DOCSLIB.ORG

Nature, God, and Creation: a Necessitarian Case

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Nature, God, and Creation: a Necessitarian Case NATURE, GOD, AND CREATION: A NECESSITARIAN CASE Yasin Ramazan Basaran Submitted to the faculty of the University Graduate School in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in the School of Global and International Studies, Indiana University June 2018 Accepted by the Graduate Faculty, Indiana University, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Doctoral Committee _____________________________________ John Walbridge, Ph.D. (Chair) _____________________________________ R. Kevin Jaques, Ph.D. _____________________________________ Timothy O'Connor, Ph.D. _____________________________________ I. Kaya Sahin, Ph.D. May 10, 2018 ii Copyright © 2018 Yasin Ramazan Basaran iii To my love Sümeyye, Without whose never-ending energy and inspiration, this dissertation would have never existed. She refreshed my mind and soul every day even though I was very often absent from home to complete this. If this dissertation makes any significant contribution to academy, my fellows should be thankful to her. As I always will be. iv Acknowledgments This dissertation has been produced after long years of confusion, determination, and curiosity. I started as a student of classical Islamic theology whose mind used to wander around the problems of modern philosophy of religion. It was my advisor John Walbridge who helped me reborn academically to see things from different angles. His patience for my untrained academic mind and my English has always encouraged me to study harder. I also appreciate incredibly illuminating discussions with Kevin Jaques, who sincerely addressed my oversights of scholarly approach, and well-designed classes of Tim O’Connor, who introduced me to new seas in philosophy. I also benefited greatly Kaya Sahin’s outlook, which widened my prospect. With their help, I was able to keep the fire which had been kindled by my mentor, my friend Gurbuz Deniz of Ankara University. I could never adequately express my gratitude for his inspiration and diligence during our reading sessions and private conversations. My brother Abdullah Basaran’s phenomenological insights were always helpful in clarifying my concepts. I will never forget our long phone conversations. Also, I should mention my fellow Ph.D. student Huseyin Arslan for his enjoyable company during which this dissertation has been started and finished. Kadir Cakmak and Ferhat Taskin were always there when I needed their discerning judgment. And Sibel Cekic, for always having faith in me. I also thank my sons Taha and Seha for bringing indeterminable joy to my life even though I had to miss a sizable portion of their early years. Finally, I must acknowledge the sympathy and understanding of my parents; Fazli, Zeynep, Mesut, and Azime. v Yasin R. Basaran GOD, NATURE, AND CREATION: A NECESSITARIAN CASE The theistic doctrine of creation highlights the significance of the world's dependence on God. For this doctrine, a variety of justifications have been offered based on the ontological and epistemological commitments of a philosopher or theologian. In this dissertation, I defend the thesis that the theistic doctrine of creation is strongly justified when on the one hand the integrity of nature is established by affirming causal necessity while on the other hand the sovereignty of God is maintained by affirming divine simplicity, eternity, and immutability. To construct my argument, in the first chapter, I examine the Aristotelian roots of causal necessity and its development by Avicenna. I also consider objections to causal necessity raised by Hume and al-G and some contemporary objections by David Lewis. In the second chapter, I identifyhazālī three competing theses to explain the integrity of nature, namely, the regularism, the extrinsic necessitarianism, and the intrinsic necessitarianism. I conclude that the intrinsic necessitarianism is the strongest among them. In the third chapter, I make a case for the sovereignty of God by exploring the limits of the concept of the theistic God and claim that sovereignty is conditional on immutability, simplicity, and eternity, which qualify the divine attributes of knowledge, power, and goodness. In the last chapter, after analyzing strengths and weaknesses of theistic accounts of creation, I propose an account of ontological dependence by extending Avicenna's account of creation, which consists in God's conferral of existence, to His sustaining activity at all times during which an object endures. ___________________ John Walbridge, Ph.D. (Chair) ___________________ R. Kevin Jaques, Ph.D. ___________________ Timothy O’Connor, Ph.D. ___________________ I. Kaya Sahin, Ph.D. vi Table of Contents Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 1 Chapter 1: The Integrity of Nature ................................................................................. 7 A. A Conceptual Analysis of Nature .............................................................................................7 I. Nature and Natures...................................................................................................................7 II. Is necessity exclusive to logic? ......................................................................................... 15 III. What counts as a law?........................................................................................................... 17 B. Aristotelian Roots of Causal Necessity .............................................................................. 21 C. Avicennan Development of Causal Necessity................................................................. 32 D. The Ghazalian Attack on Causal Necessity ...................................................................... 