Evidence, Uncertainty, And Belief: A Critique Of The Common Epistemic Grounds For Fideism And Agnosticism

Yıl 2022, Cilt: 22 Sayı: 2, 813 - 842, 30.09.2022

Nesim Aslantatar

https://doi.org/10.33415/daad.1107348

Öz

Uncertainty elicits more than one doxastic attitude towards God’s existence, namely agnosticism and fideism, which have very similar epistemic foundations despite the dissimilarity in their outcomes. This similarity mainly depends on the alleged uncertainty of evidence, and to disclose both attitudes in all their bearings, two fundamental theses, epistemic and practical, will be suggested. Employing these two theses, this study aims to investigate the crucial points where agnosticism and fideism overlap and diverge depending on the uncertainty and argue that the epistemic common ground, the basis of many criticisms of fideism, is self-destructive. The uncertainty concerning the evidence for God, ambiguity, or vagueness will be explored to justify this claim. This will bear the question of whether the evidence is ambiguous because it is absent mainly or because it is present but vague. Or is it neither absent nor vague but still ambiguous because both sides have clear evidence? Consequently, the current study shall object to the idea that agnosticism equals vagueness which implicitly means that agnosticism is a necessary stance and defends that fideism’s having loose or no relation to evidence is irrational.

Anahtar Kelimeler

Philosophy of Religion, Agnosticism, Fideism, Uncertainty, Ambiguity, Vagueness

Destekleyen Kurum

Yok.

Teşekkür

I would like to express my deepest gratitude to Sadenur Doğan Aslantatar, Abdulkadir Tanış, Zeynep Baktemur, and İbrahim Yıldız for their invaluable contribution to the study.

Kanıt, Belirsizlik Ve İnanç

Öz

Belirsizlik, sonuçlarındaki farklılıklara rağmen, Tanrı’nın varlığına yönelik oldukça benzer epistemik temellere sahip agnostisizm ve fideizm olmak üzere birden fazla önermesel tutumu ortaya çıkarır. Söz konusu benzerlik, esasen, Tanrı’nın varlığına dair kanıtların yeterli olmadığı varsayımına dayanır. Bu çalışma bağlamında, her iki tutumu da kanıta dair yaklaşımları bakımından tüm yönleriyle ele almak adına epistemik ve pratik olmak üzere iki temel tez önerilecektir. Bu tezler aracılığıyla, agnostisizm ve fideizmin belirsizliğe bağlı olarak kesiştiği ve ayrıldığı kritik noktaları ele alacak ve fideizme yönelik birçok eleştirinin temeli olan epistemik ortaklığın fideizm açısından yıkıcı olduğunu savunacağız. Bu iddiamızı kanıtlamak adına, öncelikle, Tanrı’nın varlığına dair belirsizliğin –muğlaklık ya da müphemlik- mahiyeti üzerinde duracağız. Bu bağlamda, belirsizlik noktasında, iki konu üzerinde duracağız: (i) kanıt var olmadığı için mi muğlaktır, yoksa var ancak müphem midir? (ii) Kanıt, hem Tanrı’nın varlığını hem de var olmadığını destekleyen yeterince kanıt olduğu için mi muğlaktır? Sonuç olarak, mevcut çalışma, agnostisizmin müphemlik olarak anlaşılması fikrine karşı çıkarak agnostisizmin zorunlu bir tutum olmadığını savunacak; fideizmin kanıtlarla ilişkisinin zayıf olmasının ya da hiç olmamasının irrasyonel olduğunu göstermeye çalışacaktır.

