''God and Other Minds'' is a 1967 book by the American philosopher of religion

Alvin Plantinga Alvin Carl Plantinga (born November 15, 1932) is an American analytic philosopher who works primarily in the fields of philosophy of religion, epistemology (particularly on issues involving epistemic justification), and logic. From 1963 to 198 ...

which re-kindled philosophical debate on the

existence of God The existence of God (or more generally, the existence of deities) is a subject of debate in theology, philosophy of religion and popular culture. A wide variety of arguments for and against the existence of God or deities can be categorize ...

in Anglo-American philosophical circles by arguing that belief in God was like belief in other minds: although neither could be demonstrated conclusively against a determined

sceptic Skepticism, also spelled scepticism, is a questioning attitude or doubt toward knowledge claims that are seen as mere belief or dogma. For example, if a person is skeptical about claims made by their government about an ongoing war then the p ...

both were fundamentally rational. Though Plantinga later modified some of his views, particularly on the soundness of the ontological argument and on the nature of epistemic rationality, he still stands by the basic theses of the book.

Summary of ''God and Other Minds''

''God and Other Minds: A Study of the Rational Justification of Belief in God'' was originally published by

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 t ...

in 1967. An edition with a new preface by Plantinga was published in 1990 (). The book explores the rationality of belief in God, as conceived in the Hebrew-Christian tradition. In Part, I, Plantinga examines a number of traditional arguments for God's existence and concludes that none successfully demonstrate God's existence. In Part II, he considers and rejects some major arguments against belief in God, including

the problem of evil The problem of evil is the question of how to reconcile the existence of evil and suffering with an omnipotent, omnibenevolent, and omniscient God.The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy,The Problem of Evil, Michael TooleyThe Internet Encyclope ...

, the paradox of omnipotence, and

verificationism Verificationism, also known as the verification principle or the verifiability criterion of meaning, is the philosophical doctrine which maintains that only statements that are empirically verifiable (i.e. verifiable through the senses) are cogniti ...

. Finally, in Part III, he explores various analogies between belief in God and belief in other minds. He concludes that these two beliefs are in the same epistemic boat: if one is rationally justified, so is the other. Since belief in other minds is clearly rational, Plantinga argues, so is belief in God. The book has the following chapters: Part I: Natural Theology * Ch 1: The

Cosmological Argument A cosmological argument, in natural theology, is an argument which claims that the existence of God can be inferred from facts concerning causation, explanation, change, motion, contingency, dependency, or finitude with respect to the universe ...

* Ch 2: The Ontological Argument - I * Ch 3: The Ontological Argument - II * Ch 4: 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 ...

Part II: Natural Atheology * Ch 5: The Problem of Evil * Ch 6: The Free Will Defense * Ch 7: Verificationism and other Atheologica Part III: God and Other Minds * Ch 8: Other Minds and Analogy * Ch 9: Alternatives to the Analogical Position * Ch 10: God and Analogy

Scholarly reaction

Michael A. Slote in ''

The Journal of Philosophy ''The Journal of Philosophy'' is a monthly peer-reviewed academic journal on philosophy, founded in 1904 at Columbia University. Its stated purpose is "To publish philosophical articles of current interest and encourage the interchange of ideas, ...

'' considered that " is book is one of the most important to have appeared in this century on the philosophy of religion, and makes outstanding contributions to our understanding of the problem of other minds as well". According to the philosopher

William Lane Craig William Lane Craig (born August 23, 1949) is an American analytic philosopher, Christian apologist, author and Wesleyan theologian who upholds the view of Molinism and neo-Apollinarianism. He is Professor of Philosophy at Houston Baptist ...

, ''God and Other Minds'' helped to revitalize philosophy of religion after the palmy days of logical positivism by applying "the tools of analytic philosophy to questions in the philosophy of religion with an unprecedented rigor and creativity." Plantinga's response to the problem of evilthe so-called ''free will defense'', which argues that it is possible that God could not have created a world with a better balance of good over evil than does the actual worldprovoked considerable scholarly discussion.See the extensive bibliography in Tomberlin and van Inwagen, pp. 405-06.

References

External links

SEP article on Other Minds
{{DEFAULTSORT:God And Other Minds Philosophy books 1967 non-fiction books Books with atheism-related themes Cornell University Press books