45 I. The logic of causal necessity .............................................................................................. 52 II. Al- .......................................................... 55 E. Humean Objections to Causal Necessity ........................................................................... 63 Ghazālī’s Reevaluation of Causal Necessity F. Modern Approaches to Causation........................................................................................ 83 G. Conclusion ....................................................................................................................................... 88 Chapter 2: The Case for Causal Necessity ................................................................... 91 A. Regularism ...................................................................................................................................... 91 B. Extrinsic Necessitarianism ................................................................................................... 100 C. Intrinsic Necessitarianism .................................................................................................... 103 D. Conclusion .................................................................................................................................... 114 Chapter 3: The Case for the Sovereign God ............................................................. 116 A. Theistic Paradigm ..................................................................................................................... 116 B. Aseity .............................................................................................................................................. 118 I. Incorporeality ........................................................................................................................ 120 II. Simplicity ................................................................................................................................. 123 III. Eternity ..................................................................................................................................... 127 IV. Immutability ........................................................................................................................... 131 C. Sovereignty .................................................................................................................................. 136 vii I. Alternative Ontologies: States of Affairs vs Things ............................................. 139 II. Omnipotence .......................................................................................................................... 141 III. Omniscience ........................................................................................................................... 152 IV. Omnibenevolence ................................................................................................................ 160 D. Conclusion .................................................................................................................................... 166 Chapter 4: A Critical Analysis of the Concept of Creation .................................... 168 A. Non-theistic Approaches to God-World Relationship ............................................. 171 I. Plato............................................................................................................................................ 171 II. Aristotle .................................................................................................................................... 175 B. Theistic Approaches to God-World Relationship
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Curriculum Vitae of Alvin Plantinga
    CURRICULUM VITAE OF ALVIN PLANTINGA A. Education Calvin College A.B. 1954 University of Michigan M.A. 1955 Yale University Ph.D. 1958 B. Academic Honors and Awards Fellowships Fellow, Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, 1968-69 Guggenheim Fellow, June 1 - December 31, 1971, April 4 - August 31, 1972 Fellow, American Academy of Arts & Sciences, 1975 - Fellow, Calvin Center for Christian Scholarship, 1979-1980 Visiting Fellow, Balliol College, Oxford 1975-76 National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowships, 1975-76, 1987, 1995-6 Fellowship, American Council of Learned Societies, 1980-81 Fellow, Frisian Academy, 1999 Gifford Lecturer, 1987, 2005 Honorary Degrees Glasgow University, l982 Calvin College (Distinguished Alumni Award), 1986 North Park College, 1994 Free University of Amsterdam, 1995 Brigham Young University, 1996 University of the West in Timisoara (Timisoara, Romania), 1998 Valparaiso University, 1999 2 Offices Vice-President, American Philosophical Association, Central Division, 1980-81 President, American Philosophical Association, Central Division, 1981-82 President, Society of Christian Philosophers, l983-86 Summer Institutes and Seminars Staff Member, Council for Philosophical Studies Summer Institute in Metaphysics, 1968 Staff member and director, Council for Philosophical Studies Summer Institute in Philosophy of Religion, 1973 Director, National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Seminar, 1974, 1975, 1978 Staff member and co-director (with William P. Alston) NEH Summer Institute in Philosophy of Religion (Bellingham, Washington) 1986 Instructor, Pew Younger Scholars Seminar, 1995, 1999 Co-director summer seminar on nature in belief, Calvin College, July, 2004 Other E. Harris Harbison Award for Distinguished Teaching (Danforth Foundation), 1968 Member, Council for Philosophical Studies, 1968-74 William Evans Visiting Fellow University of Otago (New Zealand) 1991 Mentor, Collegium, Fairfield University 1993 The James A.
