Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gbm5v Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T12:02:16.221Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Reforming reformed epistemology: a new take on the sensus divinitatis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 May 2018

BLAKE MCALLISTER  and
TRENT DOUGHERTY
BLAKE MCALLISTER*
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy & Religion, Hillsdale College 33 East College Street, Hillsdale, MI 49242, USA
TRENT DOUGHERTY*
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy, Baylor University 1301 South University Parks Drive, Waco, TX 76706, USA
*
e-mail: [email protected]
e-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Alvin Plantinga theorizes the existence of a sensus divinitatis – a special cognitive faulty or mechanism dedicated to the production and non-inferential justification of theistic belief. Following Chris Tucker, we offer an evidentialist-friendly model of the sensus divinitatis whereon it produces theistic seemings that non-inferentially justify theistic belief. We suggest that the sensus divinitatis produces these seemings by tacitly grasping support relations between the content of ordinary experiences (in conjunction with our background evidence) and propositions about God. Our model offers advantages such as eliminating the need for a sui generis religious faculty, harmonizing the sensus divinitatis with prominent theories in the cognitive science of religion, and providing a superior account of natural revelation.

Type
Original Article
Information
Religious Studies , Volume 55 , Issue 4 , December 2019 , pp. 537 - 557
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2018 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Barrett, Justin L (2004) Why Would Anyone Believe in God? (Lanham MD: AltaMira Press).Google Scholar
Barrett, Justin L., & Church, Ian M. (2013) ‘Should CSR give atheists epistemic assurance? On beer-goggles, BFFs, and skepticism regarding religious beliefs’, The Monist 96, 311–324.Google Scholar
Bergmann, Michael (2006) Justification without Awareness: A Defense of Epistemic Externalism (Oxford: Oxford University Press).Google Scholar
Bergmann, Michael (2013) ‘Externalist justification and the role of seemings’, Philosophical Studies, 166, 163–184.Google Scholar
Bergmann, Michael (2014) ‘Rational religious belief without arguments’, in Pojman, Louis & Rea, Michael (eds) Philosophy of Religion: An Anthology, 7th edn (Belmont CA: Wadsworth), 609–624.Google Scholar
Calvin, Jean (1960) Institutes of the Christian Religion, I, McNeill, John T. (ed.), Battles, Ford Lewis (tr.), The Library of Christian Classics (Louisville KY: Westminster Press).Google Scholar
Chisholm, Roderick M. (1966) Theory of Knowledge, 1st edn (Englewood Cliffs NJ: Prentice-Hall).Google Scholar
Chisholm, Roderick M. (1977) Theory of Knowledge, 2nd edn (New York NY: Prentice-Hall).Google Scholar
Chudnoff, Elijah (2011) ‘What intuitions are like’, Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, 82, 625–654.Google Scholar
Conee, Earl, & Feldman, Richard (2004) Evidentialism (Oxford: Oxford University Press).Google Scholar
Cullison, Andrew (2010) ‘What are seemings?’, Ratio, 23, 260–274.Google Scholar
De Cruz, Helen (2014) ‘The enduring appeal of natural theological arguments’, Philosophy Compass 9, 145–153.Google Scholar
Dougherty, Trent (2011) ‘Further epistemological considerations concerning skeptical theism’, Faith and Philosophy, 28, 332–340.Google Scholar
Dougherty, Trent, & Tweedt, Chris (2015) ‘Religious epistemology’, Philosophy Compass, 10, 547–559.Google Scholar
Evans, C. Stephen (2010) Natural Signs and Knowledge of God: A New Look at Theistic Arguments (Oxford: Oxford University Press).Google Scholar
Fumerton, Richard (1995) Metaepistemology and Skepticism (Lanham MD: Rowman & Littlefield).Google Scholar
Gellman, Jerome I. (1992) ‘A new look at the problem of evil’, Faith and Philosophy 9, 210–216.Google Scholar
Guthrie, Stewart Elliot (1993) Faces in the Clouds: A New Theory of Religion (Oxford: Oxford University Press).Google Scholar
Huemer, Michael (2001) Skepticism and the Veil of Perception (Lanham MD: Rowman & Littlefield).Google Scholar
Huemer, Michael (2006) ‘Phenomenal conservatism and the internalist intuition’, American Philosophical Quarterly, 43, 147–158.Google Scholar
Huemer, Michael (2007) ‘Compassionate phenomenal conservatism’, Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, 74, 30–55.Google Scholar
Lycan, William G. (1988) Judgement and Justification (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).Google Scholar
McAllister, Blake (2017) ‘Seemings as sui generis’, Synthese. <https://doi.org/10.1007/s11229-017-1360-9>>Google Scholar
McCain, Kevin (2012) ‘Against Hanna on phenomenal conservatism’, Acta Analytica, 27, 45–54.Google Scholar
Moon, Andrew (2016) ‘Recent work in reformed epistemology’, Philosophy Compass, 11, 879–891.Google Scholar
Moretti, Luca (2015) ‘Phenomenal conservatism’, Analysis, 75, 296–309.Google Scholar
Plantinga, Alvin (1993) Warrant and Proper Function (Oxford: Oxford University Press).Google Scholar
Plantinga, Alvin (2000) Warranted Christian Belief (Oxford: Oxford University Press).Google Scholar
Poston, Ted (2014) Reason and Explanation: A Defense of Explanatory Coherentism (New York: Palgrave Macmillan).Google Scholar
Pryor, James (2000) ‘The skeptic and the dogmatist’, Noûs, 34, 517–549.Google Scholar
Swinburne, Richard (2004) The Existence of God, 2nd edn (Oxford: Oxford University Press).Google Scholar
Tolhurst, William E. (1998) ‘Seemings’, American Philosophical Quarterly, 35, 293–302.Google Scholar
Tucker, Chris (2010) ‘Why open-minded people should endorse dogmatism’, Philosophical Perspectives, 24, 529–545.Google Scholar
Tucker, Chris (2011) ‘Phenomenal conservatism and evidentialism in religious epistemology’, in Clark, Kelly James & VanArragon, Raymond J. (eds) Evidence and Religious Belief (Oxford: Oxford University Press), 52–73.Google Scholar
Tucker, Chris (2013a) ‘Seemings and justification: an introduction’, in Tucker, Chris (ed.) Seemings and Justification: New Essays on Dogmatism and Phenomenal Conservatism (Oxford: Oxford University Press), 1–29.Google Scholar
Tucker, Chris (ed.) (2013b) Seemings and Justification: New Essays on Dogmatism and Phenomenal Conservatism (Oxford: Oxford University Press).Google Scholar
Walls, Jerry L., & Dougherty, Trent (eds) (forthcoming) Two Dozen (or So) Arguments for God: The Plantinga Project (Oxford: Oxford University Press).Google Scholar