Religion G4: Plantinga - Knowledge

Here Plantinga responds to Van Hook's questions about religious knowledge. Plantinga had claimed to KNOW that there is a God, even though he had no argument and admitted that rational persons could disagree. Van Hook objected: "Doesn't this commit you to a permissive 'anything goes' view of knowledge? If not, then what do you mean by 'knowledge'?"

Plantinga responds that his view doesn't commit him to a permissive approach to knowledge. He explains "knowledge" as a true belief that comes from the proper functioning of our mental capacities; we can know without being able to convince others.

This exercise deals with a reading from Plantinga in our anthology (pages 330-6 of Philosophy of Religion: Selected Readings, edited by Peterson, Hasker, Reichenbach, and Basinger). These computerized exercise materials are copyrighted (c) 1999 by Harry J. Gensler; but they may be distributed freely.