    [Show full text]
  • A Critique of the Free Will Defense, a Comprehensive Look at Alvin Plantinga’S Solution to the Problem of Evil
    University of New Hampshire University of New Hampshire Scholars' Repository Honors Theses and Capstones Student Scholarship Spring 2013 A Critique of the Free Will Defense, A Comprehensive Look at Alvin Plantinga’s Solution To the Problem of Evil. Justin Ykema University of New Hampshire - Main Campus Follow this and additional works at: https://scholars.unh.edu/honors Part of the Medieval Studies Commons, Philosophy Commons, and the Religion Commons Recommended Citation Ykema, Justin, "A Critique of the Free Will Defense, A Comprehensive Look at Alvin Plantinga’s Solution To the Problem of Evil." (2013). Honors Theses and Capstones. 119. https://scholars.unh.edu/honors/119 This Senior Honors Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Student Scholarship at University of New Hampshire Scholars' Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Honors Theses and Capstones by an authorized administrator of University of New Hampshire Scholars' Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. University of New Hampshire Department of Philosophy 2012-2013 A Critique of the Free Will Defense A Comprehensive Look at Alvin Plantinga’s Solution To the Problem of Evil. by Justin Ykema Primary Reader: Jennifer Armstrong Additional Readers: Willem deVries, Paul McNamara & Ruth Sample Graties tibi ago, domine. Haec credam a deo pio, a deo justo, a deo scito? Cruciatus in crucem. Tuus in terra servus, nuntius fui; officium perfeci. Cruciatus in crucem. Eas in crucem. 1 Section I: Introduction Historically, the problem of evil exemplifies an apparent paradox. The paradox is, if God exists, and he is all-good, all-knowing, and all-powerful, how does evil exist in the world when God created everything the world contains? Many theologians have put forth answers to solve this problem, and one of the proposed solutions put forth is the celebrated Free Will Defense, which claims to definitively solve the problem of evil.
    [Show full text]
  • Defending Existentialism?
    States of Affairs, Maria Reicher, ed., (Frankfurt: Ontos Verlag 2009): 167-208. Defending Existentialism? Marian David University of Notre Dame This paper is concerned with a popular view about the nature of propositions, commonly known as the Russellian view of propositions. Alvin Plantinga has dubbed it, or more precisely, a crucial consequence of it, Existentialism, and in his paper “On Existentialism” (1983) he has presented a forceful argument intended as a reductio of this view. In what follows, I describe the main relevant ingredients of the Russellian view of propositions and states of affairs. I present a relatively simple response Russellians might want to make to Plantinga’s anti-existentialist argument. I then explore one aspect of this response—one that leads to some rather curious consequences for the Russellian view of propositions and states of affairs. 1. The Russellian View of Propositions and States of Affairs For present purposes, I take for granted that there are propositions. They are most perspicuously referred to by unadorned that-clauses, such as ‘that ants are insects’, or by what grammarians call appositive noun-phrases containing a that-clause, e.g. ‘the proposition that ants are insects’. Propositions are, as one says a bit metaphorically, the shareable contents of mental states and speech acts, such as believing, disbelieving, assuming, asserting, and denying. If I believe that ants are insects, then there is something I believe, namely (the proposition) that ants are insects. If you too believe that ants are insects, then there is something we both believe, namely (the proposition) that ants are insects.
    [Show full text]
  • A Kantian Theodicy
    View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Asbury Theological Seminary Faith and Philosophy: Journal of the Society of Christian Philosophers Volume 1 Issue 2 Article 9 4-1-1984 A Kantian Theodicy David McKenzie Follow this and additional works at: https://place.asburyseminary.edu/faithandphilosophy Recommended Citation McKenzie, David (1984) "A Kantian Theodicy," Faith and Philosophy: Journal of the Society of Christian Philosophers: Vol. 1 : Iss. 2 , Article 9. Available at: https://place.asburyseminary.edu/faithandphilosophy/vol1/iss2/9 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Journals at ePLACE: preserving, learning, and creative exchange. It has been accepted for inclusion in Faith and Philosophy: Journal of the Society of Christian Philosophers by an authorized editor of ePLACE: preserving, learning, and creative exchange. A KANTIAN THEODICY David McKenzie. Since the publication of J. L. Mackie's "Evil and Omnipotence" in 1955 and especially since the publication of Alvin Plantinga's God, Freedom, and Evil in 1974, much discussion of the problem of evil has been focused on the Free Will Defense as a possible solution. Furthermore, the discussion has been oriented to what is sometimes called, 'the logical problem', namely, whether the statement that the omnipotent, omniscient, and wholly good God of theism exists is consis­ tent with the statementthat evil exists, and not so much to the 'evidential problem' , namely, whether, even if Plantinga and others are right and these two are ulti­ mately consistent, the extent of the evil in our world does not undermine the ra­ tional justifiability of belief in God.
