Pragmatic and Transcendental Arguments for Theism: a Critical Examination

Commenting upon some recent literature on the topic, this paper examinestwo strategies by means of which one might try to defend theism: (1) a pragmatic (Jamesian) strategy, which focuses on the idea that religiousbelief has beneficial consequences in the believer's life, and (2) a transcendent...

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Auteur principal: Pihlström, Sami 1969- (Auteur)
Type de support: Électronique Article
Langue:Anglais
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Publié: Springer Science + Business Media B. V 2002
Dans: International journal for philosophy of religion
Année: 2002, Volume: 51, Numéro: 3, Pages: 195-214
Sujets non-standardisés:B Transcendental Argument
B Recent Literature
B Beneficial Consequence
B Critical Examination
B Religious Believer
Accès en ligne: Volltext (JSTOR)
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig)
Édition parallèle:Non-électronique
Description
Résumé:Commenting upon some recent literature on the topic, this paper examinestwo strategies by means of which one might try to defend theism: (1) a pragmatic (Jamesian) strategy, which focuses on the idea that religiousbelief has beneficial consequences in the believer's life, and (2) a transcendental (Kantian) strategy, according to which theism is requiredas a condition of our self-understanding as ethically oriented creatures.Both strategies are found unsatisfactory, unless synthesized and thussupported by each other. While no argument, either pragmatic ortranscendental, can demonstrate the existence of God, a pragmatictranscendental argument might have a legitimate role to play in thephilosophy of religion. The problem of relativism arises, however. It isconcluded that it remains unclear whether a religious believer could justifyher or his beliefs to anyone who does not already share those beliefs.
ISSN:1572-8684
Contient:Enthalten in: International journal for philosophy of religion
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1023/A:1015503614393