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Alvin Carl Plantinga (born November 15, 1932) is an American analytic philosopher who works primarily in the fields of
philosophy of religion Philosophy of religion is "the philosophical examination of the central themes and concepts involved in religious traditions". Philosophical discussions on such topics date from ancient times, and appear in the earliest known texts concerning p ...
,
epistemology Epistemology (; ), or the theory of knowledge, is the branch of philosophy concerned with knowledge. Epistemology is considered a major subfield of philosophy, along with other major subfields such as ethics, logic, and metaphysics. Epi ...
(particularly on issues involving epistemic justification), and
logic Logic is the study of correct reasoning. It includes both formal and informal logic. Formal logic is the science of deductively valid inferences or of logical truths. It is a formal science investigating how conclusions follow from prem ...
. From 1963 to 1982, Plantinga taught at
Calvin University Calvin University, formerly Calvin College, is a private Christian university in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Founded in 1876, Calvin University is an educational institution of the Christian Reformed Church and stands in the Reformed (Calvinist) ...
before accepting an appointment as the John A. O'Brien Professor of Philosophy at the
University of Notre Dame The University of Notre Dame du Lac, known simply as Notre Dame ( ) or ND, is a private Catholic research university in Notre Dame, Indiana, outside the city of South Bend. French priest Edward Sorin founded the school in 1842. The main c ...
. He later returned to Calvin University to become the inaugural holder of the Jellema Chair in Philosophy. A prominent Christian philosopher, Plantinga served as president of the Society of Christian Philosophers from 1983 to 1986. He has delivered the Gifford Lectures two times and was described by ''
Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and event (philosophy), events that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various me ...
'' magazine as "America's leading orthodox Protestant philosopher of God". In 2014, Plantinga was the 30th most-cited contemporary author in the
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy The ''Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy'' (''SEP'') combines an online encyclopedia of philosophy with peer-reviewed publication of original papers in philosophy, freely accessible to Internet users. It is maintained by Stanford University. E ...
. A fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, he was awarded the
Templeton Prize The Templeton Prize is an annual award granted to a living person, in the estimation of the judges, "whose exemplary achievements advance Sir John Templeton's philanthropic vision: harnessing the power of the sciences to explore the deepest quest ...
in 2017. Some of Plantinga's most influential works include '' God and Other Minds'' (1967), ''The Nature of Necessity'' (1974), and a trilogy of books on epistemology, culminating in ''
Warranted Christian Belief ''Warranted Christian Belief'' is a book written by Alvin Plantinga and published in 2000 (Oxford University Press). It constitutes, after '' Warrant: The Current Debate'' and '' Warrant and Proper Function'', both published in 1993, the last part ...
'' (2000) that was simplified in ''Knowledge and Christian Belief'' (2015).


Biography


Family

Plantinga was born on November 15, 1932, in
Ann Arbor Anne, alternatively spelled Ann, is a form of the Latin female given name Anna. This in turn is a representation of the Hebrew Hannah, which means 'favour' or 'grace'. Related names include Annie. Anne is sometimes used as a male name in the ...
,
Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and t ...
, to Cornelius A. Plantinga (1908–1994) and Lettie G. Bossenbroek (1908–2007). Plantinga's father was a first-generation immigrant, born in the Netherlands. His family is from the Dutch province of
Friesland Friesland (, ; official fry, Fryslân ), historically and traditionally known as Frisia, is a province of the Netherlands located in the country's northern part. It is situated west of Groningen, northwest of Drenthe and Overijssel, north of ...
; they lived on a relatively low income until he secured a teaching job in Michigan in 1941. Plantinga's father earned a PhD in philosophy from
Duke University Duke University is a private research university in Durham, North Carolina. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco and electric power industrialist Jam ...
and a master's degree in psychology, and taught several academic subjects at different colleges over the years."Self-profile", p. 6. Plantinga married Kathleen De Boer in 1955. They have four children: Carl, Jane, Harry, and Ann. Both of his sons are professors at
Calvin University Calvin University, formerly Calvin College, is a private Christian university in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Founded in 1876, Calvin University is an educational institution of the Christian Reformed Church and stands in the Reformed (Calvinist) ...
, Carl in
film studies Film studies is an academic discipline that deals with various theoretical, historical, and critical approaches to cinema as an art form and a medium. It is sometimes subsumed within media studies and is often compared to television studies. ...
and Harry in
computer science Computer science is the study of computation, automation, and information. Computer science spans theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, information theory, and automation) to Applied science, practical discipli ...
. Harry is also the director of the college's Christian Classics Ethereal Library. Plantinga's older daughter, Jane Plantinga Pauw, is a pastor at Rainier Beach Presbyterian Church ( PCUSA) in
Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest region o ...
,
Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...
, and his younger daughter, Ann Kapteyn, is a
missionary A missionary is a member of a Religious denomination, religious group which is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Tho ...
in
Cameroon Cameroon (; french: Cameroun, ff, Kamerun), officially the Republic of Cameroon (french: République du Cameroun, links=no), is a country in west-central Africa. It is bordered by Nigeria to the west and north; Chad to the northeast; the ...
working for
Wycliffe Bible Translators Wycliffe Global Alliance is an alliance of organizations that have objective of translating the Bible into every language. The organisation is named after John Wycliffe, who was responsible for the first complete English translation of the whol ...
. One of Plantinga's brothers, Cornelius "Neal" Plantinga Jr., is a theologian and the former president of
Calvin Theological Seminary Calvin Theological Seminary is a private Christian Reformed Church seminary in Grand Rapids, Michigan. It is closely tied to Calvin University, though each institution has its own board. History The seminary was founded in 1876 with the purp ...
. Another of his brothers,
Leon Leon, Léon (French) or León (Spanish) may refer to: Places Europe * León, Spain, capital city of the Province of León * Province of León, Spain * Kingdom of León, an independent state in the Iberian Peninsula from 910 to 1230 and again f ...
, is an emeritus professor of
music Music is generally defined as the art of arranging sound to create some combination of form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise expressive content. Exact definitions of music vary considerably around the world, though it is an aspe ...
ology at
Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the w ...
. His brother Terrell worked for CBS News.