    [Show full text]
  • The Ontological Proof: Kant’S Objections, Plantinga’S Reply
    KSO 2012: 122 The Ontological Proof: Kant’s Objections, Plantinga’s Reply Gregory Robson, Duke University I. Introduction hroughout Immanuel Kant’s era, philosophers richly debated René Descartes’s seventeenth-century reform- ulation of the ontological argument that Anselm origin- T 1 nally advanced in the eleventh century. In the Critique of Pure Reason, Kant’s seminal analysis of the capacity and limits of reason and the implications of each for the claims of meta- physics, Kant offers a direct response to Descartes’s ontological proof, considering it against the backdrop of his own, broader line of argument in CPR. The result is perhaps the most des- tructive critique of the ontological argument ever produced.2 The aims of this essay are, first, to present Kant’s criticism of the ontological argument (or better, arguments3—herein I use 1 I am grateful to Gary Banham, Andrew Janiak, and two anonymous reviewers at Kant Studies Online for their feedback on earlier versions of this paper. 2 Alvin Plantinga has called Kant’s argument according to which existence is not a real property of things “[t]he most famous and important objection to the onto- logical argument” (Plantinga, God, Freedom, and Evil, 92). And, according to Kevin Harrelson, Kant’s rejection of the ontological argument on epistemic grounds constitutes “the most thorough criticism of that argument in the modern period” (Harrelson, The Ontological Argument from Descartes to Hegel, 167). 3 Of course, there is not just one ontological argument—some authors have even themselves offered several ontological arguments. Anselm himself, argues Nor- man Malcolm, put forward two distinct ontological arguments.
    [Show full text]
  • Proxy 'Actualism'
    PETER VAN INWAGEN “Who Sees Not that All the Dispute is About a Word?”: Some Thoughts on Bennett’s “Proxy ‘Actualism’” This note is a defense of Alvin plantinga’s “actualist” modal ontology against the criticisms brought against it by karen bennett in her (2006) paper “Proxy ‘actualism’”1 (Familiarlity with both bennett’s paper and chapters IV-VIII of plantinga’s (1974) The Nature of Necessity is assumed.) What I will say in response to bennett’s criticisms of plantinga’s actualism is almost entirely a gloss on the following thesis: It is not essential to plantinga’s philosophy of modality that the word ‘actual’ (or any word formed from ‘actu- al’—‘actually’, ‘actuality’ and so on) occur in its statement. I will defend this thesis in Part I. Having established that thesis (at least to my own satisfaction), I will, in Part II, consider its consequences for bennett’s criticism of plantinga’s actualism. My conclusion will be that these criticisms fail, owing to the fact that they depend on the historical accident that the customary designation for Plant- inga’s position is “actualism”—that if this position had been given a name that did not contain ‘actual’ or any word formed from ‘actual’, the criticisms of the position that are presented in “proxy ‘actualism’” could not even be stated. Fi- nally, in an Appendix, I will discuss a puzzling statement that Bennett has made about the properties Plantinga calls individual essences. I I begin with a précis of plantinga’s modal ontology. This précis will be, I concede, terminologically tendentious in that it will contain no occurrences of the word ‘actu- al’ (or of any word “based on” ‘actual’—‘actually’, ‘actuality’, etc.2).
    [Show full text]
  • Warrant and the Value of Knowledge Jonathan Scott Uquaf University of Missouri-St
    University of Missouri, St. Louis IRL @ UMSL Theses Graduate Works 11-9-2009 Warrant and the Value of Knowledge Jonathan Scott uquaF University of Missouri-St. Louis, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://irl.umsl.edu/thesis Recommended Citation Fuqua, Jonathan Scott, "Warrant and the Value of Knowledge" (2009). Theses. 271. http://irl.umsl.edu/thesis/271 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate Works at IRL @ UMSL. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses by an authorized administrator of IRL @ UMSL. For more information, please contact [email protected]. WARRANT AND THE VALUE OF KNOWLEDGE by Jonathan Scott Fuqua M.A., Church-State Studies, Baylor University, 2009 B.A., History & Political Science, Culver-Stockton College, 2003 A THESIS Submitted to the Graduate School of the UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI-ST. LOUIS In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree MASTER OF ARTS in PHILOSOPHY November, 2009 Advisory Committee Berit Brogaard, Ph.D. Committee Chair Eric Wiland, Ph.D. John Greco, Ph.D. © Copyright 2009 by Jonathan Scott Fuqua All Rights Reserved Fuqua, Jonathan (Scott), 2009, UMSL, p. 2 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I want to thank Berit Brogaard, John Greco, and Eric Wiland, the members of my thesis committee, for their many, varied, and extraordinarily helpful comments on what eventually became this thesis. Fuqua, Jonathan (Scott), 2009, UMSL, p. 3 DEDICATION I dedicate this thesis to Angela, my wife, for her unflagging support and patience. Without her backing a project like this would be impossible. Fuqua, Jonathan (Scott), 2009, UMSL, p.
