Selected Readings in Religious Epistemology (with some annotations)
Alston, William P. Perceiving God: The Epistemology of Religious Experience, Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1991.
Alston, a Christian and a first-rate philosopher, argues (roughly speaking) that belief that God exists can be formed in a reliable way. His basic argument is that all of our doxological practices (belief forming practices) involve certain modules of knowing which cannot be tested without some sort of epistemic circularity. If all of our beliefs are subject to this sort of problem and are thought to be prima facie rational, then why think that belief that God exists isn’t prima facie rational? Couldn’t one’s experience of the divine provide some prima facie justification?
________. “Knowledge of God,” in Faith, Reason, and Skepticism. Marcus Hester. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1991.
Evans, C. Stephen and Merold Westphal, eds. Christian Perspectives on Religious Knowledge. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmanns, 1993.
Geivett, Douglas R. and Brendan Sweetman, eds. Contemporary Perspectives on Religious Epistemology. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992.
Holmes, Arthur F. Faith Seeks Understanding. A Christian Approach to Knowledge. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1971.
Mavrodes, George I. Revelation in Religious Belief
Mitchell, Basil. Justification of Religious Belief. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1988. . London: Macmillan, 1973.
Moreland, J.P & Craig, William Lane. Philosophical Foundations for a Christian WorldviewFaith and Rationality. Downers Grove, Ill: InterVarsity Press, 2003. See the discussion pp. 71-172 and especially pp. 111-129 and 154-171.
If you’re not trained in philosophy and you’re a Christian, this is the book with which I would encourage you to start. You may find it a bit difficult, but if you can master this book you’re well on your way to sharpening your skills in this field. I like it a lot even if I don’t agree with everything they say.
Plantinga, Alvin. “Reason and Belief in God,” in . Alvin Plantinga and Nicholas Wolterstorff. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1983.
This essay is one of the most important essays in philosophy of religion. Instead of taking the view that in order to have rational belief in God’s existence you must have a sound propositional argument, Plantinga argues that a theist is well within her epistemic rights to hold belief that God exists is a “properly basic” belief--a justified belief without support from any other propositions. At the same time he insists that such a belief is not gratuitous because it is (or can be) formed by properly functioning faculties and this belief is a part of one’s natural epistemic endowment via the sensus divinatus.
________. God and Other MindsWarranted Christian Belief. Ithaca, NU: Cornell University Press, 1967.
This book argues that belief that God exists is relevantly similar to belief that other minds exist. The author knows of no knock-down-drag-out argument, but it is surely rational to hold that other minds exists….and the same is true, he argues, for belief that God exists. (While Plantinga does not hold that the traditional theistic arguments for God are sound for everyone, but he does not think they are worthless.)
________. . Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, 2000.
This was the long awaited follow-up to Plantinga’s two earlier books on warrant. Here he lays out in greater detail his epistemic views and he sees an analogy between God taken as a properly basic belief and “the great things of the gospel” taken as a properly basic belief. A theist can hold that both are epistemically respectable, that is, they are beliefs that are within the epistemic rights of those who hold them.
________. Warrant: The Current DebateWarrant and Proper Function. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, 1993.
Graduate level reading, but a fast way to catch up on the current (up to 1993) thinking about epistemology. Plantinga divides current epistemology into two large camps: the internalist who are linked to deontology (those who think forming beliefs in a certain way is a sort of rational duty) and those who are externalists that hold much of our belief forming practice is not within our control. Plantinga identifies with the latter. A difficult but intriguing book.
________. . Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, 1993.
This book is about what I think is at the heart of Plantinga’s brand of externalist epistemology. Plantinga argues persuasively that what is needed for true beliefs to become knowledge is warrant. And what is key to warrant is the proper functioning of our cognitive faculties that were formed according to a certain contextual and successful design plan. In short, without such a successful design plan for our cognitive faculties we have good reason to distrust all of our beliefs.
________. and Wolterstorff, Nicholas, eds. Faith and Rationality. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1983.
Pojman, Louis. Religious Belief and ...