Education

After Plantinga completed 11th grade, his father urged him to skip his last year of high school and immediately enroll in college. Plantinga reluctantly followed his father's advice and in 1949, a few months before his 17th birthday, he enrolled in Jamestown College, in Jamestown,
North Dakota North Dakota () is a U.S. state in the Upper Midwest, named after the indigenous Dakota Sioux. North Dakota is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba to the north and by the U.S. states of Minnesota to the east, ...
. During that same year, his father accepted a teaching job at
Calvin University Calvin University, formerly Calvin College, is a private Christian university in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Founded in 1876, Calvin University is an educational institution of the Christian Reformed Church and stands in the Reformed (Calvinist) ...
, in
Grand Rapids Grand Rapids is a city and county seat of Kent County in the U.S. state of Michigan. At the 2020 census, the city had a population of 198,917 which ranks it as the second most-populated city in the state after Detroit. Grand Rapids is the ...
, Michigan. In January 1950, Plantinga moved to Grand Rapids with his family and enrolled in Calvin University. During his first semester at Calvin, Plantinga was awarded a scholarship to attend
Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of highe ...
. Beginning in the fall of 1950, Plantinga spent two semesters at Harvard. In 1951, during Harvard's spring recess, Plantinga attended a few philosophy classes at Calvin University, and was so impressed with Calvin philosophy professor William Harry Jellema that he returned in 1951 to study philosophy under him. In 1954, Plantinga began his graduate studies at the
University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...
where he studied under William Alston, William Frankena, and Richard Cartwright, among others. A year later, in 1955, he transferred to
Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the w ...
where he received his PhD in 1958.


Teaching career

Plantinga began his career as an instructor in the philosophy department at Yale in 1957, and then in 1958, he became a professor of philosophy at
Wayne State University Wayne State University (WSU) is a public research university in Detroit, Michigan. It is Michigan's third-largest university. Founded in 1868, Wayne State consists of 13 schools and colleges offering approximately 350 programs to nearly 25,000 ...
during its heyday as a major center for analytic philosophy. In 1963, he accepted a teaching job at Calvin University, where he replaced the retiring Jellema. He then spent the next 19 years at Calvin before moving to the
University of Notre Dame The University of Notre Dame du Lac, known simply as Notre Dame ( ) or ND, is a private Catholic research university in Notre Dame, Indiana, outside the city of South Bend. French priest Edward Sorin founded the school in 1842. The main c ...
in 1982. He retired from the University of Notre Dame in 2010 and returned to Calvin University, where he serves as the first holder of the William Harry Jellema Chair in Philosophy. He has trained many prominent philosophers working in
metaphysics Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that studies the fundamental nature of reality, the first principles of being, identity and change, space and time, causality, necessity, and possibility. It includes questions about the nature of conscio ...
and
epistemology Epistemology (; ), or the theory of knowledge, is the branch of philosophy concerned with knowledge. Epistemology is considered a major subfield of philosophy, along with other major subfields such as ethics, logic, and metaphysics. Epi ...
including Michael Bergmann at Purdue and
Michael Rea Michael may refer to: People * Michael (given name), a given name * Michael (surname), including a list of people with the surname Michael Given name "Michael" * Michael (archangel), ''first'' of God's archangels in the Jewish, Christian and ...
at Notre Dame, and Trenton Merricks working at
University of Virginia The University of Virginia (UVA) is a public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia. Founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson, the university is ranked among the top academic institutions in the United States, with highly selective ad ...
.