    [Show full text]
  • Alvin Plantinga and Nicholas Wolterstorff, Eds., FAITH and RATIONALITY: REASON and BELIEF in GOD
    Faith and Philosophy: Journal of the Society of Christian Philosophers Volume 3 Issue 2 Article 7 4-1-1986 Alvin Plantinga and Nicholas Wolterstorff, eds., FAITH AND RATIONALITY: REASON AND BELIEF IN GOD Stephen Wykstra Follow this and additional works at: https://place.asburyseminary.edu/faithandphilosophy Recommended Citation Wykstra, Stephen (1986) "Alvin Plantinga and Nicholas Wolterstorff, eds., FAITH AND RATIONALITY: REASON AND BELIEF IN GOD," Faith and Philosophy: Journal of the Society of Christian Philosophers: Vol. 3 : Iss. 2 , Article 7. DOI: 10.5840/faithphil19863215 Available at: https://place.asburyseminary.edu/faithandphilosophy/vol3/iss2/7 This Book Review is brought to you for free and open access by the Journals at ePLACE: preserving, learning, and creative exchange. It has been accepted for inclusion in Faith and Philosophy: Journal of the Society of Christian Philosophers by an authorized editor of ePLACE: preserving, learning, and creative exchange. 206 Faith and Philosophy magican is coherent. But ifno magicians exist, no possible object is a magican. This is a fine book and is strongly recommended for use in advanced courses in philosophy of religion. Dore proposes to meet the atheist on mutually acceptable ground and to serve as a guide through quite difficult paths of reasoning to the land of theism. Along the way, even if one finds himself thinking that a particular path doesn't quite lead to theism, one meets with a number of cogent philosophical arguments, careful distinctions and illuminating discussions. Anyone with a serious interest in philosophical theology should come to grips with this thoughtful work. Faith and Rationality: Reason and Belief in God, edited by Alvin Plantinga and Nicholas Wolterstorff.
    [Show full text]
  • Is God Morally Obligated to Prevent Evil? a Response to James Sterba
    religions Article Is God Morally Obligated to Prevent Evil? A Response to James Sterba Joseph Brian Huffling Department of Philosophy, Southern Evangelical Seminary, Charlotte, NC 28277, USA; bhuffl[email protected] Abstract: James Sterba’s book, Is a Good God Logically Possible?, argues that given the amount of significant and horrendous evil in the world, it is not possible for a (morally) good God to exist. This article draws on the work of Brian Davies’ interpretation of Thomistic metaphysics and theology proper and argues that God is not a moral being, and thus has no obligations to prevent such evil. If such is the case, then the problem of evil as presented by Sterba is not a problem for God’s existence. Keywords: God; moral; morality; evil; James Sterba; Brian Davies; Thomas Aquinas; good 1. Introduction James Sterba argues that a good God is not logically possible.1 It may interest some that as a theist, I agree with him in a way. How on earth could a theist agree with an atheist in saying that a good God does not exist? In his book, Is a Good God Logically Possible?, Sterba makes the argument that given the amount of horrendous evil in the world, there is no justification, even in principle, for an all-good God allowing it.2 While many if not most philosophers today favor a more inductive argument in the vein of William Rowe, Sterba uses a logical, deductive approach to argue against any possibility of God’s existence.3 Citation: Huffling, Joseph Brian. This article will outline Sterba’s main argument, focusing on his point that any such 2021.
