ancient ones, have been referred to as mythological, but in reality ALL religions contain some form of a mythological account or larger than life reference to heroes, deities, prophets, founders, and forefathers in one form or another. This does not say that they did not exist, for as it is pointed out in various paragraphs of this book, mythology is almost always based upon facts or an historical event.

Robert Graves in his essay Mythology, states:

…the English adjective ‘mythical’, meaning ‘incredible’; and hence the omission from standard European mythologies of all Biblical narratives, even when closely paralleled by myths from Persia, Babylonia, Egypt, and Greece, and of all hagiological legends. He also divides myth into two main functions: (1) To answer questions that children ask. Questions like, where does man come from? What happens when we die? Where do we go after death? The answers are given in established traditional terms of mythology and religious doctrine. (2) Myths justify an existing social system and account for traditional rites and customs.[†]

A myth is a way to explain the unexplainable, to give an historical event more interest, and/or to provide a “moral to the story.” Myths and religious doctrine/rites have been remodeled to suit the changing political and cultural times. When studying the history of religion from the beginning, we can see these traditions to become complex or broken down into a simpler form. We find that myth and historical accounts are a record of invasions, migrations, introduction of a foreign culture, and social reformation. Says Robert Graves:

The constant rule of mythology is whatever happens among the gods above reflects events on earth.[‡]

So, the theme of religion and the study of it, originates from the human search for truth, unanswered questions, a guideline to conduct ourselves in our daily lives, and to give us hope for a life beyond our physical life, after death. The mythological aspect is derived to enhance the stories of heroes, personify or humanize the gods, and to explain the unknown in more understandable terms. In reality we may have disputed discussions concerning these subjects, but unless they are backed up by facts, the historical aspect is tainted. Faith in such beliefs is another aspect mentioned throughout this book, and plays an important part in the participation of any individual in any religion. In the end, those arguments concerning questions mentioned above cannot possibly be concluded as to which person in the discussion is right. I want to add here, as will be discussed in Chapter 1, the introduction, that science has played an important part in theological discussion. In my opinion science plays a huge part when the discussion concerns the creation of life as we know it. Even spiritual existence has been proven on certain occasions by scientific methods of investigation. This opened a new area in science that has become known as the paranormal. It is nothing new, as you will see when reading about ancient Egyptians, but until recent times it was only viewed as superstition and not reality. It wasn’t until the invention of certain tools that aid the paranormal investigator were invented that gave the opportunity of seeking the truth about subjects like ghosts, after life, near death experiences, and so on. Unfortunately, charlatans in this field have given the paranormal investigations a bad reputation. What is magic or superstition to one person may be scientifically explained or proven, and on occasion it remains a mystery whether it is real. In this light, maybe it is time for scientists and theologians to approach their arguments in a manner that realizes that science explanations can be intertwined with the claims of sacred texts or scriptures, instead of the two being constantly at battle with each other. For example, everyone should be able to agree that the formula of physics and the result of its actions is pretty much a mathematical explanation throughout the known universe. How can one put down the idea of creationism, a concept that today has been coined as Intelligent Design in theological defensive arguments, when a divine intelligence, called God/Allah/Jehovah must have used those principles of science, such as physics or quantum physics to do what the astrologists and astronomers have called the Big Bang that started the process of creation? Those arguments presented in Chapter 1, have been ongoing, and the verbal battle between scientific theories and the creation story will continue until the two groups can realize that both sides of the issue may be correct.

Religion and science has been adversaries for centuries, with periods of reconciliation, but reoccurring argument and accusations of heresy. But, in fact, science, especially archaeology, often compliments and reinforces that which was written in ancient texts as verification of circumstances, events and the very existence of what the author wrote about – be it people or events.

Archaeological discoveries have had an important, direct or indirect, impact upon scholarly analysis and historical interpretation of ancient text. The effect has been more beneficial than negative towards sacred texts, like the Holy Bible, and has supported information that the Church or synagogue has established as history or doctrine. Often arguments have ensued because of when text has been written, for example, the gospels and scripture of the New Testament – written long after the death of the personae focused upon – Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ, as a prime example. Some has gone as far to say or set out to prove that Jesus of Nazareth never existed. It would have been far better if Jesus had written down in his own hand what he was trying to convey, and what he believed he was chosen to do. But that was left to the disciples, of which Jesus selected and called them his fishers of men. In that light, it is no wonder that scholars and investigators suggest that the disciples who were tasked to continue spreading the words and ideas of Jesus of Nazareth after this death, have been accused of enlarging the background of events, circumstances, and possibly even the original words of Jesus the Christ; but were instrumental in establishing the organized religion that culminated into the creation of the religious entity called the Roman Catholic Church. But I digress. More of this will be mentioned in later chapters, especially Chapter 7.

