An Agnostic's Apology And Other Essays

The term 'agnostic' was probably coined by T. H. Huxley during a speech to the Metaphysical Society in 1869. From the Greek 'agnostos', 'unknown', it was derived from St Paul's mention of an Athenian altar inscribed 'to the unknown god'. With these overtones of ancient philosophy, agnosticism became the tag of an emergent school of thought which posited that the existence of anything beyond the material and measurable should be considered unknowable. In this collection of seven essays, first published as one volume in 1893, Leslie Stephen (1832–1904) makes a study of the 'unknown'. Across the essays, he presents arguments for the intrinsic agnosticism of many of the basic tenets of deism, explores the way in which humans construct dreams and realities, and examines the relationship between physics and philosophy. This readable and entertaining book will be of interest to students of both theology and philosophy.

1. An agnostic's apology; 2. The scepticism of believers; 3. Dreams and realities; 4. What is materialism?; 5. Newman's theory of belief; 6. Poisonous opinions; 7. The religion of all sensible men.

Leslie Stephen (1832-1904) was often inclined to consider faith and credulity to be a variation on a theme. In this collection of seven essays first published in 1893, he presents a readable, entertaining examination of the 'unknown', including arguments on agnosticism, belief, and dreams.