Course Syllabus

Professor Michael Sudduth

Fall 1999

Phone: 654-2598 Philosophy 427A

E-mail: msudduth@smcvt.edu 4 credits

msudduth@ix.netcom.com T/TH 3:30-5:10pm

Website: http://www.homestead.com/philofreligion/ STE 101

Office: STE 227, Office Hours: M,W: 2:00-4:00pm

Epistemology (from episteme, to know, and logos, account or reason) is the branch of philosophy concerned with the nature, origin, and extent of knowledge, and related concepts such as truth, rationality, justification, and belief formation. Religious epistemology concerns these questions with reference to religious beliefs, chiefly belief in the existence and nature of God. What are the grounds of religious belief? Do these grounds contribute in any way to the rationality or justification of religious belief? What is required to have religious knowledge? What objections are there to the possibility (or actuality) of religious knowledge or rational belief in God? How are faith and reason related? Does religious belief have any implications for how we think of knowledge and related epistemic concepts?

Everyone has beliefs of various sorts. It is, for various reasons, a good thing that our beliefs are true, as opposed to false. But if it is a good thing to have true beliefs, it is better yet to know that you do. But how do we know that our beliefs are true? Epistemology considers questions that are significant to our cognitive lives. What is true about our beliefs in general is prima facie also true about religious belief in particular. Not everyone has religious beliefs, but nearly everyone takes some kind of stance toward religious belief. These stances vary considerably.

• Some people believe very a strongly there is a God, and these people typically hold many other sorts of religious beliefs (e.g., about God's presence and activity in their lives, how God wants humans to live, and how humans can achieve immortality and salvation). I will refer to people who believe that there is a God as theists.
• Other people do not hold any of these sorts of belief; in fact, they apparently hold no religious beliefs at all. These people, agnostics, neither believe that there is a God nor believe that there is no God.
• Lastly, there are those who believe that there is no God, atheists.

As cognitive stances, each of these stances (theism, agnosticism, and atheism) can be evaluated in terms of truth, rationality, etc. And if it is a good thing that our beliefs are true and rationally warranted, then we ought to reflect on our religious stance. Religious epistemology provides such an opportunity.

This class has three general aims or goals.

1. To understand and critically reflect on the ideas and arguments found in central texts in religious epistemology.
2. On the basis of (1), to understand some basic questions and problems in religious epistemology.
3. As a preparation for (1) and (2), to introduce some basic epistemological concepts in the context of contemporary epistemology.

Although this course will emphasize readings in religious epistemology, it will equally be conceptual, emphasizing the questions, problems, and implications of the content of the readings, and their relations to each other. The course is interested in these issues as they arise in both classical and contemporary texts.

Here is a brief overview of how the course is structured.

Weeks 1-3: Texts introducing some of central questions and problems in epistemology

Weeks 4-6: Two Foundational Authors: Thomas Aquinas and John Calvin

Weeks 7-9: Texts that develop objections to "religious knowledge" or the "rationality" of religious belief, as well as some critical analysis of these objections by Alvin Plantinga in his forthcoming book Warranted Christian Belief (Oxford).

Weeks 10-14: Modern and contemporary texts that develop arguments for God's existence.

Week 15: Summary

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My philosophy of religion website (URL above) has a page for this class. Handouts and lecture notes will be posted on that page, as well as distributed in class. On the religious epistemology page, and my web page in general, you will find useful on-line resources for this class. Be sure to make use of these materials. I will periodically refer to materials and links on my web page. You may sign my guest book if you like. J

http://www.egroups.com/group/religious-epistemology/

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Faith and Reason, ed. Paul Helm (Oxford, 1999) - bookstore

Alvin Plantinga, Warranted Christian Belief (chapters 3, 5, and 6) - bookstore

Photocopied Readings Supplement (PRS), provided by professor.

There will be 500 points available in the class. The points (and percentages) are distributed as follows.

• 5 short, 1-1 1/2 page written assignments (in class and outside) 30% [150 points]
• 3 papers: 30% (3-4 pages each) [150 points]
• 1 term paper: 20% (may be based on earlier paper) [100 points]
• participation 20%, includes two office visits with me during the semester [100 points]

The course will demand a good deal of your time, not merely in the way of reading but in the way of thinking and writing. It is crucial that you keep up on the readings, which though not excessive in length, may be challenging in content. You should expect to read material more than once to get a proper understanding. Be ready to discuss the readings when you come to class. Feel free to come by for an office visit to discuss concepts that you are having a difficult time understanding or if you are struck with some great insight into the readings or course. Details on papers will be discussed in class. As for participation, the matter is quite simple: impress me and prove to me that your mind and body are both in and into class (and if not, at least leave with the impression that they are). Everyone begins with full credit on this (100 points). So failure to participate in a way that is event and consistent will detract from