The accounts of creation and early human history, when oral history was passed down in lieu of written words, have been steeped in fantastic circumstances and events and mythological occurrences established behind the facade of actual events. A good example comes to mind – the Flood. Obviously it has become most knowledgeable to people through the account in the Old Testament of the Holy Bible and the Hebrew sacred texts. But, it has been verified by oral and written accounts by other ancient cultures globally. When the ancients said that things were happening in terms of the whole world, one must remember that their world was smaller than what we know and realize today. One should say, the known world, to be more specific.

Creation in the biblical text is the guiding principle of biblical tradition, and the beginning of primeval history of the human species, as well as life on the planet we call Earth. The Book of Genesis, translated, means beginning, and is the prologue of the Old Testament. It is a testament or historical account of not only early history of the Hebrews, but of the human species and it certainly did not originate with the Hebrew Jews. Elements of the Creation story is similar to myths of polytheistic religions of Sumaria and Babylonia. Most of the background and narratives come from Mesopotamia. This has been reinforced by archaeological discovery of ancient libraries that contain mythological texts and describes the world in ancient history. Before the Flood is mentioned in the Old Testament books, genealogies are presented attempting to trace ancestry back to the beginning of the human species, and the names of some of these patriarchs parallel to those found in antediluvian dynasties of Sumer, of whose kings and key persons of the population are said to have had long lifespans. The story of Adam and Eve, as well as the Tower of Babel, a narrators attempt to explain the difference in language and to portray what happens to humans who forget their mortality, originates from mostly Mesopotamia culture. Archaeologists have found evidence of sites that these stories originated from the Tower of Babel to Sodom and Gomorra; as well as stories in the New Testament, like John the Baptist - characters that historically existed. In other cultures, real locations and real persons are the gist of mythology – Imhotep, City of Troy, et cetera.

The story of Abraham, not an Israelite, but an Aramean in ancestry is the patriarch of the Hebrews, Christians and Moslems. The ancestry makes sense because of the kinship in terms of ethnic background are tied together – they are literally cousins. What marked the change or division was the rift made via religion and the separation of its theological philosophy and ideology.

As an example of archaeology reinforcing the historical aspects of biblical text, excavations at Ebla (Tell Mardikh), 20 kilometers south of Aleppo, Syria was conducted by Dr. P. Matthiae and Dr. G. Pettinato, who uncovered more than 15,000 cuneiform clay tablets that dated to the latter third millennium, which makes it the early 4th Bronze Age. The clay tablets contained text written in Sumerian and Canaanite text, which is the ancestry of early Hebrews, in respect to anthropology. The references within the clay tablet text verifies the biblical account and existence of the Canaanite cities of Hazor, Megiddo, Gaza and Jerusalem (urusalima). The Creation story is included, along with the Flood story; but also records business transactions, receipt of shipment of goods, literary entries, legal documents, diplomatic events, historical records and geographical descriptions. It also established tht Ebla was an important ancient trade center and major point of civilization for that geographical area.

Thus the traditional picture of historical events and circumstance written by ancient authors is supported by concrete archaeological evidence. It also reinforces the idea that myth is often written about real events and historical background. Egyptian records that have been excavated reinforce much of what Hebrew authors wrote about in what they called the Egyptian exile, of which Moses plays an important part in providing an avenue of escape from Egyptian rule being captives of war and people utilized as a labor force in constructing the magnificent monuments built by ancient Egyptians. However, while I am sure there were events in which the Hebrews suffered, their labor environment was not as bad as depicted by Hollywood films and writers of ancient history. Slaves were an important asset in ancient civilized society, specifically rural communities. One would not want to work a slave to a premature death, for replacement was not always easily obtained; and training another slave costly and time consuming. While much of the work on Egyptian monuments was slave labor, the slave and Egyptian working class workers were provided housing and food at the construction sites of Egyptian monuments and tombs.

Crucifixion, a method of Roman punishment, sometimes on a large scale, as when the Spartacus Rebellion occurred and his army was captured, has been recorded, but no real physical evidence backed it up, until archaeologists investigated a tomb that bulldozers uncovered in north Jerusalem uncovered. Among the remains found was a young man with both of his heel bones pierced with an iron spike (meant to be nailed to a cross) with the tips bent so they could not be pulled out by the victim. Bits of olive wood were also found on the iron spikes. It was physical evidence that crucifixion took place in the Holy Land under Roman rule.

