Perhaps no one has done more in the last 30 years to advance thinking in the metaphysics of modality than has Alvin Plantinga. Collected here are some of his most important essays on this influential subject. Dating back from the late 1960's to the present, they chronicle the development of Plantinga's thoughts about some of the most fundamental issues in metaphysics: what is the nature of abstract objects like possible worlds, properties, propositions, and such phenomena? Are there possible but (...) non-actual objects? Can objects that do not exist exemplify properties? Plantinga gives thorough and penetrating to all of these questions and many others. This volume contains some of the best work in metaphysics from the past 30 years, and will remain a source of critical contention and keen interest among philosophers of metaphysics and philosophical logic for years to come. (shrink)

Recent research on the metaethical beliefs of ordinary people appears to show that they are metaethical pluralists that adopt different metaethical standards for different moral judgments. Yet the methods used to evaluate folk metaethical belief rely on the assumption that participants interpret what they are asked in metaethical terms. We argue that most participants do not interpret questions designed to elicit metaethical beliefs in metaethical terms, or at least not in the way researchers intend. As a result, existing methods are (...) not reliable measures of metaethical belief. We end by discussing the implications of our account for the philosophical and practical implications of research on the psychology of metaethics. (shrink)

An exchange between Patrick Grim and Alvin Plantinga regarding Cantorian arguments against the possibility of an omniscient being.

If there is any consensus about knowledge in contemporary epistemology, it is that there is one primary kind: knowledge-that. I put forth a view, one I find in the works of Aristotle, on which knowledge-of – construed in a fairly demanding sense, as being well-acquainted with things – is the primary, fundamental kind of knowledge. As to knowledge-that, it is not distinct from knowledge-of, let alone more fundamental, but instead a species of it. To know that such-and-such, just like to (...) know a person or place, is to be well-acquainted with a portion of reality – in this case a fact. In part by comparing classic Gettier cases to cases in which one has true impressions of but fails to know a person, I argue that this account not only respects our intuitions about knowledge-that – in particular that it is or entails non-accidentally true justified belief – but also explains them, providing a compelling analysis. (shrink)

For most of their respective existences, reliabilism and evidentialism (that is, process reliabilism and mentalist evidentialism) have been rivals. They are generally viewed as incompatible, even antithetical, theories of justification.1 But a few people are beginning to re-think this notion. Perhaps an ideal theory would be a hybrid of the two, combining the best elements of each theory. Juan Comesana (forthcoming) takes this point of view and constructs a position called “Evidentialist Reliabilism.” He tries to show how each theory can (...) profit by borrowing elements from the other. Comesana concentrates on reliabilism’s problems and how it might be improved by infusions from evidentialism. This paper follows a similar tack. My emphasis, however, is the reverse of Comesana’s. I highlight problems for evidentialism and show how it could benefit by incorporating reliabilist themes. I am not sanguine that evidentialists will see it my way. They might even view my proposals as an insidious attempt to convert evidentialists to reliabilism. Well, I won’t debate the best way to formulate this paper’s recipe. At any rate, it began with the idea (which anteceded my reading of Comesana) of creating a synthesis of reliabilism and evidentialism. It retains significant strands of that idea, although the synthesis theme does not pervade the entire paper. What is mentalist evidentialism? Its original formulation was succinct. (shrink)

Many tasks in statistical and causal inference can be construed as problems of entailment in a suitable formal language. We ask whether those problems are more difficult, from a computational perspective, for causal probabilistic languages than for pure probabilistic (or “associational”) languages. Despite several senses in which causal reasoning is indeed more complex—both expressively and inferentially—we show that causal entailment (or satisfiability) problems can be systematically and robustly reduced to purely probabilistic problems. Thus there is no jump in computational complexity. (...) Along the way we answer several open problems concerning the complexity of well-known probability logics, in particular demonstrating the ${\exists \mathbb {R}}$ -completeness of a polynomial probability calculus, as well as a seemingly much simpler system, the logic of comparative conditional probability. (shrink)

