Analytic Philosophy of Religion: Its History since 1955

Steven Duncan

Description

This book (also available in paperback from Troubador) is a reconstruction and interpretation of the development of analytic philosophy of religion in Britain and the United States, with special reference to the debate over the existence of God and the problem of evil, during the last fifty years.

Sujets

• Religion
• European
• Literary criticism

Informations

• Publié par: Humanities eBooks
• Date de parution: 11 janvier 2021
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781847600431
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

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Humanities-Ebooks

Analytic Philosophy of Religion its History since 1955

Steven Duncan

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© STeveN DUNCàN, 2007

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iSbn 978-1-84760-043-1

Analytic Philosophy of Religion:

its History since 1955

Steven M. Duncan

Tirril: Humanities-Ebooks, 2007

Contents

About the Author

Preface Introduction What is the Philosophy of Religion? Faith and Reason Deductivism and Inductivism: Two Approaches to the Philosophy of Religion Chapter One: Theism and Atheism The Elements of Theism Atheism Chapter Two: Neo-Thomism and the Rise of Analysis Neo-Thomism: Basic Elements Reginald Garrigou–Lagrange and the Five Ways The Beginnings of Analytic Philosophy Stages in the Development of Analytic Philosophy Analysis and Neo-Thomism: Early Encounters Chapter Three: The Problem of Religious Language The Thomistic Theory of Analogical Predication Talk of God in the Analytic Tradition The “Theology and Falsiîcation” Debate Non-cognitivist Approaches to Religious Language The “Parity Argument”: An Epistemological Counterattack Chapter Four: The Argument from Evil and the Origin of Inductivism Mackie’s Argument Pike and Plantinga: Refuting the Deductive Argument from Evil John Hick’s Irenaean Theodicy The Atheistic Response to Pike and the Transition to Inductivism Chapter Five: The Inductivist Paradigm Basil Mitchell: The Justiîcation of Religious Belief Swinburne’s Inductivist Theism: the General Strategy Swinburne’s Positive Argument for Theism

Analytic Philosophy of Religion 5

Swinburne on Evil and the Hiddenness of God Swinburne on Religious Experience and Miracles J. L. Mackie’s Critique of Swinburne Inference to the Best Explanation and the Future of Inductivism Chapter Six: The Ontological Argument Redivivus The Classical Ontological Argument(s) Hartshorne, Findlay and Malcolm: The Modal Ontological Argument Possible Worlds Plantinga’s Ontological Argument Chapter Seven: The Cosmological ArgumentRedivivus The Leibniz/Clarke Argument The New Physico–Theology I: The “Big Bang” Cosmological Argument TheKalamCosmological Argument Chapter Eight: The Teleological ArgumentRedivivus F. R. Tennant’s Teleological Argument The New Physico–Theology II: The “Fine Tuning” Argument The Future of the Teleological Argument Chapter Nine: Post-Deductivism and the Rise of Christian Philosophy Protestant Philosophy before Analysis Plantinga’s “Christian Philosophy” Foundationalism and the Ethics of Belief Plantinga’s “Reformed Epistemology” Chapter Ten: Philosophy of Religion Today Contemporary Theistic Philosophy Contemporary Atheistic Philosophy Toward a Friendlier Atheism Bibliography

About the Author

Steven M. Duncan (1954–) earned his Ph.D. at the University of Washington in 1987 and has taught at various colleges and universities for the last thirty years. He is cur- rently on the adjunct philosophy staff at Bellevue College.

Preface

I well remember that when I was an undergraduate in the early 1970’s, the intellectual culture in philosophy departments in the United States was one in which atheism was taken to be established beyond any reasonable doubt and incumbent on anyone who wanted to be regarded as even minimally rational. If that consensus had continued to the present time, a book such as this one would have had no more than academic interest. As it is, however, it tells the dramatic story of the revival of theism in the philosophy of religion, one that brought theism from the brink of intellectual anni- hilation to something approaching intellectual respectability in the space of a single generation. At the same time, if this were generally known and acknowledged among philosophers, this book would again be of only academic interest. However, I have found that many – perhaps even most – philosophers have not kept up with the dra- matic changes in the îeld in the last thirty years and believe that the intellectual situ- ation remains unchanged from what it was then. For these philosophers I hope this book will serve both as an introduction to the philosophy of religion as it is today and a challenge to the received opinion.  There is much more to the story than I have been able to summarize here. In par- 1 ticular, the contribution of philosophers to the discussion of the divine attributes , the 2 3 problem of divine foreknowledge and Christian apologetics , though interesting and substantial, have been left aside in what follows. Instead, I have chosen to concen- trate on the two most hotly debated issues in the philosophy of religion in the last îfty years – the existence of God and the problem of evil – and to chart the course of the dialectic between these two discussions that has, I claim, completely transformed the îeld in the space of three decades.  I wish to thank Dr. Richard Gravil and Dr. Mark Addis for choosing to include this project as one of the îrst titles published by Humanities-Ebooks. Although new and as yet little tried, there can be no doubt that electronic publishing will make publicly

 For a summary of current work on this topic, see Hoffmann and Rosenkrantz (2002). 2 For a good overview of current discussion of this problem, see Zagzebski (996).  For an introduction to current issues in this area, see Hebblethwaite (2005).

