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Testimony, Belief and Unbelief in the Problem of Faith and Reason

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Testimony, Belief and Unbelief in the Problem of Faith and Reason Testimony, Belief and Unbelief in the Problem of Faith and Reason A thesis submitted to the University of Manchester for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Faculty of Humanities 2017 Finlay P Malcolm School of Social Sciences 2 CONTENTS Abstract ........................................................................................................................ 6 Declaration and Copyright Statement .......................................................................... 7 Acknowledgements ...................................................................................................... 8 0. INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................. 9 0.1 Situating the Project ...................................................................................... 9 0.2 Chapter Overviews ...................................................................................... 13 1. NEW DIRECTIONS IN FAITH AND REASON ......................................... 15 1.1 Overview ..................................................................................................... 15 1.2 The Problem of Faith and Reason ............................................................... 16 1.2.1 Belief .................................................................................................... 16 1.2.2 Evaluating Faith & Belief .................................................................... 19 1.3 Epistemic Justification ................................................................................ 22 1.3.1 The Value of Epistemically Justified Beliefs ....................................... 22 1.3.2 Evidentialism ....................................................................................... 23 1.3.3 Evidence ............................................................................................... 27 1.3.4 Foundationalism ................................................................................... 33 1.3.5 Non-Inferential Justification ................................................................ 37 1.4 Sources of Doxastic Justification and Normativity ..................................... 40 1.4.1 Prudential Justification ......................................................................... 41 1.4.2 Normative Reasons for Belief .............................................................. 42 1.5 The PFR Redux ........................................................................................... 46 1.5.1 An Epistemic Formulation of the PFR ................................................. 46 1.5.2 Response 1: Non-Doxastic Theories of Faith ...................................... 50 1.5.3 Response 2: The Divine Testimony Theory ........................................ 52 1.6 Conclusion ................................................................................................... 56 2. THE NATURE OF FAITH ............................................................................. 57 2.1 Overview ..................................................................................................... 57 2.2 Analysing Faith ........................................................................................... 58 2.3 Abrahamic Faith .......................................................................................... 65 2.3.1 Propositional Faith and Relational Faith .............................................. 66 2.3.2 Trust ..................................................................................................... 69 3 2.3.3 Testimonial Trust ................................................................................. 78 2.3.4 Trust and Testimony in Abrahamic Faith ............................................ 85 2.3.5 Relational Faith as the Cause of Propositional Faith ........................... 87 2.3.6 Propositional Faith ............................................................................... 90 2.4 Conclusion ................................................................................................... 94 3. NON-DOXASTIC FAITH............................................................................... 95 3.1 Overview ..................................................................................................... 95 3.2 The Non-Doxastic Theory ........................................................................... 95 3.3 Four Arguments for the Non-Doxastic Theory ......................................... 101 3.3.1 Doubt.................................................................................................. 101 3.3.2 Language ............................................................................................ 107 3.3.3 Volition .............................................................................................. 112 3.3.4 Pragmatism ........................................................................................ 115 3.4 The Fictionalist Objection ......................................................................... 120 3.4.1 The Objection..................................................................................... 120 3.4.2 The Problem with Fictionalist Faith .................................................. 125 3.4.3 The Importance of Truth .................................................................... 127 3.5 Conclusion ................................................................................................. 133 4. DIVINE TESTIMONY .................................................................................. 135 4.1 Overview ................................................................................................... 135 4.2 Faith: ‘The Ear of the Soul’....................................................................... 135 4.3 Divine Speech ........................................................................................... 139 4.3.1 Authorial and Deputised Discourse ................................................... 139 4.3.2 Appropriated Discourse ..................................................................... 145 4.3.3 Appropriated Discourse in Theology ................................................. 148 4.4 Conclusion ................................................................................................. 150 5. JUSTIFYING FAITH IN DIVINE TESTIMONY ..................................... 152 5.1 Overview ................................................................................................... 152 5.2 Reductionism and Non-Reductionism in Testimony ................................ 152 5.2.1 Non-Reductionism ............................................................................. 153 5.2.2 Reductionism ..................................................................................... 156 5.3 Modified Reductionism in Divine Testimony ........................................... 161 5.3.1 The Absent Speaker ........................................................................... 161 4 5.3.2 Locke’s Modified Reductionism ........................................................ 162 5.3.3 Justifying Faith Reductively .............................................................. 166 5.4 Non-Reductionism in Divine Testimony .................................................. 170 5.4.1 Deputised Discourse: Wahlberg ......................................................... 170 5.4.2 Appropriated Discourse: Plantinga .................................................... 174 5.4.3 Defeaters and Epistemic Authority .................................................... 185 5.5 Conclusion ................................................................................................. 190 6. CONCLUSION ............................................................................................... 191 6.1 Overview ................................................................................................... 191 6.2 Faith in Testimony ..................................................................................... 191 6.3 Justified Religious Faith ............................................................................ 193 6.4 Faith without Belief ................................................................................... 195 References ............................................................................................................... 198 Word Count (including footnotes): 79, 519 5 Abstract This thesis evaluates two current theories of propositional faith, and explores the prospects of each theory for responding to the perennial problem of faith and reason (PFR). According to the first theory – the non-doxastic theory of faith (NDT) – faith that p does not require belief that p. NDT can be used to respond to the PFR when we accept that beliefs held on faith do not meet the required standards for epistemic justification, but deny that all instances of faith require belief. Where someone’s faith does not involve belief, her faith may be adequately responsive to the epistemic reasons in her possession. According to the second theory – the divine testimony theory (DTT) – faith requires trusting the testimony of a divine being where this involves believing the testimony. One can look to defend DTT by drawing from the significant resources that have recently been developed in the philosophy of testimony to assess the standards of justification in contexts of divine testimony. DTT takes the PFR head on, but addresses it from a fresh perspective.
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