From his earliest work forward, phenomenologist Maurice Merleau-Ponty attempted to develop a new ontology of nature that would avoid the antinomies of realism and idealism by showing that nature has its own intrinsic sense which is prior to reflection. The key to this new ontology was the concept of form, which he appropriated from Gestalt psychology. However, Merleau-Ponty struggled to give a positive characterization of the phenomenon of form which would clarify its ontological status. Evan Thompson has recently taken up (...) Merleau-Ponty’s ontology as the basis for a new, “enactive” approach to cognitive science, synthesizing it with concepts from dynamic systems theory and Francisco Varela’s theory of autopoiesis. However, Thompson does not quite succeed in resolving the ambiguities in Merleau-Ponty’s account of form. This article builds on an indication from Thompson in order to propose a new account of form as asymmetry, and of the genesis of form in nature as symmetry-breaking. These concepts help us to escape the antinomies of Modern thought by showing how nature is the autoproduction of a sense which can only be known by an embodied perceiver. (shrink)

Ateistler, kötülük probleminin Tanrı’nın varlığı aleyhine en güçlü argüman olduğu konusunda hâlâ ısrarcılar. Felsefe tarihine baktığımızda da Epikuros’tan Hume’a ve yakın dönemde Mackie’ye kadar uzanan bir yelpazede çeşitli düşünürler tarafından bu konuda birçok eleştirinin dile getirildiğini görmek mümkün. Plantinga bu çalışmasında felsefe tarihinin en köklü sorunlarından biri olan ‘Tanrı’nın varlığı sorusu’nu cevaplamaya çalışmakla kalmayıp felsefi bir yöntem ve soruşturmanın nasıl olması gerektiği konusunda muhteşem bir örnek de sunmaktadır. Plantinga, bu kitabıyla bizi, felsefe tarihinin en temel ilkelerinden birini hatırlamaya çağırıyor: var (...) olanın ardındakini anlamaya çalışmak. (shrink)

In Pietroski ( 2018 ) a simple representation language called SMPL is introduced, construed as a hypothesis about core conceptual structure. The present work is a study of this system from a logical perspective. In addition to establishing a completeness result and a complexity characterization for reasoning in the system, we also pinpoint its expressive limits, in particular showing that the fourth corner in the square of opposition (“ Some_not ”) eludes expression. We then study a seemingly small extension, called (...) SMPL +, which allows for a minimal predicate-binding operator. Perhaps surprisingly, the resulting system is shown to encode precisely the concepts expressible in first-order logic. However, unlike the latter class, the class of SMPL + expressions admits a simple procedural (context-free) characterization. Our contribution brings together research strands in logic—including natural logic, modal logic, description logic, and hybrid logic—with recent advances in semantics and philosophy of language. (shrink)

Abstract: Many believe that, in addition to cognitive capacities, autonomous robots need something similar to affect. As in humans, affect, including specific emotions, would filter robot experience based on a set of goals, values, and interests. This narrows behavioral options and avoids combinatorial explosion or regress problems that challenge purely cognitive assessments in a continuously changing experiential field. Adding human-like affect to robots is not straightforward, however. Affect in organisms is an aspect of evolved biological systems, from the taxes of (...) single-cell organisms to the instincts, drives, feelings, moods, and emotions that focus human behavior through the mediation of hormones, pheromones, neurotransmitters, the autonomic nervous system, and key brain structures. We argue that human intelligence is intimately linked to biological affective systems and to the unique repertoire of potential behaviors, sometimes conflicting, they facilitate. Artificial affect is affect in name only and without genes and biological bodies, autonomous robots will lack the goals, interests, and value systems associated with human intelligence. We will take advantage of their general intelligence and expertise, but robots will not enter our intellectual world or apply for legal status in the community. -/- . (shrink)

Recognition of the plasticity of development — from gene expression to neuroplasticity — is increasingly undermining the traditional distinction between structure and function, or anatomy and behavior. At the same time, dynamic systems theory — a set of tools and concepts drawn from the physical sciences — has emerged as a way of describing what Maurice Merleau-Ponty calls the “dynamic anatomy” of the living organism. This article surveys and synthesizes dynamic systems models of development from biology, neuroscience, and psychology in (...) order to propose an integrated account of growth, learning, and behavior. Key to this account is the concept of self-differentiation or symmetry-breaking. I argue that development can be understood as a cascade of symmetry-breaking events brought about by the ongoing interactions of multiple, nested, nonlinear dynamic systems whose self-organizing behaviors gradually alter their own anatomical conditions. I begin by introducing the concept of symmetry-breaking as a way of understanding anatomical development. I then extend this approach to motor development by arguing that the organism’s behavior grows along with its body, like a new organ. Finally, I argue that the organism’s behavior and its world grow together dialectically, each driving the other to become more complex and asymmetrical through its own increasing asymmetry. Thus development turns out to be a form of cognition or sense-making, and cognition a form of development. (shrink)