Awards and honors

Plantinga served as president of the
American Philosophical Association The American Philosophical Association (APA) is the main professional organization for philosophers in the United States. Founded in 1900, its mission is to promote the exchange of ideas among philosophers, to encourage creative and scholarl ...
, Western Division, from 1981 to 1982. and as President of the Society of Christian Philosophers from 1983 to 1986. He has honorary degrees from Glasgow University (1982),
Calvin University Calvin University, formerly Calvin College, is a private Christian university in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Founded in 1876, Calvin University is an educational institution of the Christian Reformed Church and stands in the Reformed (Calvinist) ...
(1986),
North Park College North Park University is a private Christian university in Chicago, Illinois. It was founded in 1891 by the Evangelical Covenant Church. It is located on Chicago's north side and enrolls more than 3,000 undergraduate and graduate students. Hi ...
(1994), the
Free University of Amsterdam The Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (abbreviated as ''VU Amsterdam'' or simply ''VU'' when in context) is a public research university in Amsterdam, Netherlands, being founded in 1880. The VU Amsterdam is one of two large, publicly funded research ...
(1995),
Brigham Young University Brigham Young University (BYU, sometimes referred to colloquially as The Y) is a private research university in Provo, Utah. It was founded in 1875 by religious leader Brigham Young and is sponsored by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-d ...
(1996), and Valparaiso University (1999). He was a
Guggenheim Fellow Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the ar ...
, 1971–72, and elected a Fellow in the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, a ...
in 1975. In 2006, the
University of Notre Dame The University of Notre Dame du Lac, known simply as Notre Dame ( ) or ND, is a private Catholic research university in Notre Dame, Indiana, outside the city of South Bend. French priest Edward Sorin founded the school in 1842. The main c ...
's Center for Philosophy of Religion renamed its Distinguished Scholar Fellowship as the Alvin Plantinga Fellowship. The fellowship includes an annual lecture by the current Plantinga Fellow. In 2012, the University of Pittsburgh's Philosophy Department, History and Philosophy of Science Department, and the Center for the History and Philosophy of Science co-awarded Plantinga the
Nicholas Rescher Prize for Systematic Philosophy The Nicholas Rescher Prize for Systematic Philosophy was established by the University of Pittsburgh in 2009 to counter present-day tendencies to narrow specialization by rewarding and showcasing the work of philosophers who have addressed the hist ...
, which he received with a talk titled, "Religion and Science: Where the Conflict Really Lies". In 2017, Baylor University's Center for Christian Philosophy inaugurated the Alvin Plantinga Award for Excellence in Christian Philosophy. Awardees deliver a lecture at Baylor University and their name is put on a plaque with Plantinga's image in the Institute for Studies in Religion. He was named the first fellow of the center as well. He was awarded the 2017
Templeton Prize The Templeton Prize is an annual award granted to a living person, in the estimation of the judges, "whose exemplary achievements advance Sir John Templeton's philanthropic vision: harnessing the power of the sciences to explore the deepest quest ...
.


Philosophical views

Plantinga has argued that some people can know that God exists as a basic belief, requiring no argument. He developed this argument in two different fashions: firstly, in ''God and Other Minds'' (1967), by drawing an equivalence between the
teleological argument The teleological argument (from ; also known as physico-theological argument, argument from design, or intelligent design argument) is an argument for the existence of God or, more generally, that complex functionality in the natural world w ...
and the common sense view that people have of other minds existing by analogy with their own minds. Plantinga has also developed a more comprehensive epistemological account of the nature of warrant which allows for the existence of God as a basic belief. Plantinga has also argued that there is no logical inconsistency between the existence of evil and the existence of an all-powerful, all-knowing, wholly good God.


Problem of evil

Plantinga proposed a "free-will defense" in a volume edited by Max Black in 1965, which attempts to refute the logical problem of evil, the argument that the existence of evil is logically incompatible with the existence of an omnipotent, omniscient, wholly good God. Plantinga's argument (in a truncated form) states that "It is possible that God, even being omnipotent, could not create a world with free creatures who never choose evil. Furthermore, it is possible that God, even being omnibenevolent, would desire to create a world which contains evil if moral goodness requires free moral creatures." However, the argument's handling of natural evil has been disputed. According to the ''
Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy The ''Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy'' (''IEP'') is a scholarly online encyclopedia, dealing with philosophy, philosophical topics, and philosophers. The IEP combines open access publication with peer reviewed publication of original p ...
'', the argument also "conflicts with important theistic doctrines" such as the notion of a
heaven Heaven or the heavens, is a common religious cosmological or transcendent supernatural place where beings such as deities, angels, souls, saints, or venerated ancestors are said to originate, be enthroned, or reside. According to the belie ...
where free saved souls reside without doing evil, and the idea that God has free will yet is wholly good. Critics thus maintain that, if we take such doctrines to be (as Christians usually have), God could have created free creatures that always do right, contra Plantinga's claim. J. L. Mackie saw Plantinga's free-will defense as incoherent. Plantinga's well-received book ''God, Freedom and Evil'', written in 1974, gave his response to what he saw as the incomplete and uncritical view of theism's criticism of
theodicy Theodicy () means vindication of God. It is to answer the question of why a good God permits the manifestation of evil, thus resolving the issue of the problem of evil. Some theodicies also address the problem of evil "to make the existence o ...
. Plantinga's contribution stated that when the issue of a comprehensive doctrine of freedom is added to the discussion of the goodness of God and the omnipotence of God then it is not possible to exclude the presence of evil in the world after introducing freedom into the discussion. Plantinga's own summary occurs in his discussion titled "Could God Have Created a World Containing Moral Good but No Moral Evil", where he states his conclusion that, "... the price for creating a world in which they produce moral good is creating one in which they also produce moral evil."


