Foundationalism and Peter's Confession

One part of the Clifford–James dispute is still with us, namely a more inclusive foundationalism which has grown out of criticism of evidentialism in relation to belief in God. ‘Evidentialism’ will here mean the view, attributed to thinkers in the middle ages, that foundational premises must be either self-evident or evident to the senses. One answer now given by some (chiefly Plantinga) to such foundational questions is that belief in God is a properly basic belief, though not properly basic in an evidentialist sense. Thus one can rationally hold such a belief without proving it by argument. I will argue that belief in some specific personal God , such as Allah, Yahweh or Jesus as the Christ (Peter's confession), as constituted by sacred texts is the form belief takes for Christian believers and that there are special questions as to whether such beliefs can be shown to be properly basic

Argument (complex analysis) · Belief in God · Confession (law) · Criticism · Epistemology · Foundationalism · Relation (database) · Theism · Theology · Karl Barth and Christian Theology · Law · Medieval Philosophy and Theology · Philosophy · Theology and Philosophy of Evil

• The Theory of Epistemic Rationality

  Richard Foley•Theory of Epistemic Rationality•1987

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• Reference and Definite Descriptions

  Keith S Donnellan•The Philosophical Review•1966

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• God and Other Minds

  I M Crombie, Alvin Plantinga•The Philosophical Quarterly•1970

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