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“1950’li yıllarda dönemin büyük felsefecileri arasında dinsel inancı savunan bir kişi bile yoktu. 1990’lı yıllarda Yale’den UCLA’ya, Oxford’dan Heidelberg’e kadar birçok yerde insanın manevi yanını savunan ve geliştiren yüzlerce kitap yazılacak, sel olup akacaktı. Aradaki 40 yıllık süre zarfındaysa sadece ve sadece Alvin Plantinga vardı.” Kelly James Clark Tanrı’nın veya tanrıların varlığı sorusu felsefenin ezeli sorularından biri olagelmişse de Nietzsche’nin Tanrı’nın ölümünü ilan ettiği günden bu yana onu doğrularcasına yaşanan acılar, savaşlar, kötülükler bu konudaki tartışmaların sesini uzun süre bastırdı. (...) Ama özellikle yüzyılın ikinci yarısından sonra palazlanan analitik felsefede meydana gelen “metafiziğe dönüş”, dine yakınlık duyan, en azından dinle ilgilenen filozofların tekrar Yahudi-Hıristiyan ve İslam geleneklerinde anlaşıldığı şekliyle Tanrı’nın varlığına duyulan inancın gerekçelerini yeniden değerlendirmelerine, konuya yeni bir bakış ve araçlarla bakmalarına vesile oldu. Alvin Plantinga’nın bu kitabı, yayımlandığı tarihten itibaren “analitik din felsefesi” alanının da en önemli ve sarsıcı eserlerinden biri hâline geldi ve Tanrı’nın ölmediğini ilan etti. Anselmus’tan Hume’a, Kant ve pozitivistlerden John Mackie gibi modern ateologlara kadar felsefe geleneğiyle hesaplaşan Plantinga, bu abidevi çalışmasında ontolojik, kozmolojik ve teleolojik tanrı kanıtlamalarının eski ve yeni biçimlerinin çıkmazlarını, meziyetlerini ve sunduğu imkânları değerlendiriyor. Tanrı’nın varlığına duyulan inanç ile diğer insanların varlığına ve zihinlerine duyulan inanç arasındaki şaşırtıcı ve sarsıcı bağlantıyı ortaya koyuyor. (shrink)

What makes it the case that an utterance constitutes an illocutionary act of a given kind? This is the central question of speech-act theory. Answers to it—i.e., theories of speech acts—have proliferated. Our main goal in this chapter is to clarify the logical space into which these different theories fit. -/- We begin, in Section 1, by dividing theories of speech acts into five families, each distinguished from the others by its account of the key ingredients in illocutionary acts. Are (...) speech acts fundamentally a matter of convention or intention? Or should we instead think of them in terms of the psychological states they express, in terms of the effects that it is their function to produce, or in terms of the norms that govern them? In Section 2, we take up the highly influential idea that speech acts can be understood in terms of their effects on a conversation’s context or “score”. Part of why this idea has been so useful is that it allows speech-act theorists from the five families to engage at a level of abstraction that elides their foundational disagreements. In Section 3, we investigate some of the motivations for the traditional distinction between propositional content and illocutionary force, and some of the ways in which this distinction has been undermined by recent work. In Section 4, we survey some of the ways in which speech-act theory has been applied to issues outside semantics and pragmatics, narrowly construed. (shrink)

In Cathy Mason’s piece What’s Bad about Friendship with Bad People, she affirms that being friends with someone who has deep moral failings is itself corrupt. (529) Indeed her claim is true, but it is fallacious as she mistakenly ascribes the wrongfulness of such relationships to friends taking each other’s opinions seriously. But the mere consideration of unethical views is not a moral fault but a virtue and a skill. The real problem is that in befriending amoral people, we by (...) definition accept, approve of, and respect objectionable beliefs. (shrink)

