Knowledge Tree
Alvin Plantinga
Also known as: Plantinga
Facts (19)
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Epistemology of Testimony | Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy iep.utm.edu 13 facts
quoteAlvin Plantinga states: "[I]n many situations, while testimony does indeed provide warrant, there is a cognitively superior way. I learn by way of testimony that first-order logic is complete…. I do even better, however, if I come to see these truths for myself…"
perspectiveLiberals such as Peter Graham and Alvin Plantinga argue that the possibility of interpreting testimonial utterances is insufficient to justify a belief in the reliability of testimony.
claimCritics of Alvin Plantinga and Robert Audi argue that testimonially-based beliefs can check or trump perceptually- or memorially-based beliefs, such as when an individual seeks confirmation from others after observing a strange phenomenon.
referenceThe Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy categorizes epistemological views on testimony based on conditions for the testifier (T-side) and the recipient (S-side), identifying four categories: Reductionism (demanding on both sides), Anti-Reductionism (demanding on T-side, less demanding on S-side), and other variations involving thinkers such as Audi, Fricker, Lackey, Burge, Plantinga, Ross, Welbourne, Goldberg, Graham, and Green.
quoteAlvin Plantinga, citing Thomas Reid, stated in 1993: "Reid is surely right in thinking that the beliefs we form by way of credulity or testimony are typically held in the basic way, not by way of inductive or abductive evidence from other things I believe. I am five years old; my father tells me that Australia is a large country and occupies an entire continent all by itself. I don’t say to myself, “My father says thus and so; most of the time when I have checked what he says has turned out to be true; so probably this is; so probably Australia is a very large country that occupies an entire continent by itself.” I could reason that way and in certain specialized circumstances we do reason that way. But typically we don’t. Typically we just believe what we are told, and believe it in the basic way. … I say I could reason in the inductive way to what testimony testifies to; but of course I could not have reasoned thus in coming to the first beliefs I held on the basis of testimony."
claimJennifer Lackey classifies several philosophers as 'preservationists' (those who hold that if a testifier knows that p, then the hearer must know that p), including Welbourne (1979, 1981, 1994), Hardwig (1985, 1991), Ross (1986), Burge (1993, 1997), Plantinga (1993), McDowell (1994), Williamson (1996), Audi (1997), Owens (2000), and Dummett (1994).
claimAlvin Plantinga criticizes the view that testimony is necessarily evidence, arguing instead that testimony only supplies evidence when the contingent human design plan provides for it, specifically in an environment where testifiers generally speak the truth.
accountAlvin Plantinga illustrates the 'basic way' of forming beliefs via testimony with the example of a five-year-old child accepting their father's statement about Australia's size without performing an inductive check on the father's reliability.
claimLiberals such as Graham and Plantinga argue that the possibility of interpreting testimonial utterances does not necessarily justify belief in the reliability of testimony, challenging Coady’s Davidsonian argument.
claimAlvin Plantinga (1993) and Robert Audi (2006) suggest that testimony differs from sources like perception because testimonially-based beliefs can be defeated or trumped by other sources of evidence in ways that perception cannot.
quoteAlvin Plantinga (1993) characterizes testimony as a "second-class citizen of the epistemic republic" if it requires the speaker to know the proposition being communicated.
quoteAlvin Plantinga (1993) states: "Testimonial evidence is indeed evidence; and if I get enough and strong enough testimonial evidence for a give fact … the belief in question may have enough warrant to constitute knowledge."
claimJennifer Lackey identifies a group of philosophers who support non-reductionist views on the epistemology of testimony, including Austin (1946), Welbourne (1979, 1981, 1986, 1994), Evans (1982), Ross (1986), Hardwig (1985, 1991), Coady (1992, 1994), Reid (1764), Burge (1993, 1997), Plantinga (1993), Webb (1993), Dummett (1994), Foley (1994), McDowell (1994), Strawson (1994), Williamson (1996, 2000), Goldman (1999), Schmitt (1999), Insole (2000), Owens (2000), Rysiew (2002), Weiner (2003a), and Goldberg (2006).
Virtue Epistemology | Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy iep.utm.edu 2 facts
Epistemology (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy/Fall 2019 Edition) plato.stanford.edu Dec 14, 2005 1 fact
referenceAlvin Plantinga authored 'Warranted Christian Belief' in 2000.
Virtue epistemology - Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org 1 fact
claimAlvin Plantinga's theory of knowledge, which is related to virtue epistemology, asserts that knowledge is warranted if an individual's intellectual faculties are operating as they were designed to operate.
Mind and Consciousness - St Andrews Encyclopaedia of Theology saet.ac.uk Jun 20, 2024 1 fact
claimSubstance dualism, which recognizes the distinct reality of the soul or mind and the body, has been developed by Clement of Alexandria, Origen of Alexandria, Augustine of Hippo, the Florentine Academy, John Calvin, the Cambridge Platonists, René Descartes, John Locke, Thomas Reid, Richard Swinburne, and Alvin Plantinga.
Epistemology - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy plato.stanford.edu Dec 14, 2005 1 fact
claimAlvin Plantinga authored 'Warrant: The Current Debate', published by Oxford University Press in 1993.