Reformed epistemology

Plantinga's contributions to epistemology include an argument which he dubs "Reformed epistemology". According to Reformed epistemology, belief in God can be rational and justified even without arguments or evidence for the existence of God. More specifically, Plantinga argues that belief in God is
properly basic Basic beliefs (also commonly called foundational beliefs or core beliefs) are, under the epistemological view called foundationalism, the axioms of a belief system. Categories of beliefs Foundationalism holds that all beliefs must be justifi ...
, and due to a religious
externalist Internalism and externalism are two opposite ways of integration of explaining various subjects in several areas of philosophy. These include human motivation, knowledge, justification, meaning, and truth. The distinction arises in many areas of de ...
epistemology, he claims belief in God could be justified independently of evidence. His externalist epistemology, called "proper functionalism", is a form of
epistemological Epistemology (; ), or the theory of knowledge, is the branch of philosophy concerned with knowledge. Epistemology is considered a major subfield of philosophy, along with other major subfields such as ethics, logic, and metaphysics. Episte ...
reliabilism. Plantinga discusses his view of Reformed epistemology and proper functionalism in a three-volume series. In the first book of the trilogy, '' Warrant: The Current Debate'', Plantinga introduces, analyzes, and criticizes 20th-century developments in analytic epistemology, particularly the works of Chisholm, BonJour, Alston, Goldman, and others. In the book, Plantinga argues specifically that the theories of what he calls "warrant"-what many others have called justification (Plantinga draws out a difference: justification is a property of a person holding a belief while warrant is a property of a belief)—put forth by these epistemologists have systematically failed to capture in full what is required for knowledge. In the second book, ''
Warrant and Proper Function ''Warrant and Proper Function'' (1993) is the second book in a trilogy written by philosopher Alvin Plantinga on epistemology. Overview In this book, Plantinga introduces the notion of warrant as an alternative to justification and discusses top ...
'', he introduces the notion of warrant as an alternative to justification and discusses topics like self-knowledge, memories, perception, and probability. Plantinga's "proper function" account argues that as a necessary condition of having warrant, one's "belief-forming and belief-maintaining apparatus of powers" are functioning properly—"working the way it ought to work". Plantinga explains his argument for proper function with reference to a "design plan", as well as an environment in which one's cognitive equipment is optimal for use. Plantinga asserts that the design plan does not require a designer: "it is perhaps possible that evolution (undirected by God or anyone else) has somehow furnished us with our design plans", but the paradigm case of a design plan is like a technological product designed by a human being (like a radio or a wheel). Ultimately, Plantinga argues that epistemological naturalism- i.e.
epistemology Epistemology (; ), or the theory of knowledge, is the branch of philosophy concerned with knowledge. Epistemology is considered a major subfield of philosophy, along with other major subfields such as ethics, logic, and metaphysics. Epi ...
that holds that warrant is dependent on natural faculties—is best supported by supernaturalist metaphysics—in this case, the belief in a
creator God A creator deity or creator god (often called the Creator) is a deity responsible for the creation of the Earth, world, and universe in human religion and mythology. In monotheism, the single God is often also the creator. A number of monolatri ...
or designer who has laid out a design plan that includes cognitive faculties conducive to attaining knowledge. According to Plantinga, a belief, B, is warranted if:
(1) the cognitive faculties involved in the production of B are functioning properly…; (2) your cognitive environment is sufficiently similar to the one for which your cognitive faculties are designed; (3) … the design plan governing the production of the belief in question involves, as purpose or function, the production of true beliefs…; and (4) the design plan is a good one: that is, there is a high statistical or objective probability that a belief produced in accordance with the relevant segment of the design plan in that sort of environment is true.
Plantinga seeks to defend this view of proper function against alternative views of proper function proposed by other philosophers which he groups together as "naturalistic", including the "functional generalization" view of John Pollock, the evolutionary/etiological account provided by Ruth Millikan, and a dispositional view held by
John Bigelow John Bigelow Sr. (November 25, 1817 – December 19, 1911) was an American lawyer, statesman, and historian who edited the complete works of Benjamin Franklin and the first autobiography of Franklin taken from Franklin's previously lost origina ...
and Robert Pargetter. Plantinga also discusses his
evolutionary argument against naturalism The evolutionary argument against naturalism (EAAN) is a philosophical argument asserting a problem with believing both evolution and philosophical naturalism simultaneously. The argument was first proposed by Alvin Plantinga in 1993 and "raises is ...
in the later chapters of ''Warrant and Proper Function''. In 2000, the third book of the trilogy, ''Warranted Christian Belief'', was published. In this volume, Plantinga's warrant theory is the basis for his theological end: providing a philosophical basis for Christian belief, an argument for why Christian theistic belief can enjoy warrant. In the book, he develops two models for such beliefs, the "A/C" (
Aquinas Thomas Aquinas, OP (; it, Tommaso d'Aquino, lit=Thomas of Aquino; 1225 – 7 March 1274) was an Italian Dominican friar and priest who was an influential philosopher, theologian and jurist in the tradition of scholasticism; he is known ...
/ Calvin) model, and the "Extended A/C" model. The former attempts to show that a belief in God can be justified, warranted and rational, while the Extended model tries to show that specifically Christian theological beliefs including the
Trinity The Christian doctrine of the Trinity (, from 'threefold') is the central dogma concerning the nature of God in most Christian churches, which defines one God existing in three coequal, coeternal, consubstantial divine persons: God th ...
, the
Incarnation Incarnation literally means ''embodied in flesh'' or ''taking on flesh''. It refers to the conception and the embodiment of a deity or spirit in some earthly form or the appearance of a god as a human. If capitalized, it is the union of divinit ...
, the resurrection of
Christ Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label= Hebrew/ Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and relig ...
, the atonement, salvation etc. Under this model, Christians are justified in their beliefs because of the work of the
Holy Spirit In Judaism, the Holy Spirit is the divine force, quality, and influence of God over the Universe or over his creatures. In Nicene Christianity, the Holy Spirit or Holy Ghost is the third person of the Trinity. In Islam, the Holy Spirit acts as ...
in bringing those beliefs about in the believer. James Beilby has argued that the purpose of Plantinga's ''Warrant'' trilogy, and specifically of his ''Warranted Christian Belief'', is firstly to make a form of argument against religion impossible—namely, the argument that whether or not Christianity is true, it is irrational—so "the skeptic would have to shoulder the formidable task of demonstrating the falsity of Christian belief" rather than simply dismiss it as irrational. In addition, Plantinga is attempting to provide a philosophical explanation of how Christians should think about their own Christian belief.