We often think about competition as a foil to friendship as it seems to fundamentally compromise, even preclude norms of love. Indeed friendships can persist between rivals, but traditionally despite competitive fora. Competition between friends is often unavoidable and divisive; if left unchecked and unreconciled, the friendship is undermined. Questions about of how we ought to resolve this fraught dynamic persist; should we aim to compartmentalize and separate competition out of friendship, do we accept the “primacy” of our social or (...) professional ventures at the expense of our friendships, or are our competitive sensibilities better left unnamed, avoided, and unaddressed in friendships? My goal here is to argue for a model of friendship that proposes competition as a mechanism by which two friends might be unified, where the value of rivalry is not only useful as a means to enhance an end, but actually capable of engendering good in and of itself. (shrink)

Paul Churchland argues that Plantinga’s evolutionary argument against naturalism is unsuccessful and so we need not accept its conclusion. In this paper, we respond to Churchland’s argument. After we briefly recapitulate Plantinga’s argument and state Churchland’s argument, we offer three objections to Churchland’s argument: (1) its first premise has little to recommend it, (2) its second premise is false, and (3) its conclusion is consistent with, and indeed entails, the conclusion of Plantinga’s argument.

The urgent call by UNESCO to scale up interventions for the achievement of sustainable development goals motivated this study to assess the level and association of teachers' (n =107) and students' (n = 342) knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors (KAB) regarding education for sustainable development, focusing on Pili (Canarium ovatum). This is a subset of a larger project that involves Pili to contextualize learning and instructional materials. The researchers used a descriptive cross-sectional survey approach and distributed a questionnaire through Google Forms. (...) KAB levels were categorized into poor, moderate, and high using descriptive data analysis, and their association with one another was determined by using Pearson's Chi- square. The findings indicated that, although the associations among the KAB of teachers were distinct from those of the students, they both perceived that possessing favorable knowledge and attitudes was insufficient to generate positive behaviors. Thus, the efforts to increase teachers' and students' motivation and involvement and to help them carry out favorable behaviors toward sustainable development were imperative. Given this, identifying the barriers to converting knowledge and attitudes into behaviors and considering the factors that involved the association of KAB in promoting sustainable development, particularly in education, were recommended. (shrink)

Gamification in education offers an innovative way of learning. However, some studies claim that, while it helps raise students’ motivation, the kind of motivation is extrinsic and, so, intrinsic motivation declines with time. The researchers used the descriptive research design to describe the STEM students’ intrinsic motivation along with the utilization of game elements in teaching genetics through a learning management system. The researchers collected quantitative data using the Intrinsic Motivation Inventory, which were analyzed through descriptive statistics and complemented with (...) qualitative data from the students’ journals and interviews. Overall, the students agreed (M = 5.38, SD = 1.20) that gamification, despite being characterized as extrinsically motivating, had intrinsically motivated them. Its proper implementation helps students adapt to and overcome unfavorable behaviors towards competitiveness and emphasizes the role of teachers in facilitating learning. Time constraints, peer pressure, and distractions were noted; hence, more research is needed to address these challenges and determine the long-term effects of gamification. (shrink)

Schools worldwide have started opening doors to welcome back students who, for almost two years, have been stuck studying at home. This study looks at the standpoint of Filipino students on going back to regular face-to-face schooling. There were 2,274 students of different tiers of education (high school, collegiate, graduate) from different major island groups of the Philippines (Luzon, Visayas, Mindanao) who participated in the study. The study used a mixed-method of descriptive statistics to present the quantitative data gathered and (...) thematic analysis of qualitative responses from the subjects. The majority of all the respondents favored going back to the physical classroom, and little only favored staying using the distance mode. In the qualitative analysis, the recurring reasons of the students varied from personal, economic, and fear of getting the virus. It was concluded that Filipino students want to go back to schooling. Moreover, a sizeable amount preferred hybrid while a small number preferred to stay in online or distance mode. Educational institutions should always observe the covid 19 protocol when students go back. (shrink)