• Do not talk (or whisper), or otherwise be a distraction, while professor or student is speaking.
• Late papers will not be accepted, unless professor has been notified prior and has given permission.
• Excessive absences and tardiness will not be tolerated. Although I do not penalize for absences as such, absences and tardiness may nonetheless negatively affect your participation grade and work in the class. If you are not present, you are obviously missing classroom lecture and discussion, and others will miss out on your contribution to the course. If you anticipate missing more than two classes because of sport-related commitments, you should consider withdrawing from the class.
• The written work you submit in this class must be your original work and prepared for this particular class. If you have a paper written for another class that you think is relevant to an assignment in this class, and you would like to draw on or otherwise modify that paper for this class, you must receive my permission.
• Student is wholly responsible for material and assignments missed due to absence or tardiness.

All paper grading has an inevitable subjective element in it, but I do not grade on the basis of whether I agree or disagree with the thesis of your paper. Below are some general criteria that you should keep in mind when writing papers for this class.

*Grammatical errors may also play a role in determining paper grades, especially if the errors are consistent and distracting. Always use spell check AND proof read your paper before you turn it in. Papers must be typed or produced by a quality printer, in no less than 12pt font and no larger than 14pt font. Your paper must be stapled. Deviations from these standards may result in your paper being marked down.

AUGUST 31 - Class Orientation

2^nd Thursday: Handout I, Sudduth, "Rationality and Irrationality."

7^th Tuesday: rationality discussion concluded; Handouts II and III, Sudduth, "Three Kinds of Rationality" and "To Know or Not to Know."

9^th Thursday: Plato, Theatetus (selections), Bertrand Russell, "Truth and Falsehood" and "Knowledge, Error, and Probable Opinion" (pp. 119-130, 131-140). These readings are all in PRS.

14^th Tuesday: Bertrand Russell, handout, "On Intuitive Knowledge" (pp.111-118) in PRS.

16^th Thursday: Conclusion of epistemological introduction

21^st Tuesday: Thomas Aquinas, "Whether there is a God" (32)

23^rd Thursday: Thomas Aquinas, "Whether there is a God" (32), "Faith and Reason" (33)

28^th Tuesday: Thomas Aquinas, "Faith and Reason" (33)

30^th Thursday: John Calvin, "The Sensus Divinitatis" (44).

5^th Tuesday: John Calvin, "The External Witness" in PRS.

7^th Thursday: John Calvin, "The Inner Testimony of the Holy Spirit" (45) PAPER #1 DUE

12^th Tuesday: NO CLASS

14^th Thursday: A.J. Ayer, "The Meaninglessness of Theological Statements" (90); Anthony Flew "Theology and Falsification" (91); Raeburne S. Heimbeck, "The Meaningfulness of Theological Language" (92)

19^th Tuesday: W.K. Clifford, "The Ethics of Belief" (73); William James, "The Will to Believe" (74); Anthony Flew, "The Presumption of Atheism" (105); Alvin Plantinga, Warranted Christian Belief, chapter 3, pp. 1-11.

21^st Thursday: Plantinga, Warranted Christian Belief, chapter 3, pp. 11-26.

26^th Tuesday: Ludwig Feuerbach, "God as a Projection" (68); Karl Marx, "Religion as Opium: Man Makes Religion" (69); Sigmund Freud, "Religion as Wish-Fulfillment" (71); Plantinga, Warranted Christian Belief, chapter 5.

28^th Thursday: Plantinga, chapter 6, Warranted Christian Belief

2^nd Tuesday: William Paley. "The Argument from Design" (58) Hume, "Analogies and Disanalogies" (59), Charles Darwin, "Nature and Purpose" (79) PAPER #2 DUE

4^th Thursday: Paley, et all continued.

9^th Tuesday: FILM: The Big Bang. Stephen Hawking, "A Self-Contained Universe" (85); William Lane Craig, "The Beginning of the Universe" (86); Keith Ward, "Creation and Cosmology" (87)

11^th Thursday: Continuation of Hawking, Craig, and Ward.

16^th Tuesday: Swinburne, "The World and Its Order" (107)

18^th Thursday: Swinburne, "The World and Its Order" (107); and John Leslie, "Fine Tuning" (84)

23^rd Tuesday: Open Day PAPER #3 DUE

THANKSGIVING BREAK 24^th - 28^th

30^th Tuesday: Fides et Ratio

2^nd Thursday: Fides et Ratio

7^th Tuesday: Fides et Ratio

9^th Thursday: SUMMARY

TERM PAPER DUE ON DECEMBER 10^th, by 5:00pm - Tentative

Your term paper is equivalent to the final, so we have no examination on the scheduled day. But for your information: December 13-18: Final Exams (This class, December 15^th, Wednesday, 1:00-3:30pm)