Selected Readings Among Those Considered Classics (or important to the received tradition)
Berkeley, George. “Three Dialogues Between Hylas and Philonous in Opposition to Sceptics and Atheists,” in Classics of Philosophy, Volume II. Louis J. Pojman. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998.
Clifford, W.K. “The Ethics of Belief,” in Classics of Philosophy, Volume II. Louis J. Pojman. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998.
Descartes, Rene. “Meditations on First Philosophy,” in Classics of Philosophy, Volume II. Louis J. Pojman. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998.
Hume, David. “An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding,” in Classics of Philosophy, Volume II. Louis J. Pojman. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998.
James, William. “The Will to Believe,” in Classics of Philosophy, Volume II. Louis J. Pojman. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998.
Locke, John. “An Essay Concerning Human Understanding,” in Classics of Philosophy, Volume II. Louis J. Pojman, Oxford University Press, 1998.
Plato. “The Ascent to Knowledge” (from The Republic) in The Theory of Knowledge: Classic and Contemporary ReadingsThe Theory of Knowledge: Classic and Contemporary Readings. Louis Pojman, Boston: Wadsworth, 1999. pp. 6-16.
________. “Innate Ideas” (from the Meno) in . Louis Pojman, Boston: Wadsworth, 1999. pp. 16-22.
________. “Theaetetus” in The Dialogues of Plato. Vol. III. translated by B. Jowett, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1953. pp. 235-319.
Selected Readings in General Epistemology
Almeder, Robert. “On Naturalizing Epistemology,” in American Philosophical QuarterlyThe Monist, 27, 4 (October 1990).
Alston, William. “Concepts of Epistemic Justification,” In 68 (1985).
________. “The Deontological Conception of Epistemic Justification.” In Wiiliam Alston, Epistemic JustificationEpistemic Justification: Essays in the Theory of Knowledge. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press,1989.
________. . Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1990.
________. The Reliability of Sense PerceptionJournal of Philosophy. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1993.
________. “Two Types of Foundationalism.” in 73 (1976).
Audi, Robert. Belief, Justification, and KnowledgeThe Structure of Empirical Knowledge. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 1988.
________. Epistemology. Oxford: Blackwell, 1998.
BonJour, Laurence. . Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1985.
Chisholm, Roderick. The Foundations of KnowingTheory of Knowledge. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1982.
________. , 3rd ed. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1989.
________ and Robert Schwartz, eds. Empirical KnowledgePhilosophical Studies. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1973.
Cohen, Stewart. “Justification and Truth,” in 46 (1984).
Dancy, Jonathan and Ernest Sosa, eds. A Companion to EpistemologyKnowledge and the Flow of Information. Oxford: Blackwell, 1992.
Dretske, Fred. . Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1981.
Feldman, Richard. “Reliabilism and Justification,” The MonistNous 68 (1985): pp. 159-74.
________. “Proper Functionalism” In 27, 1 (1993).
________. and Earl Conee. “Evidentialism,” in Philosophical StudiesValues and Morals 48 (1985).
Firth, Roderick. “Are Epistemic Concepts Reducible to Ethical Concepts.” In A.I. Goldman and J. Kim, eds., . Dordrecht, Netherlands: Reidel, 1978.
Flew, Antony. "The Presumption of Atheism," in Canadian Journal of PhilosophyThe Theory of Epistemic Rationality, 2: 29-46 (1972).
Foley, Richard. . Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1987.
Gettier, Edmund. “Is Justified True Belief Knowledge?” in AnalysisEnlightened Empiricism 23, 1963.
Gibson, Roger. . Tampa, FL: University of South Florida Press,1988.
Goldman, Alvin. Epistemology and CognitionEvidence and Inquiry: Towards Reconstruction in Epistemology. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1986.
Haack, Susan. . Oxford: Blackwell,1993.
________. “A Foundherentist Theory of Empirical Justification,” in Louis Pojman, ed., The Theory of KnowledgePhilosophical Perspectives. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 1993.
Kim, Jaegwon. “What is ‘Naturalized’ Epistemology?” in 2. Atascadero, CA: Ridgeview Publishing Co., 1988.