This study aimed to examine the challenges encountered by science teachers in implementing modular distance learning and the coping strategies they employed to address these challenges. Using a mixed-method research approach, data were collected through a survey of thirty-eight Junior High School science teachers in Mandaon District in Masbate, Philippines. Findings revealed that the implementation of modular distance learning presented various challenges, including technical problems, distribution and retrieval difficulties, student utilization issues, and unreliable assessment results. To cope with these challenges, (...) teachers employed various strategies, including attending ICT training, asking for technical assistance, developing income-generating projects, and utilizing differentiated instruction and targeted assessments. The study also highlights the need for more parental involvement, adequate funding for schools, clear instructions and guidance to students, and proper monitoring of student performance. Overall, the study suggests that with effective implementation and support, modular distance learning can be an effective mode of instruction, particularly during times of crisis. (shrink)

The purpose of this study is to investigate the pedagogical practices employed by secondary school teachers under the new normal. It also identifies the difficulties teachers face when facilitating modular distant learning. Science high school teacher from North District Butuan City took part in the study. In this study, quantitative methodology was employed. To collect the data for the study, survey questionnaires were distributed. According to the research study's findings, the restricted face-to-face parent orientation is the most used pedagogical practices (...) in the new normal, specifically in modular distance learning is the limited face-to-face parent orientation. Enables teachers to incorporate ICT skills to students’ lessons even in modular distance learning, aids in monitoring students’ learning performance using self- learning modules in modular distance learning. Miscommunication because of the distant mode of instruction and difficulties in reaching students due to pandemic are some of the challenges encountered by the teachers in applying pedagogical practices. To address this issue, the researchers designed a capsule training intervention plan that will help teachers enhance their knowledge in choosing and effective pedagogical practice particularly in modular distance learning. (shrink)

Teachers are the frontline workers in sustaining quality education; hence, assessing their knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors (KAB) allows them and the administrators to create better training, programs, and instructional materials. The objective is to develop and validate a quick and accessible online instrument to assess the teachers’ KAB towards sustainable development in the Philippine context, as part of a bigger project to integrate Pili (Canarium ovatum) into education. The researchers administered the instrument using a cross-sectional survey method through Google Forms (...) in which respondents (n = 206) had voluntarily answered. The 24-item tool, anchored on the 2030 sustainable development goals and their complex systems, is reliable and valid based on the confirmatory factor analysis, and Cronbach’s alpha and Fleiss’s kappa estimates. The results showed that having favorable knowledge and attitudes toward sustainable development is inadequate to create positive behaviors. The adaptation of the developed instrument, the use of findings for intercultural and cross-cultural studies, and further investigations are recommended. (shrink)

The term “technological fix”, coined by technologist/administrator Alvin Weinberg in 1965, vaunted engineering innovation as a generic tool for circumventing problems commonly conceived as social, political or cultural. A longtime Director of Oak Ridge National Laboratory, government consultant and essayist, Weinberg also popularized the term “Big Science” to describe national goals and the competitive funding environment after the Second World War. Big Science reoriented towards Technological Fixes, he argued, could provide a new “Apollo project” to address social problems of (...) the future. His ideas – most recently echoed in “solutionism” – have channeled confidence and controversy ever since. This paper traces the genesis and promotion of the concept by Weinberg and his contemporaries. It argues that, through it, the marginal politics and technological confidences of interwar scientists and technocrats were repositioned as mainstream notions closer to the heart of Big Science policy. (shrink)

