An Epistemic Defeater for Islamic Belief?
A Reply to Baldwin and McNabb
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.24204/ejpr.2022.3483Keywords:
Islamic epistemology, defeaters, proper functionalism, reformed epistemology, PlantingaAbstract
Abstract. This article seeks to outline how a Muslim believer can deflect a defeater for Islamic belief put forward by Erik Baldwin and Tyler McNabb. In doing so, it aims to reject the suggestion that an Islamic religious epistemology is somehow antithetical to a model of Reformed epistemology (RE) which is not fully compatible with Plantingian. Taken together with previous work on Islam and RE, the article not only aims to provide reason to think that Baldwin and McNabb’s proposed epistemic defeater for Islamic belief isn’t problematic, it also seeks to show how the concerns raised by Baldwin and McNabb over a Plantingian model of RE in Islamic milieu, are no longer tenable.
References
al-Iṣfahānī. 1991. al-Mufradāt fī Gharīb al-Qur’ān. Mecca: Maktaba Nizār Muṣtafā al-Bāz.
Ali, Zain. 2013. Faith, Philosophy and the Reflective Muslim. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Baldwin, Erik. 2010. “On the Prospects of an Islamic Externalist Account of Warrant.” In Classic Issues in Islamic Philosophy and Theology Today, edited by A-T. Tymieniecka and Nazif. Muhtaroglu, 19–41. Dordrecht: Springer.
Baldwin, Erik & McNabb, Tyler. 2015. “An Epistemic Defeater for Islamic Belief”. International Journal of Philosophy and Theology, 76, no. 4: 352–367.
Ballantyne, Nathan. 2019. Knowing Our Limits. New York: Oxford Univ. Press.
Bergmann, Michael. 2005. “Defeaters and Higher-Level Requirements”. The Philosophical Quarterly 55, no. 220: 419–436.
Bergmann, Michael. 2006. Justification without Awareness. New York: Oxford Univ. Press.
Fairūzābādī. 2005. al-Qāmūs al-Muḥīṭ. Beirut: Mu’asasa al-Risāla.
Ibn Manzūr. 1993. Lisān al-‘Arab vol5. Beirut: Dār Ṣādir.
IslamWeb.net English. n.d. “Scheming is Only Ascribed to Allah in the Context of Perfection”. Accessed March 5, 2022. https://www.islamweb.net/en/fatwa/381910/scheming-is-only-ascribed-to-allah-in-the-context-of-perfection.
Lane, W., & Lane-Poole, S. 1955. Arabic-English Lexicon: Volume 7. New York: F. Ungar Publishing Company.
McNabb, Tyler. 2020 “Proper Functionalism”. In Debating Christian Religious Epistemology: An Introduction to Five Views on the Knowledge of God, edited by John M. DePoe & Tyler McNabb, 107–22. London: Bloomsbury Academic.
McNabb, Tyler. 2018. Religious Epistemology. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press.
Moon, Andrew. 2021. “Circular and question begging responses to religious disagreement and debunking arguments”. Philosophical Studies 178, no. 3: 785–809.
Plantinga, Alvin. 2002. “Reply to Beilby’s Cohorts”. In Naturalism Defeated?, edited by James Beilby, 204–275. Ithaca: Cornell Univ. Press.
Plantinga, Alvin. 1993. Warrant and Proper Function. New York: Oxford Univ. Press.
Plantinga, Alvin. 2000. Warranted Christian Belief. New York: Oxford Univ. Press.
Sudduth, Michael. 2008. “Defeaters in Epistemology”. Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. http://www.iep.utm.edu/ep-defea/.
Turner, Jamie B. 2021. “An Islamic Account of Reformed Epistemology”. Philosophy East and West 71, no. 3: 767–792.
Wielenberg, Erik J. 2014. “Divine Deception”. In Skeptical Theism: New Essays, edited by Trent Dougherty and Justin P. McBrayer, 236–249. New York: Oxford Univ. Press.