Kvanvig, Jonathan. The Intellectual Virtues and the Life of the MindNaturalized Epistemology. Totowa, NJ: Rowman & Littlefeld, 1991.
Kornblith, Hilary, ed. . Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1985.
________. Inductive Inference and Its Natural Ground: An Essay in Naturalistic EpistemologyKnowledge. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1993.
Lehrer, Keith. . Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1974.
________. Theory of KnowledgeAn Analysis of Knowledge and Valuation. 2nd Edition, Boulder, CO: Westview, 2000.
Lewis, C. I. . LaSalle, IL: Open Court, 1985.
Maffie, James. “Recent Work on Naturalized Epistemology,” in American Philosophical QuarterlyKnowledge and Certainty, 27 4, (October 1994).
Malcolm, Norman. . Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press,1963.
Montmarquet, James A. “Epistemic Virtue,” in MindEpistemic Virtue and Doxastic Responsibility 96, (1987).
________. . Totowa, NJ: Rowman & Littlefeld, 1993.
Moser, Paul. Empirical JustificationPhilosophical Foundations for a Christian Worldview. Boston: D. Reidel, 1985.
Moreland, J.P & Craig, William Lane. . Downers Grove, Ill: InterVarsity Press, 2003. See especially the discussion 110-129.
________. Empirical Knowledge: Readings in Contemporary EpistemologyJustification and Knowledge. Towata, NJ: Rowman and Littlefeld, 1986.
________. ed. . Dordrecht, Holland: D. Reidle, 1979.
Pappas, George, ed. Justification and KnowledgeWhat Can We Know: An Introduction to the Theory of Knowledge?. Dordrecht, Holland: D. Reidle, 1979.
Pojman, Louis P. 2nd Ed. United States: Wadsworth Thomson Learning, 2001.
________. The Theory of Knowledge: Classic and Contemporary ReadingsContemporary Theories of Knowledge. Boston: Wadsworth, 1999.
Pollock, John. . Totowa, NJ: Rowman & Littlefield, 1986.
Price, H. H. PerceptionOntological Relativity and Other Essays. London: Methuen & Co., 1932.
Quine,W.V. . New York: Columbia University Press, 1969.
________. From the Logical Point of ViewPursuit of Truth. New York: Harper & Row, 1953.
________. . Cambridge, MA: ..
Selected Readings in the Tradition of Skepticism
Annas, Julia and Jonathan Barnes, eds. The Modes of Scepticism: Ancient Texts and Modern InterpretationsRationalism, Empiricism, and Pragmatism: An Introduction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985.
Aune, Bruce. . New York: Random House, 1970.
Burnyeat, Miles, ed. The Skeptical TraditionEssays in Ancient Philosophy. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1983.
Frede, Michael. . Minneapolis: University Press, 1987.
Hookway, Christopher. ScepticismA Treatise on Human Nature. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1990.
Hume, David. . ed. by L. Al. Selby-Bigge. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1896.
Klein, Peter. Certainty: A Refutation of ScepticismLives of Eminent Philosophers. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1981.
Laertius, Diogenes. . Vol.2, trans. by R.D. Hicks. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1925.
Matson, Wallace. “Certainty Made Simple,” in Certainty and Surface in Epistemology and Philosophical Method: Essays in Honor of Avrum StrollPhilosophical Foundations for a Christian Worldview, ed. by A. P. Martinich and Michael J. White. Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen Press, 1991.
Moreland, J.P & Craig, William Lane. . Downers Grove, Ill: InterVarsity Press, 2003. See especially the discussion pp. 91-109.
Sextus Empiricus. Selections from the Major Writings on Scepticism, Man and GodGreek Skepticism: A Study in Epistemology, trans. by Sanford G. Etheridge, ed. by Philip P. Hallie. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Co., 1968.
Stough, Charlotte. . Berkeley: University of California Press, 1969.
Stroud, Barry. The Significance of Philosophical SkepticismIgnorance: A Case for Skepticism. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1984.
Unger, Peter. . Oxford: Clarendon Press,1975.
________. “A Defense of Skepticism.” in Philosophical Review 80, 1971.