Alvin Plantinga, analitik felsefe düşüncesi içerisinde yetişmiş ve bu gelenek içinde teistik din felsefesinin oluşumuna katkıda bulunmuş bir filozoftur. Ayrıca teizmin savunusu için yaptığı çalışmalarla, çeşitli üniversitelerden aldığı onur ödülleri ve 2017 yılında kazandığı Templeton Prize ödülüyle, haklı bir üne kavuşmuş bir şahsiyettir. Bu çalışmayı yapmamızdaki en önemli amaç, Plantinga’nın dini epistemoloji üzerine yaptığı çalışmaları analiz edip bu düşüncelerinin ardalanına dair bir tespitte bulunmaktır. Bu çalışmada yararlandığımız öncelikli kaynaklar, Plantinga’nın Nicholas Wolterstorff ile birlikte kaleme aldığı “Faith and Rationality” adlı (...) eser ile birlikte son dönem epistemik fikirlerinin çerçevesini belirleyen üç ciltlik “Warrant and Proper Function”, “Warrant: The Current Debate”, “Warranted: Christian Belief” isimli eserler olmuştur. Plantinga’nın ilk dönem epistemoloji çalışmalarının gayesini bir tür olumsuzlama diyebileceğimiz klasik temelciliğin ve evidentializmin eleştirisi oluştururken, ikinci döneminde bu eleştirilerden yola çıkarak Tanrı inancının haklı bir temelde ve güvenceye sahip olduğunu gösterme amacına yönelmiştir. Plantinga’nın teolojik fikirlerini oluşturan Kalvinci ekol, onun dini epistemolojisinin de özünü oluşturmaktadır. Plantinga’nın dini epistemolojisini iki boyutlu olarak değerlendirdiğimizde, içe dönük olarak Hristiyan inancıyla ilgilense de çalışmalarının dışsal yönünü daha genel olarak teizmin Tanrı’sı ve onun rasyonelliği oluşturmaktadır. Açıkçası Plantinga’nın epistemolojik külliyatı bir tür kavram zenginliğini de beraberinde getirmektedir. Çalışmamız içerisinde ele aldığımız kadarıyla uygun işlevsellik, tasarım planı, güvence (warrant) gibi kavramlar onun Tanrı inancının epistemik mahiyetini ortaya koymak için ne derece kararlı olduğunu göstermektedir. Netice itibariyle Tanrı inancının ve onun bilgisinin rasyonel olabileceğini ifade eden Plantinga, her ne kadar Hristiyan inancının belli bir koluna mensup olsa da diğer mezhepleri dışlamaz. Ayrıca Plantinga, birçok çalışmasında belirttiği üzere projesinin Yahudilik, İslam gibi diğer teistik dinlere yönelik olduğunu da belirtmektedir. (shrink)

Alvin Plantinga is an American-born philosopher of religion and one of the leading advocates of contemporary Christian philosophy. Plantinga deals with numerous problems of the monotheistic Christian religion, including the problem of religious pluralism. One of the most common questions an atheist asks a believer is, "Why your God and not someone else's?" Therefore, this paper aims to present Plantinga's answer to the question of religious pluralism. We will achieve this goal by developing Plantinga's theory of "proper functioning", a (...) thesis that atheism represents a state of incorrect functioning of cognitive mechanisms. We can respond to the problem of religious pluralism through positive or negative apologetics. Plantinga has chosen negative apologetics, arguing that the believer is under no obligation to justify the truth of his beliefs when confronted with the problem of religious pluralism. Although Plantinga provides numerous convincing arguments supporting his position, we will show that we can provide a positive apologetic by returning to the foundations of Plantinga's understanding of intentionality and mental representations. In so doing, we will demonstrate a broader range of ways a believer can defend his epistemic position and connect Plantinga's epistemology of religion in relevant ways to contemporary theories of cognitive psychology and philosophy of cognition. (shrink)

Güvenilirci (reliabilist) bilgi teorisi, çağdaş epistemik gerekçelendirme kuramları içerisinde, dışsalcı (externalist) kuramın bir türü olarak kendisine yer bulmaktadır. Kısaca, bir inancı gerekçelendiren şeyin o inancın oluşturulduğu sürecin güvenilirliği olduğunu öne süren bu yaklaşım, bu bilişsel süreçleri özne dışı unsurlara bağladığı içinde dışsalcı bir pozisyonda yer almaktadır. Bu bilgi teorisinin tam karşı konumunda yer alan içselci (internalist) bilgi teorisi ise, özne merkezli bir yaklaşımla, doğru inancı gerekçelendirecek yöntemin, kişinin kendi zihinsel yapısından yola çıkarak, belli kognitif süreçler sonucunda ulaşılabileceğini öne sürmektedir. Epistemik (...) gerekçelendirme kuramları içerisinde birçok tartışmada kendisine yer bulan bu iki bilgi teorisi, kendi içerisinde de birçok farklı kurama kapı aralamıştır. Burada içselci bilgi teorisinden ortaya çıkan erişim içselciliği, farkındalık içselciliği gibi kuramları ve dışsalcı bilgi teorisinden ortaya çıkan süreç güvenilirciliği, gösterge güvenilirciliği ve erdem güvenilirciliği gibi farklı türden kuramları örnek olarak verebiliriz. Öte yandan çağdaş epistemolojideki bu tartışmalar, dini epistemoloji içerisinde de kendisine yer bulmuştur. Özellikle Alvin Plantinga, kendi dini epistemolojisi içerisinde dışsalcı bir tutum sergilemiş ve son dönem çalışmaları içerisinde de güvenilirci bir anlayışla Tanrı inancının epistemik mahiyetini ortaya koymaya çalışmıştır. Bu makalede öncelikle dışsalclık ve onun bir türü olan güvenilirci bilgi anlayışını ve bu kuramlara getirilen eleştirileri ele almaya çalışacağız, daha sonra A. Plantinga’nın son dönem dini epistemolojisinin de yönünü belirleyen güvence (warrant) kavramını açıklayıp, bu kavramın bütün teist dinlere uygulanabilirliğini sorgulayacağız. (shrink)

