Talk:Antony Flew

From Philosopedia

The fact of Antony Flew changing his mind on the question of the existence of God is not in itself particularly astonishing or noteworthy. As I recall, the philosopher Edmund Husserl changed his mind on that, and other issues, several times during the course of career. What is astonishing about Flew's about face on the issue, is his embracing of arguments that he himself had thoroughly refuted years ago. Moreover, assuming that he was being quoted correctly in the NY Times article, apparently Flew has actually forgotten ideas and arguments that he himself had put forth on this issue, years ago. What was most striking and telling is that he was quoted as to admitting having forgotten about Hume's critique of miracles. That is amazing in light of the fact Flew was a leading Hume scholar, and had actually written about Hume's arguments concerning miracles on more than one occasion (for example in the Encyclopedia of Philosophy). My suspicion (which the author of the article apparently shares) is that Flew is suffering from a decline in his intellectual powers (perhaps due to some sort of a dementia).

Jim Farmelant