In the tale of the travels and adventures of Joshua in biblical text, archaeology has been a friend to the authors of the events; except for one from Joshua 6:20:

The people shouted with a great shout … the wall fell down flat so that the people went up into the city, every man straight before him, and they took the city.

The story of the Walls of Jericho that came tumbling down while priests blew on ram horns and the Joshua followers shouted does not match with archaeological evidence of the remains of the ancient city of Jericho – dated accordingly. By the time Joshua had been in the area, the walls had been in ruin for at least 100 years.

For the most part, archaeology compliments and reinforces ancient text and biblical accounts from all over the ancient world.

This book is a condensed version of the original ten-volume manuscript intended. It is a challenging task to present such material, especially when discussing the origins and development of Christianity, which is more complex in historical nature even more so than Islamic theology. The story of Christianity would cover volumes on its own. Research took about eighty-five percent of the work and I deem myself fortunate to have been able to come in contact or correspond with prestigious scholars and read their work on various subjects presented in this book during my travels and assignments during my military career in Europe and the Mediterranean, as well as personal discussion with archaeologists working at sites of ancient Rome and Greece within the geographical area we know as the Republic of Turkey. It is an endeavor that has spanned almost twenty years and finally is completed enough to begin publication; although, in my view, it is never completed because there is always something new or discovered to discuss – like the discovery of the Gospel of Judas, thought long lost and now painstakingly assembled and preserved for proper scholarly investigation. This important find not only reveals the truth behind the man, Judas Iscariot who has been deemed through the ages as a traitor to his master/teacher, but symbolic of the very word treachery, just as Benedict Arnold has become in more modern times in terms of human history.

While publishing as an e-book is beneficial to the reader in respect to the use of links for desktop browsing of researched material, sources and additional reading, as well as being far less costly than self-publishing in paper form, it does not provide monetary payment that normal publishing would hopefully attain.

Thomas Jefferson told his nephew:

You must read your Bible as you would Livy or Herodotus.

Thomas Jefferson was an enlightened person with faith and optimism in human reason. I hope that the research here concerning world religion follows his guidelines, for the Sacred Texts of the World certainly need to be studied as well as other classics. In this era, enlightenment has almost become a thing of the past, with few citizens of the world bothering to discover the wonders and ideas of the ancient world, and worse, believing it is not relevant to people of today and the future. And that is the fault of an educational system who is more concerned with establishing socialism and statism, rather than the freedom of open thought and discussion. Along with the Constitution, for example, one should read the Communist Manifesto – not to establish its ideology within our society and government system, but to gain knowledge of what doesn’t work and how it stymies, not stimulates individual thought and liberties. Philosophy, as in theology, is part of the science of politics as well. Unfortunately, modern politicians have lost the knowledge and the desire to retain that which has been successful in American history, as well as being aware of other philosophies passed down from the ancient classical and renaissance writers. They have endeavored to be more of a politician rather than a true statesman.

Originally the title of this book was to be The History of World Religion – but I decided to use the method of phenomenology, the origin of the term, rather the first mention of it, comes from Johann Heinrich Lambert, a German philosopher who first spoke of a discipline of philosophy called phenomenology in his Newes Organon, according to the Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy, as well as the 4-volume Encyclopedia of Philosophy published by MacMillan in 1967.[§] However, Edmund Husserl is attributed as the developer of the concept in 1906, according to the Encyclopedia Brittanica, and the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. There were, of course, others who

While it is philosophical analysis, the gist of the idea being a descriptive study of a given subject, it is applied here instead of just revealing its historical events and origins. Religion, especially the philosophically based religions, should be examined in this manner. Otherwise, this book would be nothing more than an argument of whether one religion is correct and another false, based upon my personal beliefs, and not objective reporting of the philosophy and how each religion is viewed by the follower.

In covering the Eastern Religions, it was difficult because there are not enough scholarly references written in English. In my quest to research Islam, I credit my friend, Mustafa, who connected me with Turkish bookstores and even arranged a meeting with an archaeologist uncovering a local temple in Smyrna (the name of Izmir before Islamists took over the region). One particular book shop dealt with rare books and I was able to obtain a rare 1936 copy of the Qu’ran (mistakenly spelled as Koran by Western authors) in English/Arabic and with helpful scholarly notes by the author[**]. Mustafa was also beneficial in my authorship of a book entitled American In Turkey,[††] which he had influence with the local museum and marble factory in order to obtain photos which otherwise were forbidden. Mustafa was a friend who enjoyed the subject of philosophy, who admired historical figures like Albert Einstein, and who became a mentor in learning and understanding the Turkish culture and the religion of Islam, as well as having several interesting discussions concerning  discussing existentialism, a subject (of many) that he was interested in. Mustafa was also a big fan of Clint Eastwood, and one year, for his birthday, I was able to obtain a signed photography from the American actor. He also collected his films on VHS format, of which I was happy to donate to him his films.