to appear in Lambert, E. and J. Schwenkler (eds.) Transformative Experience (OUP) -/- L. A. Paul (2014, 2015) argues that the possibility of epistemically transformative experiences poses serious and novel problems for the orthodox theory of rational choice, namely, expected utility theory — I call her argument the Utility Ignorance Objection. In a pair of earlier papers, I responded to Paul’s challenge (Pettigrew 2015, 2016), and a number of other philosophers have responded in similar ways (Dougherty, et al. 2015, Harman (...) 2015) — I call our argument the Fine-Graining Response. Paul has her own reply to this response, which we might call the Authenticity Reply. But Sarah Moss has recently offered an alternative reply to the Fine-Graining Response on Paul’s behalf (Moss 2017) — we’ll call it the No Knowledge Reply. This appeals to the knowledge norm of action, together with Moss’ novel and intriguing account of probabilistic knowledge. In this paper, I consider Moss’ reply and argue that it fails. I argue first that it fails as a reply made on Paul’s behalf, since it forces us to abandon many of the features of Paul’s challenge that make it distinctive and with which Paul herself is particularly concerned. Then I argue that it fails as a reply independent of its fidelity to Paul’s intentions. (shrink)

This article presents Alvin Plantinga’s views on epistemic justification. The first part situates Plantinga’s epistemological views in the context of his epistemology of religion and debates of general epistemology. The second part discusses Plantinga’s argument that the internalism of 20th century epistemology stems from deontologism and that the views on the epistemic justification of analytic philosophers reflect the relationship between classical deontologism and classical internalism. The last part points to the objections with which the Plantinga’s conception met and tries (...) to balance the depth and weakness of its position. (shrink)

In this article we intend to present Alvin Plantinga’s epistemology by showing the way in which its central concepts: the Reidian foundationalism, the partial critique of evidentialism, warrant, proper function, reliability and externalism - are logically interrelated. A section of this article is reserved to the critiques of his account of warrant brought by Peter Klein and Richard Feldman and to the way in which Plantinga answered them, by developing the concepts of cognitive maxi- and mini-environment. In the end (...) we will see the way in which Plantinga’s epistemology relates to both modernism and postmodernism. (shrink)

This is a book review of Deane-Peter Baker (ed.), Alvin Plantinga (New York: Cambridge Univ. Press, 2007).

This is an article on the metaphysics of Alvin Plantinga. It is from the Blackwell Companion to Metaphysics (2009).

This article aims to examine Alvin Plantinga's speech at Biola University which name is: ‘‘Science and Religion, Where the Conflict Really Lies.’’ In order to achieve this purpose, after giving a description of the emergence of conflict between two disciplines, the ideas of Plantinga is examined through his speech and articles. The remainder of the article conducts a critical examination of his thesis in the light of Islamic viewpoint.

For the past 30 years, Alvin Plantinga's work in the metaphysics of modality has been both insightful and innovative; it is high time that his papers in this area be collected together in a single volume. This book contains 11 pieces of Plantinga's work in modal metaphysics, arranged in chronological order so one can trace the development of his thought on matters modal. In what follows I will lay out the principal concepts and arguments in these papers.