Modal ontological argument

Plantinga has expressed a modal logic version of the ontological argument in which he uses
modal logic Modal logic is a collection of formal systems developed to represent statements about necessity and possibility. It plays a major role in philosophy of language, epistemology, metaphysics, and natural language semantics. Modal logics extend ot ...
to develop, in a more rigorous and formal way, Norman Malcolm's and Charles Hartshorne's modal ontological arguments. Plantinga criticized Malcolm's and Hartshorne's arguments, and offered an alternative. He argued that, if Malcolm does prove the necessary existence of the greatest possible being, it follows that there is a being which exists in all worlds whose greatness in ''some'' worlds is not surpassed. It does not, he argued, demonstrate that such a being has unsurpassed greatness in this world. In an attempt to resolve this problem, Plantinga differentiated between "greatness" and "excellence". A being's excellence in a particular world depends only on its properties in that world; a being's greatness depends on its properties in all worlds. Therefore, the greatest possible being must have maximal excellence in every possible world. Plantinga then restated Malcolm's argument, using the concept of "maximal greatness". He argued that it is possible for a being with maximal greatness to exist, so a being with maximal greatness exists in a possible world. If this is the case, then a being with maximal greatness exists in every world, and therefore in this world. The conclusion relies on a form of modal axiom S5, which states that if something is possibly true, then its possibility is necessary (it is possibly true in all worlds). Plantinga's version of S5 suggests that "To say that p is possibly necessarily true is to say that, with regard to one world, it is true at all worlds; but in that case it is true at all worlds, and so it is simply necessary." A version of his argument is as follows: # A being has ''maximal excellence'' in a given possible world ''W'' if and only if it is omnipotent, omniscient and wholly good in ''W''; and # A being has ''maximal greatness'' if it has maximal excellence in every possible world. # It is possible that there is a being that has maximal greatness. (Premise) # Therefore, possibly, it is necessarily true that an omniscient, omnipotent, and perfectly good being exists. # Therefore, (by axiom S5) it is necessarily true that an omniscient, omnipotent and perfectly good being exists. # Therefore, an omniscient, omnipotent and perfectly good being exists. Plantinga argued that, although the first premise is not rationally established, it is not contrary to reason. Michael Martin argued that, if certain components of perfection are contradictory, such as omnipotence and omniscience, then the first premise is contrary to reason. Martin also proposed parodies of the argument, suggesting that the existence of anything can be demonstrated with Plantinga's argument, provided it is defined as perfect or special in every possible world. Another Christian philosopher, William Lane Craig, characterizes Plantinga's argument in a slightly different way: # It is possible that a maximally great being exists. # If it is possible that a maximally great being exists, then a maximally great being exists in some possible world. # If a maximally great being exists in some possible world, then it exists in every possible world. # If a maximally great being exists in every possible world, then it exists in the actual world. # If a maximally great being exists in the actual world, then a maximally great being exists. # Therefore, a maximally great being exists. According to Craig, premises (2)–(5) are relatively uncontroversial among philosophers, but "the epistemic entertainability of premise (1) (or its denial) does not guarantee its metaphysical possibility." Furthermore, Richard M. Gale argued that premise three, the "possibility premise",
begs the question In classical rhetoric and logic, begging the question or assuming the conclusion ( Latin: ') is an informal fallacy that occurs when an argument's premises assume the truth of the conclusion, instead of supporting it. For example: * "Green i ...
. He stated that one only has the epistemic right to accept the premise if one understands the nested modal operators, and that if one understands them within the system S5—without which the argument fails—then one understands that "possibly necessarily" is in essence the same as "necessarily". Thus the premise begs the question because the conclusion is embedded within it. On S5 systems in general, James Garson writes that "the words 'necessarily' and 'possibly', have many different uses. So the acceptability of axioms for modal logic depends on which of these uses we have in mind."


