[Vision2020] Eugenie Scott's Talk at U of I

[josephc at mail.wsu.edu]

Thanks for your response, Michael! I was clearly making some presumptions
that I shouldn't have made!

I hope we do get a chance to talk since I don't know as much about
Plantinga as I should. I think that you are correct that Plantinga's
strategy is interesting as a response to skepticism, as opposed to being
an adequate defense of traditional theism.

It is worth noting that the strategy is not new to Plantinga. Two folks
who are normally -- and incorrectly -- thought to be skeptics also adopt
the strategy: Hume talks about 'natural beliefs' and Wittgenstein talks
about 'hinge propositions.' Whereas Plantinga tries to justify basic
beliefs by appeal to externalist considerations (the likelihood of a basic
belief's being true makes it justified), Wittgenstein holds onto
internalism (justification is always in terms of reasons) and suggests
that because of this basic beliefs are not items of knowledge.
Nonetheless, Wittgenstein writes: "We just can’t investigate everything,
and for that reason we are forced to rest content with assumption. If I
want the door to turn, the hinges must stay put." (On Certainty, Sec. 343)

There is a great defense and explication of the views of Hume and
Wittgenstein in Peter Strawson's book, Skepticism and Naturalism: Some
Varieties. I'm covering this issues in my Theory of Knowledge seminar the
last four weeks of the semester.

(I don't know how to post under a heading yet, either!)

All the best, Joe