Warranted Neo-Confucian belief: Religious pluralism and the affections in the epistemologies of Wang Yangming (1472–1529) and Alvin Plantinga

Author: Tien D.W.

Source: International Journal for Philosophy of Religion, Volume 55, Number 1, February 2004 , pp. 31-55(25)

Publisher: Springer

Buy & download fulltext article:

Price: $47.00 plus tax (Refund Policy)

Abstract:

In this article, I argue that Wang Yangming's Neo-Confucian religious beliefs can be warranted, and that the rationality of his religious beliefs constitutes a significant defeater for the rationality of Christian belief on Alvin Plantinga's theory of warrant. I also question whether the notion of warrant as proper function can adequately account for theories of religious knowledge in which the affections play an integral role. I demonstrate how a consideration of Wang's epistemology reveals a difficulty for Plantinga's defense of the rationality of Christian belief and highlights a limitation of Plantinga's current conception of warrant as proper function.

Document Type: Research article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1023/B:RELI.0000014903.30383.e6

Affiliations: 1: IUniversity of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA

Publication date: 2004-02-01