Maverick Philosopher

Footnotes to Plato from the foothills of the Superstition Mountains

Category: Reason and Rationality

  • Seriously Philosophical Theses and Argument Cancellation

    Reader C. P. inquires, Do you think that the arguments for and against every substantive philosophical thesis are equipollent [equal in force], or do you think only that we can never be certain about the truth of the theses? In some of your posts, you suggest that you think the former (e.g. here); but in…

  • Thought, Action, Dogma, and De Maistre: The Infirmity of Reason

    Human reason reduced to its own resources is perfectly worthless, not only for creating but also for preserving any political or religious association, because it only produces disputes, and, to conduct himself well, man needs not problems but beliefs. His cradle should be surrounded by dogmas, and when his reason is awakened, it should find…

  • Rationalistic Fideism, Mysterianism, Misology, and Divine Simplicity

    I want to thank the perspicacious Lukas Novak for helping me in my endless quest to know myself.  Professor Novak comments: Is Bill a Gnostic? Well, I am not sure about the precise meaning of this epithet, but to me Bill appears as a strange amalgam of a rationalist and a fideist. The rationalist comes…

  • An Irrational Attitude for Human Beings?

    Is the following attitude irrational for beings of our constitution? I refuse any truth I cannot know to be true. Hence I refuse any truth that can only be believed, or can only be accepted on the basis of another's testimony. I will not allow into my doxastic network any truth that I cannot validate…

  • Is it Sometimes Rational to Believe on Insufficient Evidence?

    I argue the case over at MavPhil StrictPhil.

  • Remembering Henry Veatch and Rational Man

    Douglas Rasmussen and Douglas Den Uyl

  • Could All Paths be Dead Ends?

    I wrote: Reason in the end must confess its own infirmity.  It cannot deliver on its promises. The truth-seeker must explore other avenues.  Religion is one, mysticism is another.  Vito Caiati responds: My concern is as follows: While I agree that “reason in the end must confess its own infirmity,” I am troubled by the…

  • Ancora Una Volta: “Reasoned Mysterianism”

    Dr. Vito Caiati writes (minor edits, formatting, and bolding added), I thank you for your online response (Reasoned Mysterianism: A Defense of an Aphoristic Provocation) to my recent email.  In it you offer an impressive, rigorous defense of “reasoned mysterianism” that has impelled me to think more deeply on this subject, so much so, in fact,…

  • The Believing Philosopher

    The religious belief of a believing philosopher is a reasoned belief, and even if his belief extends to the acceptance of mysteries that to the discursive intellect must appear contradictory, his is a reasoned mysterianism.

  • When Reasoned Faith No Longer Strikes One as Reasonable: What Then?

    Thomas Doubting inquires, I’ve met and talked to a number of people who, while originally atheists, have found faith in God and become active Christians as result of their intellectual pursuit that led them to the conclusion that God is logically necessary. There is an ambiguity regarding 'logically necessary' that needs to be removed. Suppose…

  • No Voice for Men in Abortion Debate? Do Arguments Have Testicles?

    Michael in Russia writes, Got a question for you. I am a pro-abortion man (or even more generally a pro-death man since I support capital punishment too). You strongly oppose the former. I'm not going to repeat all familiar pros and cons. Rather, I've got one peculiar premise which I have never met in discussion…

  • The Constitution, Reason, and Abstract Principles

    This entry continues the 'religious test' discussion. (Last installment here.) The Canadian writes, I agree that there's no incoherence in a statement such as "(1) The Constitution guarantees  freedom of religion and disallows religious tests.  (2) The Constitution guarantees these things subject to the proviso that the religion in question is compatible with the principles…

  • Incarnation, Resurrection, and Rational Acceptability

    A while back I was talking with my young theological friend Steven about Christianity. I had remarked that its essence lies in the Incarnation. Without disagreeing with me, he offered the bodily resurrection of Christ as the essential pivot on which Christian belief and practice turns. This raises a number of questions. One is this:…

  • On Relative Poverty and Status

    I have a little disagreement going with the Dark Ostrich. He asserts, "Relative poverty is all about status."  In an earlier entry, I quoted him as maintaining that  We are born with a natural inequality which soon turns into economic inequality. The reason it turns into economic inequality, I believe, is that humans have a natural desire…

  • Faith, Reason, and Steven Pinker

    John Gray's review of Pinker's latest book starts like this: "Opposing reason is, by definition, unreasonable.” Steven Pinker is fond of definitions. Early on in this monumental apologia for a currently fashionable version of Enlightenment thinking, he writes: “To take something on faith means to believe it without good reason, so by definition a faith…