Evolutionary argument against naturalism

In Plantinga's
evolutionary argument against naturalism The evolutionary argument against naturalism (EAAN) is a philosophical argument asserting a problem with believing both evolution and philosophical naturalism simultaneously. The argument was first proposed by Alvin Plantinga in 1993 and "raises is ...
, he argues that if evolution is true, it undermines naturalism. His basic argument is that if evolution and naturalism are both true, human cognitive faculties evolved to produce beliefs that have survival value (maximizing one's success at the four Fs: "feeding, fleeing, fighting, and reproducing"), not necessarily to produce beliefs that are true. Thus, since human cognitive faculties are tuned to survival rather than truth in the naturalism-evolution model, there is reason to doubt the veracity of the products of those same faculties, including naturalism and evolution themselves. On the other hand, if God created man "
in his image "In His Image" is an episode of the American television anthology series '' The Twilight Zone'' aired on January 3, 1963. This was the first episode of the fourth season. Each episode was expanded to an hour (with commercials) from "In His Image" ...
" by way of an evolutionary process (or any other means), then Plantinga argues our faculties would probably be reliable. The argument does not assume any necessary correlation (or uncorrelation) between true beliefs and survival. Making the contrary assumption—that there is, in fact, a relatively strong correlation between truth and survival—if human belief-forming apparatus evolved giving a survival advantage, then it ought to yield truth since true beliefs confer a survival advantage. Plantinga counters that, while there may be overlap between true beliefs and beliefs that contribute to survival, the two kinds of beliefs are not the same, and he gives the following example with a man named Paul: The argument has received favorable notice from
Thomas Nagel Thomas Nagel (; born July 4, 1937) is an American philosopher. He is the University Professor of Philosophy and Law Emeritus at New York University, where he taught from 1980 to 2016. His main areas of philosophical interest are legal philosophy, ...
and William Lane Craig, but has also been criticized as seriously flawed, for example, by Elliott Sober.