Anahtar Kelimeler

Din Felsefesi, Agnostisizm, Fideizm, Belirsizlik, Muğlaklık, Müphemlik

Kaynakça

• Avnur, Yuval. “Unicorn Agnosticism”. Inquiry 64/8 (2021), 818-829.
• Bergmann, Michael. “Defeaters and Higher-level Requirements”. The Philosophical Quarterly 55 (2005), 419-436.
• Bevan, Edwyn. Symbolism and Belief. London: George Allen and Unwin Ltd., 1938.
• Blackburn, Simon. “Fideism”. The Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy, 139. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996.
• Clark, Kelly James. Return to Reason: A Critique of Enlightenment Evidentialism and a Defense of Reason and Belief in God. Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2001.
• Clifford, William K. “The Ethics of Belief”. In Philosophy of Religion: Selected Readings, ed. Peterson, M., Hasker, W., Reichenbach, B., and Basinger, 99–103. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010.
• Conee, Earl; Richard Feldman. Evidentialism: Essays in Epistemology. New York: Oxford University Press, 2004.
• Corte, Samantha. “Following God without Belief: Moral Objections to Agnostic Religious Commitment”. Philosophy Compass 3 (2008), 381-96.
• Dawkins, Richard. The God Delusion. London: Bantam Press, 2006.
• Deniz, Osman Murat. Fideizm nedir?: Teolojik ve Felsefi bir Değerlendirme. İstanbul: İz Yayıncılık, 2022.
• Draper, Paul. “Seeking but Not Believing: Confessions of a Practicing Agnostic”. Divine Hiddenness: New Essays, ed. D. Howard-Snyder, and P. K. Moser, 197-198. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002.
• Feezell, Randolph. “Religious Ambiguity, Agnosticism, and Prudence”. Florida Philosophical Review 9/2 (2009), 90-120.
• Feldman, Richard. “Reasonable Religious Disagreements”. Philosophers without Gods: Meditations on Atheism and the Secular Life, ed. Louise M. Antony, 194-214. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007.
• Fitzgerald, Timothy. “Mansel’s Agnosticism.” Religious Studies 26/4 (1990), 525-541.
• Friedman, Jane. “Rational Agnosticism and Degrees of Belief”. in Oxford Studies in Epistemology, ed. T. Gendler; J. Hawthorne, 57-85. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013.
• Friedman, Jane. “Suspended Judgment”. Philosophical Studies 162/2 (2013), 165-181.
• Hájek, Alan. “Agnosticism Meets Bayesianism”. Analysis 58/3 (1998), 199-206.
• Hallam, George W. “Source of the Word Agnostic”. Modern Language Notes 70/4 (1955), 265-266.
• Huxley, Thomas Henry. Science and Christian Tradition: Essays. New York: D. Appleton and Co., 1896.
• James, William. “Is Life Worth Living?” Pragmatism and Other Writings, ed. Giles Gunn, 219-241. New York: Penguin Books, 2000.
• James, William. “The Will to Believe”. Pragmatism and Other Writings, ed. Giles Gunn, 198-218. New York: Penguin Books, 2000.
• Jeffrey, Richard. “Bayesianism with a human face”. Testing Scientific Theories, ed. John Earman, 133-156. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1983.
• Kenny, Anthony. “Agnosticism and Atheism”. Philosophers and God: At the Frontiers of Faith and Reason, ed. J. Cornwell and M. McGhee, 117-124. New York: Continuum, 2009.
• Kenny, Anthony. What is Faith? Essays in The Philosophy of Religion. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992.
• Kierkegaard, Søren. Concluding Unscientific Postscript to the Philosophical Crumbs. Ed. and trans. Alastair Hannay. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009.
• Le Poidevin, Robin. Agnosticism: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010.
• Lemos, John. “Agnostic Defence of Obligatory Prayer”. Sophia 37 (1998), 70-87.
• Lightman, Bernard. The Origins of Agnosticism: Victorian Unbelief and the Limits of Knowledge. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2019.
• Magee, William Connor. “Agnosticism”. Christianity and Agnosticism: A Controversy, ed. Thomas Henry Huxley, Henry Wace, 44-46. New York: The Humboldt Publishing Co., 1889.
• Mansel, Henry L. The Limits of Religious Thought Examined in Eight Lectures. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009.