    [Show full text]
  • Plantinga's Reformed Epistemology and Religious Extremism
    University of Tabriz Philosophical Ivestigations Fall & Winter 2015/ Vol. 9/ No. 17 Plantinga’s Reformed Epistemology and Religious Extremism: Some Historical Evidences* Jalal Peykani** Assosiate Professor in Pilosophy, Payam-e Nour University Meisam Sadeghpour Instructor in Art and Artitecture, Payam-e Nour University Abstract According to Plantinga’s reformed epistemology, as perceptual beliefs, religious beliefs are properly basic, and therefore need no additional justification. But as it has been said frequently, this idea may lead to relativism. In this paper, first, we argue that not only its relativistic aspect allows for religious extremism, but also it could be used to justify that kind of extremism. Then, reciting some historical testimonies, including John Calvin, Khawarij, Ibn Taymiyye and Seyyed Qutb, we suggest that in principle, for many centuries extremists have derived a benefit from an idea similar to reformed epistemology to justify committing violence and other unacceptable behaviors. Keywords: Alvin Plantinga, reformed epistemology, religious extremism, relativism. * Received date: 2016/03/20 Accepted date: 2016/04/05 ** E_mail: [email protected] 106/ Philosophical Investigations, Fall & Winter 2015/ Vol. 9/ No. 17 Introduction As much as Plantinga’s reformed epistemology (RE) was very effective and has some recommendations, it has received considerable critics and rejections. Usually, such criticisms focus on theoretical aspect and, especially neglect one of its problematic aspects from practical point of view. Probably, that is because for the People in developed countries, including philosophers, who live in modern societies in the West, this negative aspect is not outstanding. But who live in societies which are toward extremism, comprehend that how such relativistic thesis could serve to extremism.
    [Show full text]
  • Alvin Plantinga, God's Philosopher
    Cambridge University Press 978-0-521-85531-0 - Alvin Plantinga Edited by Deane-Peter Baker Excerpt More information Introduction: Alvin Plantinga, God’s Philosopher DEANE-PETER BAKER INTRODUCTION The dominance of logical empiricism’s verification principle in the middle part of the twentieth century forced philosophy of religion almost entirely out of the philosophy curriculum, and, with a few notable exceptions, few philosophers willingly identified themselves as Christians. However, logical empiricism collapsed under the weight of its own principles, and in the spring of 1980 Time magazine reported that in a “quiet revolution in thought and arguments that hardly anyone could have foreseen only two decades ago, God is making a comeback. Most intriguingly, this is happening not among theologians or ordinary believers ...but in the crisp, intellectual circles of academic philosophers, where the consensus had long banished the Almighty from fruitful discourse.”1 Alvin Plantinga, one of those who had played a role in the demise of the verification principle, was identified by Time as a central figure in this ‘quiet revolution’. In fact, the article went so far as to label him the “world’sleading Protestant philosopher of God.”2 Being singled out in this way by arguably the world’s foremost news magazine is made all the more remarkable by the fact that, at the time, Plantinga was a professor of philosophy at a small Calvinist college, whose most important work was yet to come. The intervening years since Time’s report have seen Plantinga emerge as one of contemporary Western philosophy’s leading thinkers of any stripe.
    [Show full text]
  • Divine Methodology: a Lawful Deflection of Kantian and Kantian-Esque Defeaters
    Open Theology 2017; 3: 293–304 Analytic Perspectives on Method and Authority in Theology Open Access Tyler Dalton McNabb*, Erik Daniel Baldwin Divine Methodology: A Lawful Deflection of Kantian and Kantian-esque Defeaters DOI 10.1515/opth-2017-0023 Received March 20, 2017; accepted May 8, 2017 Abstract: Immanuel Kant argues that though Divine revelation is ontologically possible, given phenomenal level constraints on our cognitive faculties, it isn’t epistemically possible for us to know or to recognize Divine revelation on the noumenal level of reality. We call this Kant’s Epistemological Objection Against Divine Revelation (EOADR). Contra Kant, in this paper, we argue that the EOADR doesn’t undermine the Reformed tradition’s view of Divine revelation because it has resources that make knowledge of Divine revelation intelligible. The primary way of establishing our argument is by articulating and furthering Alvin Plantinga’s religious epistemology. After doing this, we tackle two objections to our approach that are in the family of Kant‘s objection, namely Stephen Law‘s X-Argument Against Religious Belief and Erik Baldwin‘s Multiple Viable Extensions Objection. Similar to Kant‘s argument, these arguments attempt to show, that the Reformed epistemologist is in danger of acquiring an undercutting defeater for trusting her religious belief. We respond to each in turn. Keywords: Plantinga, Reformed epistemology, Calvin, Barth, Diller, Stephen Law, Multiple Extension While leaving room for the metaphysical possibility of Divine revelation, roughly, Kant argues that it is epistemically impossible to have a warranted belief1 that a specific revelation is from God. This is due to the fact that God is infinite and it’s impossible to use our finite experience to comprehend the infinite.
    [Show full text]