View on naturalism and evolution

Even though Alvin Plantinga believes that God could have used Darwinian processes to create the world, he stands firm against philosophical naturalism. He said in an interview on the
relationship between science and religion The relationship between religion and science involves discussions that interconnect the study of the natural world, history, philosophy, and theology. Even though the ancient and medieval worlds did not have conceptions resembling the modern u ...
that:
Religion and science share more common ground than you might think, though science can't prove, it presupposes that there has been a past for example, science does not cover the whole of the knowledge enterprise.
Plantinga participated of groups that support the Intelligent Design Movement, and was a member of the 'Ad Hoc Origins Committee' that supported Philip E. Johnson's 1991 book ''
Darwin on Trial ''Darwin on Trial'' is a 1991 book by law professor Phillip E. Johnson disputing tenets of science and evolution and promoting creationism. Johnson wrote the book with the thesis that evolution could be "tried" like a defendant in court. ''Darw ...
'', he also provided a back-cover endorsement of Johnson's book: "Shows how Darwinian evolution has become an idol." He was a Fellow of the (now defunct) pro-intelligent design International Society for Complexity, Information, and Design, and has presented at a number of intelligent design conferences. In a March 2010 article in ''
The Chronicle of Higher Education ''The Chronicle of Higher Education'' is a newspaper and website that presents news, information, and jobs for college and university faculty and student affairs professionals (staff members and administrators). A subscription is required to re ...
'', philosopher of science
Michael Ruse Michael Ruse (born 21 June 1940) is a British-born Canadian philosopher of science who specializes in the philosophy of biology and works on the relationship between science and religion, the creation–evolution controversy, and the demarca ...
labeled Plantinga as an "open enthusiast of intelligent design". In a letter to the editor, Plantinga made the following response:
Like any Christian (and indeed any theist), I believe that the world has been created by God, and hence "intelligently designed". The hallmark of intelligent design, however, is the claim that this can be shown scientifically; I'm dubious about that. ...As far as I can see, God certainly could have used Darwinian processes to create the living world and direct it as he wanted to go; hence evolution as such does not imply that there is no direction in the history of life. What does have that implication is not evolutionary theory itself, but ''unguided'' evolution, the idea that neither God nor any other person has taken a hand in guiding, directing or orchestrating the course of evolution. But the scientific theory of evolution, sensibly enough, says nothing one way or the other about divine guidance. It doesn't say that evolution is divinely guided; it also doesn't say that it isn't. Like almost any theist, I reject unguided evolution; but the contemporary scientific theory of evolution just as such—apart from philosophical or theological add-ons—doesn't say that evolution is unguided. Like science in general, it makes no pronouncements on the existence or activity of God.
The attitude that he proposes and elaborates upon in ''Where the Conflict Really Lies: Science, Religion and Naturalism'' is that there is no tension between religion and science, that the two go hand in hand, and that the actual conflict lies between naturalism and science.Archived a
Ghostarchive
and th
Wayback Machine


Selected works by Plantinga

* '' God and Other Minds''. Ithaca:
Cornell University Press The Cornell University Press is the university press of Cornell University; currently housed in Sage House, the former residence of Henry William Sage. It was first established in 1869, making it the first university publishing enterprise in ...
. 1967. rev. ed., 1990. * ''The Nature of Necessity''. Oxford:
Clarendon Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...
. 1974. * ''God, Freedom, and Evil''. Grand Rapids:
Eerdmans William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company is a religious publishing house based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Founded in 1911 by Dutch American William B. Eerdmans (November 4, 1882 – April 1966) and still independently owned with William's daughte ...
. 1974. * ''Does God Have A Nature?'' Wisconsin:
Marquette University Press Marquette University Press is a university press affiliated with Marquette University, located in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The press was established in 1916 and mostly publishes books that focus on philosophy, theology, and history. The Press was a ...
. 1980. * ''Faith and Rationality: Reason and Belief in God'' (ed. with
Nicholas Wolterstorff Nicholas Paul Wolterstorff (born January 21, 1932) is an American philosopher and theologian. He is currently Noah Porter Professor Emeritus Philosophical Theology at Yale University. A prolific writer with wide-ranging philosophical and theologi ...
). Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press. 1983. * ''Warrant: The Current Debate''. New York:
Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print book ...
. 1993. * ''
Warrant and Proper Function ''Warrant and Proper Function'' (1993) is the second book in a trilogy written by philosopher Alvin Plantinga on epistemology. Overview In this book, Plantinga introduces the notion of warrant as an alternative to justification and discusses top ...
''. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 1993. * ''
Warranted Christian Belief ''Warranted Christian Belief'' is a book written by Alvin Plantinga and published in 2000 (Oxford University Press). It constitutes, after '' Warrant: The Current Debate'' and '' Warrant and Proper Function'', both published in 1993, the last part ...
''. New York: Oxford University Press. 2000.
online
* ''Essays in the Metaphysics of Modality''. Matthew Davidson (ed.). New York: Oxford University Press. 2003. * ''Knowledge of God'' (with Michael Tooley). Oxford: Blackwell. 2008. * ''Science and Religion'' (with
Daniel Dennett Daniel Clement Dennett III (born March 28, 1942) is an American philosopher, writer, and cognitive scientist whose research centers on the philosophy of mind, philosophy of science, and philosophy of biology, particularly as those fields relat ...
). Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2010 * ''Where the Conflict Really Lies: Science, Religion, and Naturalism''. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2011. * ''Knowledge and Christian Belief''. Grand Rapids:
Eerdmans William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company is a religious publishing house based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Founded in 1911 by Dutch American William B. Eerdmans (November 4, 1882 – April 1966) and still independently owned with William's daughte ...
. 2015.


See also

*
American philosophy American philosophy is the activity, corpus, and tradition of philosophers affiliated with the United States. The '' Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy'' notes that while it lacks a "core of defining features, American Philosophy can never ...
*
List of American philosophers This is a list of American philosophers; of philosophers who are either from, or spent many productive years of their lives in the United States. {, border="0" style="margin:auto;" class="toccolours" , - ! {{MediaWiki:Toc , - , style="text-al ...


