CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2010
| Author | Tabor, Tamas David |
|---|---|
| Title | The Justification and Rationality of Religious Beliefs |
| Summary | I am interested in discovering if the rationality of religious belief can be defended. I begin by elucidating the specific beliefs I wish to investigate and surveying the available standards for analyzing arguments for them. I go on to argue that any adequate conception of justification must include an access component, because without it a discussion of rational belief maintenance is impossible. I also suggest that an adequate theory be commensurable with both an ‘all-or-nothing’ and a degree-sensitive understanding of rationality. I evaluate the theoretical implications of different conceptions of justification and evidence, and conclude that a successful understanding will need to be compatible with a conception of rationality that allows for the justification of degrees of belief. Religious and epistemological constraints, that I argue ought to be granted, make the justification and thus the rationality of outright belief impossible to defend. I then survey the available theories of justification in order to determine within which of them religious beliefs attain the most favorable results, as well as which of the theories’ aspects account for these. I find that externalist theories of justification, slightly modified so as to fulfill the aforementioned desiderata, yield the most desirable evaluations. |
| Supervisor | Robinson, Howard |
| Department | Philosophy MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2010/tabor_tamas.pdf |
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