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What and How We Know
- Religious Epistemology (4) : Knowledge via Religious Experience
- Revelation : Knowledge via Revelation
- Virtue Epistemology : Knowlege via Virtue
David Basinger in Faith and Philosophy, 8 (1991), pp. 67-80
According to Alvin Plantinga, it has been widely held since the
Enlightenment that if theistic beliefs are to be considered rational,
they must be based on propositional evidence. It is not enough for the
theist just to refute objections. The theist "must also have something
like an argument for [such a] belief, or some positive reason to think
that the belief is true." But this is incorrect, Plantinga argues.
Basic beliefs are beliefs not based on propositional evidence; such
beliefs are "properly basic in a set of circumstances" if they can be
so affirmed in those circumstances "without either violating an
epistemic duty or displaying some kind of noetic defect." And,
according to Plantinga, theistic beliefs can be properly basic. For
example, he argues that "under widely realized conditions it is
perfectly rational, reasonable, intellectually respectable and
acceptable to believe there is such a person as God without believing
it on the basis of evidence — propositional evidence vs. the kind
instanced by 'the evidence of the senses'." But can a properly basic
belief such as this have any epistemic credibility (warrant) if it is
not conferred by other propositions whose epistemic status is not in
question? Yes, Plantinga replies. There are two significantly different
ways in which a proposition can acquire warrant. There is propositional
warrant — warrant conferred by an evidential line of reasoning from
other beliefs. However, there is also nonpropositional warrant.

