Closing Pandora's box: a defence of Alvin Plantinga's epistemology of religious belief

McNabb, Tyler Dalton (2016) Closing Pandora's box: a defence of Alvin Plantinga's epistemology of religious belief. PhD thesis, University of Glasgow.

Abstract

I argue (1) that Alvin Plantinga’s theory of warrant is plausible and (2) that, contrary to the Pandora’s Box objection, there are certain serious world religions that cannot successfully use Plantinga’s epistemology to demonstrate that their beliefs could be warranted in the same way that Christian belief can be warranted. In arguing for (1), I deploy Ernest Sosa’s Swampman case to show that Plantinga’s proper function condition is a necessary condition for warrant. I then engage three objections to Plantinga’s theory of warrant, each of which attempts to demonstrate that his conditions for warrant are neither necessary nor sufficient. Having defended the plausibility of Plantinga’s theory of warrant, I present and expand his key arguments to the effect that naturalism cannot make use of it. These arguments provide the conceptual tools that are needed to argue for (2): that there are certain world religions that cannot legitimately use Plantinga’s theory of warrant to demonstrate that their beliefs could be warranted in the same way that Christian belief can be warranted.

• Item Type: Thesis (PhD)
• Qualification Level: Doctoral
• Keywords: Alvin Plantinga, Pandora's Box, EAAN, proper functionalism, religious epistemology, reformed epistemology.
• Subjects: B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > B Philosophy (General); B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BJ Ethics; B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BL Religion
• Colleges/Schools: College of Arts & Humanities > School of Humanities > Philosophy
• Supervisor's Name: Harrison, Dr. Victoria
• Date of Award: 2016
• Depositing User: Tyler McNabb
• Unique ID: glathesis:2016-7587
• Copyright: Copyright of this thesis is held by the author.
• Date Deposited: 25 Oct 2016 09:28
• Last Modified: 10 Nov 2016 09:40
• URI: https://theses.gla.ac.uk/id/eprint/7587