Analytic Philosophy of Religion 8

available important contributions to scholarship that, given the expense of traditional methods of publishing, might never have seen the light of day. The present author hopes that something like this might be the case with regard to the modest volume currently before the reader, which is dedicated to the memory of his father, Merle A. Duncan, who died in October of 2005.

Introduction

For anyone with even a slight acquaintance with the îeld, there can be no doubt that the philosophy of religion has been one of the most active and volatile branches of the discipline of philosophy in the latter half of the twentieth century. In this book, we will be reviewing the history of the philosophy of religion since 1955, concentrating on the problems, doctrines and îgures making up the tradition of analytic philosophy 1 of religion dominant during that period in Britain and the United States. Although my primary concern will be with the history of this tradition in the philosophy of religion, I will also be defending two historical claims about the general development and progress of the philosophical research and discussion composing this tradition. First, I will be charting the obvious trend from a nearly universal consensus in favour of atheism among the central îgures in analytic philosophy of religion in the 1950’s st to the dominance of theistic philosophers of religion by the turn of the 21 century. Secondly, I shall be arguing that there has been a paradigm shift in the way that dis- cussion of the philosophy of religion has been undertaken in the last îfty years from a largely deductivist perspective to a more inductivist one and then, ultimately, to a Post-Deductivist perspective. This change parallels a similar trend in the epistemol- ogy in the same period but seems to have developed largely independently of that 2 trend, or at any rate does not rely directly upon it.  I shall begin by îlling in some of the historical background, beginning with the late nineteenth century developments in the Catholic Church that led to the rise of the neo-Thomist movement and which, I will argue, initiated the modern deductiv- ist paradigm and its model for conceiving and discussing the central issues in the philosophy of religion such as the existence of God and the problem of evil. I shall then turn to the origins of analytic philosophy and of the early analytic philosophers of religion who quite naturally adopted the deductivist paradigm and used it to make the formidable case for atheism that seemed all but unchallengeable in the 1950’s.

ForahistoryofAnglophonephilosophyofreligionpriortothisperiod,seeell(9�)foracom-- prehensive history of twentieth century philosophy of religion see Long (2000). 2TheparallelisevidentinPlantinga(99a).

Analytic Philosophy of Religion 10

However, I will then argue that, in response to Nelson Pike’s refutation of the deduc- tive argument from evil in the 1960’s, the analytic atheists inadvertently initiated the new, inductivist paradigm that, over the next twenty years, transformed both the standards of argument and the very way in which problems in the philosophy of reli- gion were conceived by philosophers. I will then chart the development of the revival of theism in the philosophy of religion, concentrating on the two main approaches to a contemporary philosophical defence of theism: the inductivist approach of Richard Swinburne and the Post-Deductivist approach of Alvin Plantinga.  This, as it turns out, is quite a story to tell and by no means will I be able to tell all of it. Since there is so much relevant material, I have opted for breadth rather than depth and conceive of the book as a kind of handbook that will provide sufîcient acquaintance with the material for students and other non-specialists while serving as a guide and platform for further, more sophisticated research in the îeld or with regard to special topics that readers may feel inclined and competent to pursue. Although I will occasionally offer my own arguments or assessments of the current debate in the various topics I will be discussing, this is a work of scholarship rather than creative philosophy. My intention is to present the philosophical work of others rather than to contribute to the ongoing debate, something I hope to do on another occasion. I will be well pleased if the reader goes away with the (hopefully correct) impression that he or she knows the lay of land in this fascinating and increasingly sophisticated branch of philosophical inquiry. I shall be even more satisîed if the reader is then motivated to investigate the relevant problems and texts more fully. To begin with, however, I shall assume that the reader is approaching these questions for the very îrst time and proceed accordingly. Let us begin, then, with the preliminaries.

What is the Philosophy of Religion?

The philosophy of religion is the branch of philosophy that deals with the central, substantive claims of religion from the rational point of view, such as the existence and nature of God, the nature and function of religious language and the justiîcation for religious belief. Because it is a branch of philosophical investigation, the philoso- phy of religion ideally begins from an external and neutral rational perspective on the substantive, metaphysical claims of religion and proposes to evaluate and assess those claims from that perspective. The philosopher of religion, regardless of his anteced- ent religious commitments (or lack of them) is bound by the philosopher’s general commitment to the objective and impartial examination of these substantive claims