The paper is a critique of Alvin Plantinga’s notion that belief in God is properly basic - evidence is not needed to justify such belief - in light of Thomas Aquinas’ religious epistemology. The latter’s epistemology proves that, while evidence is not a necessary condition for belief in God based on his Summa Theologica since such belief is evidence itself from his De Veritate, there is sufficient evidence that justifies such belief. First, I argue that Plantinga’s total rejection of (...) evidence as a justification for belief in God renders such belief purely subjective. To rationally ground this purely subjective belief, Plantinga introduces the notion of justification-conferring conditions. Second, following Thomas Aquinas’ thought, Plantinga’s justification negates his claim that belief in God is properly basic because the said justification-conferring conditions seem to function as an evidence for belief in God. I will conclude the work by claiming that although evidence is not a necessary condition for belief in God, it is epistemically sufficient to justify the said belief. (shrink)

This is a review of Action Semantics, by Peter D. Mosses, Cambridge Tracts in Theoretical Computer Science 26, Cambridge University Press, 1992.

This is a review of Vicious Circles: On the Mathematics of Non-Wellfounded Phenomena, written by Jon Barwise and Lawrence Moss and published by CSLI Publications in 1996.

In May 2010, philosophers, family and friends gathered at the University of Notre Dame to celebrate the career and retirement of Alvin Plantinga, widely recognized as one of the world's leading figures in metaphysics, epistemology, and the philosophy of religion. Plantinga has earned particular respect within the community of Christian philosophers for the pivotal role that he played in the recent renewal and development of philosophy of religion and philosophical theology. Each of the essays in this volume engages with (...) some particular aspect of Plantinga's views on metaphysics, epistemology, or philosophy of religion. Contributors include Michael Bergman, Ernest Sosa, Trenton Merricks, Richard Otte, Peter VanInwagen, Thomas P. Flint, Eleonore Stump, Dean Zimmerman and Nicholas Wolterstorff. The volume also includes responses to each essay by Bas van Fraassen, Stephen Wykstra, David VanderLaan, Robin Collins, Raymond VanArragon, E. J. Coffman, Thomas Crisp, and Donald Smith. (shrink)

O objetivo deste artigo é avaliar criticamente duas teses opostas sobre a epistemologia da crença religiosa: a primeira, defendida por Norman Geisler, afirma que a crença em Deus só pode ser racionalmente justificada ou garantida se houver argumentos ou evidências em favor da existência de Deus. A segunda tese, elaborada por Alvin Plantinga, sugere que a crença em Deus pode ser garantida, mesmo que o teísta não conheça qualquer evidência para a existência de Deus, mesmo que ele não acredite (...) que haja tais evidências e mesmo se não existir, de fato, tais evidências. Na comparação das duas teses, conclui-se que a primeira tese é falsa, pois a crença em Deus não necessariamente precisa ser tida como uma ‘hipótese científica’, enquanto a segunda é provavelmente verdadeira, caso Deus exista. (shrink)

O objetivo central desta pesquisa é comparar as credenciais epistêmicas da crença em Deus na epistemologia religiosa de dois dos principais pensadores da filosofia analítica da religião contemporânea: Alvin Plantinga (1932- ) e Richard Swinburne (1934- ). Mais precisamente, busca-se investigar como a crença na existência de Deus pode obter status epistêmico positivo, ou seja, como pode ser intelectualmente justificada ou racional ou ainda avalizada, a partir de comparações, contrastes ou complementações que podem ser feitos entre as propostas dos (...) dois filósofos. Deste modo, será avaliado como Plantinga e Swinburne lidam com algumas questões fundamentais da filosofia analítica da religião ligadas à natureza e à relação entre fé e razão. Para que tal objetivo seja concretizado, foram escolhidos três méritos ou credenciais epistêmicas: a justificação deontológica, a racionalidade e o aval. Na primeira parte desta tese, serão clarificados os conceitos fundamentais ligados ao debate sobre a relação entre fé e razão na filosofia analítica contemporânea a fim de elucidar o problema central desta pesquisa; além disso, será esclarecido o que significa precisamente uma crença ter o mérito da justificação, da racionalidade ou do aval. Na segunda parte, são apresentadas as duas propostas epistemológicas que serão comparadas, a saber, a Epistemologia Reformada de Alvin Plantinga e o balanço evidencial probabilístico proposto pela teologia natural de Richard Swinburne. Por fim, visa-se comparar criticamente as duas propostas e analisar a possibilidade de articulação entre essas duas diferentes abordagens. (shrink)