Philosophy of Religion Research

Rationality of Religious Belief: Externalist Perspective

Document Type : Original Research

Author

PhD student of theology, Tarbiat Modares Center, University of Qom, Iran

Abstract

Over history, defending from rationality of religious belief has had different types, regarding to the kind of ruling philosophical and epistemic approach over human thought. Externalism expression in contemporary epistemology has caused some religious thinkers having externalist view to religious believes in a new way and prove its rationality through externalist perspective. In this externalist perspective, argument's role in justification of religious belief is weakened and argument-oriented ruling over natural theology and Locke and Descartes' evidentialism are refused. In this view, religious belief could be rational and justified without any argument. In other word, religious belief is included in basic believes. Both Alston's empiricism and Plantinga's claim that religious belief is properly basic stems from their externalist view on knowledge problem. Generally speaking, emergence of the school of reformed epistemology in religious thought is concurrent with emergence or revival of externalism in contemporary epistemology and profoundly owes that.

Keywords

خسروپناه، عبدالحسین (1379)، کلام جدید، قم: مرکز مطالعات و پژوهش‎های فرهنگی حوزه‌ی علمیّه.
فنایی اشکوری، محمّد (1377)، دانش اسلامی و دانشگاه اسلامی، قم: انتشارات مؤسّسه‌ی آموزشی و پژوهشی امام خمینی.
مبینی، محمّدعلی (1382 الف)، عقلانیّت باور دینی از دیدگاه آلوین پلنتینگا، قم: انتشارات مؤسّسه‌ی آموزشی و پژوهشی امام خمینی.
ــــــــــ (1382ب)، «برون‎گرایی در معرفت‎شناسی آلوین گلدمن؛ گزارشی از سه مقاله»، مجلّه‌ی پژوهش‎های فلسفی‎ـ‎کلامی دانشگاه قم: شماره 13ـ14 (در شُرُف چاپ).
مصباح یزدی، محمّدتقی (1380)، سلسله جلسات هم‎اندیشی معرفت‎شناسی (با حضور آقایان محمّدتقی مصباح یزدی، صادق لاریجانی، محمّد لگن‌هاوزن، و غلام‌رضا فیّاضی)، قم: سالن اجتماعات مؤسّسه‌ی آموزشی و پژوهشی امام خمینی.
Alston, William (1991), Perceiving God; The Epistemology of Religious Experience Ithaca: CornellUniversity Press.
Audi, Robert, and William J. Wainwright (1989), Rationality, Religious Belief, and Moral Commitment; New Essays in the Philosophy of Religion, Ithaca and London: CornelUniversity Press.
Chisholm, Roderick M. (1987), theory of knowledge, New Delhi: Prentice-Hall of India.
Gettier, Edmund L. (1963), “Is Justified True Belief Knowledge?”, in Louis P. Pojman, ed., The Theory of Knowledge. (From Analysis, Vol. 23, Blackwell, 1963).
Goldman, Alvin I. (1967), “A Causal Theory of Knowing,” in Louis P. Pojman, ed., The Theory of Knowledge. (Reprinted from The Journal of Philosophy, 64, 12, 1967).
 ــــــــــــ (1979) “Reliabilism: What Is Justified Belief?”, in Louis P. Pojman, ed., The Theory of Knowledge. (Reprinted from G. S. Pappas, Justification and Knowledge, Dordrecht: D. Reidel, 1979).
James, William (1897), “The Will to Believe,” in Louis P. Pojman, ed., Philosophy of Religion. (Reprinted from William James, The Will to Believe, New York: Longmans, Green & Co, 1897.)
Pascal, Blaise (1910), “The Wager,” in Louis P. Pojman, ed., Philosophy of Religion. (Reprinted from Blaise Pascal, Thoughts, translated by W. F. Trotter, New York: Collier & Son, 1910.)
Plantinga, Alvin, and Nicholas Wolterstorff, (1983), Faith and Rationality: Reason and Belief in God,Notre Dame, University of Notre Dame Press.
 ــــــــــــ (1983), “Reason and Belief in God,” in Alvin Plantinga and Nicholas Wolterstorff, ed., Faith and Rationality.
 ــــــــــــ (1993), Warrant: The Current Debate, New York: OxfordUniversity Press.
 ــــــــــــ (2000), Warranted Christian Belief, New York: OxfordUniversity Press.
Pojman, Louis, P. (1986), Philosophy of Religion: An Anthology, California: Wadsworth Publishing Company.
 ــــــــــــ (1993), The Theory of Knowledge: Classical and Contemporary Readings, California: Wadsworth Publishing Company.
Quinn, Philip L. (1992), “The Foundations of Theism again: A Rejoinder to Plantinga,” in Linda Zagzebski, ed., Rational faith: Catholic Responses to Reformed Epistemology.
Wolterstorff, Nicholas (1986), “The Migration of the Theistic Argument: From Natural Theology to Evidentialist Apologetics,” in Robert Audi and William J. Wainwright, ed., Rationality, Religious Belief, and Moral Commitment.
Zagzebski, Linda (1992), Rational faith: Catholic Responses to Reformed Epistemology, Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press.
 ــــــــــــ (1992), “Religious Knowledge and the Virtues of Mind,” in Zagzebski, Linda, ed., Rational faith.
Philosophy of Religion Research
Volume 1, Issue 1 - Serial Number 1
May 2003
Pages 9-43