THEOLOGICAL AND PHILOSOPHICAL
BIOGRAPHY AND GLOSSARY

Vaihinger, Hans:

(1852-1933) professor at Halle; Neo-Kantian. Wrote The Philosophy of As-If. All abstract ideas are useful fictions that serve as instruments of the will to live. Knowledge is a means of orientation, prediction, and control in a world of sensations. "Because our conceptual world is a product of the real world, it cannot be a reflection of the real world." Knowledge does not reveal reality but helps us cope with it.

Valla, Laurentius:

(1407-1457) Italian Renaissance philologist; showed "Donation of Constantine" was spurious

VALUE:

See Instrumental value and Intrinsic value

VALUES:

* See Moral standards or values

Van Buren:

See Buren, Paul Van

Van Dusen, Henry P.:

(1897-1975) US Presbyterian President of Union Seminary; ecumenical leader

Van Dyke, Henry:

(1852-1933) US Presbyterian pastor; professor at Princeton

Van Ruysbroeck:

See Ruysbroeck, Jan Van

VanTil, Cornelius:

Professor at Westminster; defender of Calvinistic orthodoxy. Wrote 1. Christian Apologetics and 2. An Introduction to Systematic Theology.

VARIATION:

A factor in Darwin's principle of Natural Selection. Each generation produces differences of structure and function in organisms.

Varisco, Bernardino:

(1850-1933) Italian professor at Rome; wrote 1. The Great Problems; 2. Philosophy of Spirit; spirit is ultimate reality but not same as Hegelian thought; man not only a purely physical being but also a spiritual one; all things (even inanimate things) have a kind of spiritual life of their own; emphasized on spirit as the agent of action, rather than merely thought; strong empirical emphasized

Varley, Henry:

(1835-1912) Non-denomination British preacher

Vaughan, Bernard J.:

(1847-1922) British Roman Catholic preacher

Vaughan, Charles John:

(1816-1897) Welsh Anglican; wrote commentaries on the Bible

Venerable:

See Bede, the Venerable

Venerable Bede:

See Bede, the Venerable

Venn, Sir Henry:

(1725-1797) Anglican pastor. His letters are available.

VERIFIABILITY:

See Verifiability principle

VERIFIABILITY PRINCIPLE:

The central principle of Logical Positivism. A statement is true if there is some criteria by which we can verify the proposition or meaning it makes.

Vermigli, Peter Martyr: