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Religious beliefs and aspect seeing

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 March 2000

N. K. VERBIN
N. K. VERBIN
Affiliation:
Clare Hall, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, CB3 9AL
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Abstract

This paper is concerned with the centrality of aspect seeing in Wittgenstein's philosophy, with some analogies between religious beliefs and aspect seeing, and with the implications of these analogies for the question of the justification of religious beliefs. If belief in God is neither a hypothesis nor a regular perceptual belief but rather a type of aspect seeing, then the kinds of proofs and justifications that are applicable to it would have to engage the non-believer in a manner that would help her experience the dawning of a new aspect. This is why the standard philosophical proofs for theism, even when accepted as valid, are likely to be unsuccessful in bringing about faith.

Type
Research Article
Information
Religious Studies , Volume 36 , Issue 1 , March 2000 , pp. 1 - 23
Copyright
© 2000 Cambridge University Press

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