• McGrath, Matthew. “Being neutral: Agnosticism, inquiry and the suspension of judgement”. Noûs 55 (2021), 1- 22.
• Monton, Bradley. “Bayesian Agnosticism and Constructive Empiricism”. Analysis 58/3 (1998), 207-212.
• Moruzzi, Sebastiano. “Vagueness and Agnosticism”. Issues of Vagueness. Methodology and Agnosticism, ed. S. Moruzzi, A. Sereni, 131-153. Padova: II Poligrofo, 2005.
• Oppy, Graham. “Weak Agnosticism Defended”. International Journal for Philosophy of Religion 36 (1994), 147- 167.
• Oppy, Graham. Atheism and Agnosticism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018.
• Pascal, Blaise. Pensées. Trans. A. J. Krailsheimer. London: Penguin Books, 1995.
• Penelhum, Terence. “Fideism”. In A Companion to Philosophy of Religion, ed. C. Taliaferro, P. Draper, and P. L. Quinn, 441-447. Malden: Wiley-Blackwell, 2010.
• Penelhum, Terence. God and Skepticism: A Study in Skepticism and Fideism. Dordrecht: D. Reidel Publishing Company, 1983.
• Peterson, M., Hasker, W., Reichenbach, B., and Basinger, D. Reason and Religious Belief: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Religion. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003.
• Piety, Marilyn Gaye. “Kierkegaard on Rationality.” Faith and Rationality 10/3 (1993), 365-379.
• Plantinga, Alvin. “Agnosticism”. A Companion to Epistemology: Blackwell Companions to Philosophy, ed. J. Dancy, E. Sosa, and M. Steup, 223. Malden: Blackwell Publishing, 2010.
• Plantinga, Alvin. “Reason and Belief in God”. Faith and Rationality: Reason and Belief in God, ed. A. Plantinga, N. Wolterstorff, 16-93. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1983.
• Plantinga, Alvin. Where the Conflict Really Lies: Science, Religion and Naturalism. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011.
• Popkin, Richard H. “Fideism”. The Encyclopedia of Philosophy. ed. Paul Edwards, 201-202. New York: Macmillan Publishing Co., 1967.
• Rosenkranz, Sven. “Metaethics, Agnosticism and Logic”. Dialectics 60/1 (2006), 47-61.
• Rosenkranz, Sven. “Radical Scepticism without Epistemic Closure”. Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 85/3 (2012), 692-718.
• Rosenkranz, Sven. “Wright on Vagueness and Agnosticism”. Mind 112/447 (2003), 449-463.
• Rowe, William L. “Agnosticism”. In Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy, ed. Edward Craig, 121-124. London: Taylor & Francis, 1998.
• Russell, Bertrand. “What is an Agnostic?” in The Basic Writings of Bertrand Russell, ed. Robert E. Egner and Lester E. Denonn, 557-565. London: Routledge Classics, 2009.
• Russell, Bertrand. “Am I An Atheist Or An Agnostic?” The Basic Writings of Bertrand Russell, ed. Robert E. Egner and Lester E. Denonn. London: Routledge Classics, 2009.
• Stephen, Leslie. An Agnostic’s Apology and Other Essays. London: Smith, Elder, and Co., 1903.
• Tanış, Abdulkadir. “İnanma İradesi: William James’in İmanın Pragmatik Savunusu Üzerine Bir Değerlendirme”. Dini Araştırmalar 19/48 (2016), 179-203.
• Tanış, Abdulkadir. Pragmatik İman. Ankara: Episteme Yayınları, 2021.
• Van Fraassen, Bas C. Laws and Symmetry. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1989.
• Wace, Henry. “On Agnosticism”. in Christianity and Agnosticism: A Controversy, ed. Thomas Henry Huxley, Henry Wace, 351-366. New York: The Humboldt Publishing Co., 1889.
• Waters, Amos. “The God Problem- Criticism of an Agnostic- with an Editorial Reply, Is Dr. Carus a Teist?” The Monist 9/4 (1899), 624-626.
• Wedgwood, Ralph. “The Aim of Belief”. Philosophical Perspectives 16 (2002), 267-297.
• Wright, Crispin. “Rosenkranz on Quandry, Vagueness and Intuitionism”. Mind 112/447 (2003), 465-474.
• Wolterstorff, Nicholas P. “Faith”. Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 543. London: Routledge, 1998.
• Zagzebski, Linda T. Philosophy of Religion: An Historical Introduction. Malden: Blackwell Publishing, 2007.
• Zinke, Alexandra. “Rational Suspension”. Theoria 87/5 (2021), 1056-1058.