McTaggart on Religion and Metaphysics and King’s Criticisms of These Views

Abstract

T: McTaggart, one of the leading representatives of British Idealism, is a logician and metaphysician philosopher who is a typical figure of the approach called personalistic idealism or atheistic personalism and occupies a unique position in the history of philosophy with his extraordinary views. Although McTaggart is best known for his argument for the unreality of the time, his views on religion and metaphysics are also quite interesting. He previously tried to criticize and eliminate the arguments and conceptualizations of theism about the existence of God in the traditional sense, which is one of the main purposes of his work Some Dogmas of Religion dated 1906. However, in The Nature of Existence, which is considered to be his magnum opus, McTaggart both leaves the traditional theist claims aside and tends to advocate atheism. It is very interesting that he defends the immortality of the soul on the one hand and opposes the freedom of will on the other hand, emphasizing the importance of love and personality, thinking that the universe has a certain purpose and then denies the existence of a personal, omnipotent God. The aim of this study is to reveal McTaggart's views on religion and metaphysics and to deal with the criticisms of his views, especially Martin Luther King, Jr.’s criticisms, who was a theist and activist thinker. At the end of this study, McTaggart’s views on religion and metaphysics will be evaluated. What this study aims to show is that McTaggart occupies a rather unusual position in the history of philosophy, especially in the history of philosophy of religion, with his views on religion and metaphysics..