Mustafa recently passed away after a long bout with cancer; I miss his wisdom, enthusiasm and kindness. Mustafa showed me that there are true Moslems and there are false Moslems, those that follow the ways of violence and hatred – those called fundamentalists and whose acts of terrorism have forced the free world to declare war upon them and who have become a danger to regional stabliity and world peace through understanding of one another and a common background between them. It is my duty to convey here, in honor of Mustafa, that the People of the Book, as Mohammad the Prophet called them, can live in peace together; because they may not hold the same doctrinal views, but they worship the same God (Moslems, Jews, and Christians) – no matter what name they use in 80 different languages and dialects.  Shalom, Mustafa Arzkut. I am sure he is smiling down from wherever his spirit may be, as I write these words. In effect, portions of this book is dedicated to him in his memory, and it was my benefit and personal honor to have known him. He represented his nation and his religion with great honor and pride, and was just a good person and friend.

Of course, this book is not limited to those religions. It expands across pre-history and of religions that have come and gone, but still remains in the eyes of history.   Throughout this book there will be references in Latin and I provide translations, something that many authors take for granted that the reader will know what it means. Those are books that are written by scholars and expected to be only read by scholars. My Latin is limited, and if I were more literate in the reading and writing of Latin I would be qualified to be considered in the circles of scholars that I have associated with under opportunic circumstances. Latin is considered a dead language, but it is really just dying. Once physicians and surgeons were required to be literate in Latin for writing prescriptions and medical notations on charts; but those days are gone, although some medical shorthand is still used in the Latin context. Today the only Latin used and known is some sectors of the Holy Roman Catholic Church and scholars, as will be mentioned, who use the knowledge of Latin (and Linear A/B Greek) in order to study ancient texts and items found in archaeological digs. Latin is the base of written language in the Western languages, except for a few like Celtic based languages in Scotland, Ireland and Wales. English can be looked upon as complicated Latin, although it has changed drastically through the centuries and today dictionaries are so thick because of two reasons: the addition of technological and industrial age terms; and the addition of a multitude of slang.

While it has become common for authors and scholars to write the time after Christ’s death as “BCE” (Before Common Era) instead of “BC” (Before Christ) because of some sort of speech/political correctness ideology and argument, “BC” is used here as well as “AD” (After Death), ignoring the politically correctness of our age, and sticking with tradition and the meaning of how that documentation and calibration of time came to be. I never conceived that this writing would become what is known as an “e-book” before hard copy publishing, but that is the wonder of the movment of technology and the wonderful (and not so wonderful) changes it creates.

I would ask that people respect this work and its peregistered and registered copyright status with the US government, and if any passages are used, please link them and reference it back to me. Twenty years of study and research is really a life work, and one would certainly not want it plagiarized or used in large context without my permission or at least proper referenced identification. Comments are turned on, for now. I originally intended to turn off the comments and only accept email commentary, but thought I would retain the atmosphere of discussion here. Except for revealing any substantial facts, I will not get into a discussion as to one religion being superior than another. It is an argument where passion and emotion take over, understandably, and does not belong in this intellectual endeavor. However, as usual, freedom of speech is recognized here, but this does not excuse crassness, rudeness, slanderous, or character attacks upon myself or anyone wishing to share their thoughts. Intellectual discussion is beneficial. It promotes deep thinking, and why I enjoy reading philosophical works, and thinking “outside the box” is promoted here. In the case of the subject material presented here, we can agree or disagree, but ultimately one question answered usually raises several more questions. There is no “right” or “wrong” thinking concerning this subject material; however, factual history is observed as much as possible, and conjectures are identified as so. Some thought is established, but only within the realm of historical, archaeological, and written documentation.

Salam – Best Regards …

Keith A. Lehman

Originally written, 1986; rewritten in 2006, and updated in 2009.

Phenomenology of World Religions, its chapters, annexes and appendices is protected under US and international copyright laws – please respect that. Linked/Sourced excerpts may be used if author is identified and linked. No reproduction may be produced without the express permission of the author.

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[*] The Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Paul Edwards (ED), Macmillan Publishing Company, BY/London, 1967, p.135-150.

[†] The Norton Reader, W.W. Norton Company, NY/London, 1984, p.642.

[‡] The Norton Reader, p.643

[§] Leipzig, 1764.

[**] Published in 1936, Cairo, Egypt.

[††] This book is out of print, (a copy is at the Library of Congress) but I may have the opportunity to publishing a revised second edition.