Ted Poston (University of South Alabama) reviews the book for NDPR, here.
Good ol' Phillip Quinn. He was a truly honest Christian. If only more Christians read him. It's still instructive to read his hard-hitting (and in my view, successful) critiques of Plantinga's earlier, internalist version of reformed epistemology in his exchanges with Plantinga in the mid-80s and early 90s.[1] Indeed, many of his criticisms apply to Plantinga's current, externalist stuff. I've always found it curious that the Plantinga-Quinn exchanges aren't more widely anthologized. Strange.
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[1] Quinn, "In Search of the Foundations of Theism", Faith and Philosophy 4:2 (October, 1985), pp. 469-486; Plantinga, "The Foundations of Theism: A Reply", Faith and Philosophy 3:3 (July, 1986), pp. 298-313; "The Foundations of Theism Again: A Rejoinder to Plantinga", in Zagzebski, Linda (ed.), Rational Faith: Catholic Responses to Reformed Epistemology (University of Notre Dame Press, 1993), pp. 14-47.
Degrees of Belief, Degrees of Warrant, and Plantinga's Proper Functionalism
*Rough draft*
We're all familiar with Plantinga's account of warrant. As he summarizes it:
"Put in a nutshell, then, a belief has warrant for a person S only if that belief is produced by cognitive faculties functioning properly (subject to no dysfunction) in a cognitive environment that is appropriate for S's kind of cognitive faculties, according to a design plan that is successfully aimed at truth." (Warranted Christian Belief, p. 156)
However, it bears emphasizing that this isn't the whole story about his account. For of course warrant is not the same thing as knowledge for Plantinga; rather, warrant is "that quality or quantity, enough of which turns true belief into knowledge."
Relatedly, Plantinga's account ties degrees of warrant to degrees of firmness of belief:
"We must add, furthermore, that when a belief meets these conditions and does enjoy warrant, the degree of warrant it enjoys depends on the strength of the belief, the firmness with which S holds it." (Ibid.).
But of course there is a fairly wide spectrum of degrees of belief. Putting these points together, we see that on Plantinga's account, a given belief can meet all the conditions of his account of warrant, and yet have nowhere near the degree of warrant required to "turn true belief into knowledge".
Now here's the rub: even if it should turn out that Plantinga's account of warranted Christian belief is correct, and even if Christian belief typically satisfies Plantinga's conditions of warrant, such belief may yet have nowhere near enough warrant to constitute knowledge.
To illustrate:
Billy Joe is reading 2 Corinthians 5:19 (with a humble and contrite heart, say, for good measure), where the author says that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself. In this situation, Billy Joe forms the belief that
P. God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself.
Furthermore, P is produced in Billy Joe by properly functioning, (successfully) truth-aimed cognitive faculties, and in an epistemically congenial environment for forming beliefs of this sort. Unfortunately, though, Billy Joe's belief is of the "I do believe; help thou mine unbelief" sort, i.e., relatively weak, wavering, and fragile.
Thus, although Billy Joe's belief enjoys a smidgin' of warrant, it's nowhere near enough to constitute knowledge. And one worry is that most Christians believe with a degree of firmness that more closely approximates Billy Joe's than that of Plantinga's ideal believer.
(I should note that this point about Plantinga's account of warranted belief is not a new one; in fact, many Christian philosophers have made it. Examples include (the late) Phillip Quinn, James Sennett, Michael Sudduth, Keith DeRose, Andrew Chignell, James K. Beilby, Sandra Menssen and Thomas D. Sullivan.)
We're all familiar with Plantinga's account of warrant. As he summarizes it:
"Put in a nutshell, then, a belief has warrant for a person S only if that belief is produced by cognitive faculties functioning properly (subject to no dysfunction) in a cognitive environment that is appropriate for S's kind of cognitive faculties, according to a design plan that is successfully aimed at truth." (Warranted Christian Belief, p. 156)
However, it bears emphasizing that this isn't the whole story about his account. For of course warrant is not the same thing as knowledge for Plantinga; rather, warrant is "that quality or quantity, enough of which turns true belief into knowledge."
Relatedly, Plantinga's account ties degrees of warrant to degrees of firmness of belief:
"We must add, furthermore, that when a belief meets these conditions and does enjoy warrant, the degree of warrant it enjoys depends on the strength of the belief, the firmness with which S holds it." (Ibid.).
But of course there is a fairly wide spectrum of degrees of belief. Putting these points together, we see that on Plantinga's account, a given belief can meet all the conditions of his account of warrant, and yet have nowhere near the degree of warrant required to "turn true belief into knowledge".
Now here's the rub: even if it should turn out that Plantinga's account of warranted Christian belief is correct, and even if Christian belief typically satisfies Plantinga's conditions of warrant, such belief may yet have nowhere near enough warrant to constitute knowledge.
To illustrate:
Billy Joe is reading 2 Corinthians 5:19 (with a humble and contrite heart, say, for good measure), where the author says that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself. In this situation, Billy Joe forms the belief that
P. God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself.
Furthermore, P is produced in Billy Joe by properly functioning, (successfully) truth-aimed cognitive faculties, and in an epistemically congenial environment for forming beliefs of this sort. Unfortunately, though, Billy Joe's belief is of the "I do believe; help thou mine unbelief" sort, i.e., relatively weak, wavering, and fragile.
Thus, although Billy Joe's belief enjoys a smidgin' of warrant, it's nowhere near enough to constitute knowledge. And one worry is that most Christians believe with a degree of firmness that more closely approximates Billy Joe's than that of Plantinga's ideal believer.
(I should note that this point about Plantinga's account of warranted belief is not a new one; in fact, many Christian philosophers have made it. Examples include (the late) Phillip Quinn, James Sennett, Michael Sudduth, Keith DeRose, Andrew Chignell, James K. Beilby, Sandra Menssen and Thomas D. Sullivan.)
John Turri's Critique of Alston's Perceiving God
John Turri (Huron University College) critiques William Alston's argument for experience-based theistic belief in "Practical and Epistemic Justification in Alston’s Perceiving God", Faith and Philosophy 25:3 (July 2008). The paper can be found here.
Joshua Thurow's Argument for Pantheism/Panentheism
Joshua Thurow (Mount Marty College) is toying with an interesting argument for pantheism/panentheism over at Prosblogion. Here is the link.
Politics and Economics Post
As you read widely in your aim to be an informed and rational voter, may I recommend that you include Elizabeth Anderson's important work in your reading list? Elizabeth Anderson is Arthur F. Thurnau Professor and John Rawls Collegiate Professor of Philosophy and Women's Studies at the University of Michigan, and her work in social and political philosophy, and in philosophy of economics, is of the highest caliber. See especially her book, Value in Ethics and Economics (Harvard University Press, 1993). But much of her published work is available here on her department website.
However, in light of the pervasiveness of a set of dubious arguments and assumptions about free markets and the role of government, you might want to start with this excellent series of posts she wrote several years ago at Left2Right.
Apologies for the interruption. And now, back to your regularly scheduled programming...
However, in light of the pervasiveness of a set of dubious arguments and assumptions about free markets and the role of government, you might want to start with this excellent series of posts she wrote several years ago at Left2Right.
Apologies for the interruption. And now, back to your regularly scheduled programming...
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