Notes


References


Footnotes


Bibliography

* "Self-profile" in ''Alvin Plantinga,'' James Tomberlin and
Peter van Inwagen Peter van Inwagen (; born September 21, 1942) is an American analytic philosopher and the John Cardinal O'Hara Professor of Philosophy at the University of Notre Dame. He is also a Research Professor of Philosophy at Duke University each spring. ...
ed., (Dordrecht: D. Riedle Pub. Co.), 1985 * * * * *


Further reading

* Schönecker, Dieter (ed.), Essays on "Warranted Christian Belief". With Replies by Alvin Plantinga. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin 2015. * Baker, Deane-Peter (ed), ''Alvin Plantinga'' (Contemporary Philosophy in Focus Series). New York: Cambridge University Press. 2007. * Mascrod, Keith, ''Alvin Plantinga and Christian Apologetics''. Wipf & Stock. 2007. * Crisp, Thomas, Matthew Davidson, David Vander Laan (eds), ''Knowledge and Reality: Essays in Honor of Alvin Plantinga''. Dordrecht: Springer. 2006. * Beilby, James, ''Epistemology as Theology: An Evaluation of Alvin Plantinga's Religious Epistemology''. Aldershot: Ashgate. 2005 * Beilby, James (ed), ''Naturalism Defeated? Essays on Plantinga's Evolutionary Argument Against Naturalism''. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. 2002. * Sennet, James (ed), ''The Analytic Theist: An Alvin Plantinga Reader''. Grand Rapids: Eeardman. 1998. * Kvanvig, Jonathan (ed), ''Warrant in Contemporary Epistemology: Essays in Honor of Plantinga's Theory of Knowledge''. Savage, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield. 1996. * McLeod, Mark S. ''Rationality and Theistic Belief: An Essay on Reformed Epistemology'' (Cornell Studies in the Philosophy of Religion). Ithaca: Cornell University Press. 1993. * Zagzebski, Linda (ed), ''Rational Faith''. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press. 1993. * Sennett, James, ''Modality, Probability, and Rationality: A Critical Examination of Alvin Plantinga's Philosophy''. New York: P. Lang. 1992. * Hoitenga, Dewey, ''From Plato to Plantinga: An Introduction to Reformed Epistemology''. Albany: State University of New York Press. 1991. * Parsons, Keith, ''God and the Burden of Proof: Plantinga, Swinburne, and the Analytic Defense of Theism''. Buffalo, New York: Prometheus Books. 1989. * Tomberlin, James and Peter van Inwagen (eds), ''Alvin Plantinga'' (Profiles V.5). Dordrecht: D. Reidel. 1985.


External links


Alvin Plantinga's faculty page
at the University of Notre Dame



a collection of some of Plantinga's papers
Papers by Plantinga
Extensive collection of online papers.
Interviews
from the PBS program Closer to Truth
"The Dawkins Confusion"
Plantinga's review of
Richard Dawkins Richard Dawkins (born 26 March 1941) is a British evolutionary biologist and author. He is an emeritus fellow of New College, Oxford and was Professor for Public Understanding of Science in the University of Oxford from 1995 to 2008. An ...
's ''
The God Delusion ''The God Delusion'' is a 2006 book by British evolutionary biologist, ethologist Richard Dawkins, a professorial fellow at New College, Oxford and, at the time of publication, the Charles Simonyi Chair for the Public Understanding of Science ...
'' from ''Books and Culture'' magazine
Alvin Plantinga's spiritual autobiography
from ''Philosophers Who Believe''. Clark, Kelly James (InterVarsity Press,1993)
''Warrant: The Current Debate''
Plantinga's Gifford Lecture, and volume 1 of his ''Warrant'' trilogy.
''Warrant and Proper Function''
Plantinga's Gifford Lecture, and volume 2 of his ''Warrant'' trilogy.

full electronic text of volume 3 of his ''Warrant'' trilogy. * Daniel C. Dennett and Alvin Plantinga
''Science and Religion: Are They Compatible?'' (Oxford University Press, 2011)
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Plantinga, Alvin 1932 births 20th-century American philosophers 20th-century American theologians 21st-century American philosophers 21st-century theologians American Calvinist and Reformed Christians American members of the Christian Reformed Church in North America American people of Dutch descent American people of Frisian descent Analytic philosophers Calvin University alumni Calvin University faculty Calvinist and Reformed philosophers Christian apologists Critics of atheism Epistemologists Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Fellows of the International Society for Complexity, Information, and Design Harvard University alumni Intelligent design advocates Living people Metaphysicians People from Ann Arbor, Michigan Philosophers from Michigan Philosophers of mind Philosophers of religion Presidents of the American Philosophical Association Presidents of the Society of Christian Philosophers Templeton Prize laureates University of Michigan alumni University of Notre Dame faculty Wayne State University faculty