Tuesday, August 16, 2016

Reading #16: Plantinga: Warranted Belief

From "Warranted Christian Belief" page 156

"Put in a nutshell, then, a belief has warrant for a person S only if that belief is produced in S by cognitive faculties functioning properly (subject to no dysfunction) in a cognitive environment that is appropriate for S's kind of cognitive faculties, according to a design plan that is successfully aimed at truth.  We must add, furthermore, that when a belief meets these conditions and does enjoy warrant, the degree of warrant it enjoys depends on the strength of the belief, the firmness with which S holds it."

1.  Can the cognitive environment in which a cognitive faculty is operating be known by that cognitive faculty in a non-question begging way?
2.  What role does the idea of a design plan play in the definition of warrant?
3.  Why is there a relationship between degree of warrant and firmness of belief?
4.  Consider the relationship between knowing what is good, this definition of warrant, and responsibility.