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FAITH AND REASON
Main Questions
• What is the relation between faith and reason?
• Can there be a faith without reason?
• What can be the epistemic value of faith/ religious beliefs? How are we to justify them?
• Is it possible to justify faith on some non-epistemic grounds?
WHAT IS THE JUSTIFICATION?
• Justification can be both a priori and a posteriori.
• For example, we can prove the truth of a proposition such as «a triangle has three angles» or «3+3=6» in an analytical way, i.e., by definition.
• On the other hand, the truth of propositions such as «the earth is
round» or «water is H2O» verified through observations.
THE CONCEPT OF FAITH
• «Faith» seems to have two components: (1) epistemic (2) non-epistemic.
• The epistemic aspect of faith involves the justification of beliefs which are generated by faith such as the beliefs about the existence and nature of God.
• The non-epistemic aspect of faith has to do rather with the practical or existential dimensions of faith in terms of trust and submission.
PROPOSITIONAL FAITH
• A common distinction is made between «propositional (doxastic) faith»
and «non-propositional faith (non-doxastic) faith».
• Since a propositional faith makes a truth claim it can naturally be subjected to an epistemic evaluation. That is, it can be justified or unjustified.
• Islamic confession of faith (shahadah), for example, involves such a truth claim together with submission.
NON-PROPOSITIONAL FAITH
• Faith does not essentially depend on propositional elements such as beliefs for its validity.
• Faith can be explicated in terms of an engagement such as «trust»
rather than «belief».
• However, it remains difficult to see how these two aspects of faith can
be conceived apart from each other.
FIDEISM
• Fideism may be defined in various ways:
- Faith does not depend on reason.
- Faith cannot be subject to rational evaluation.
- A faith based on reason is not a true faith.
• Fideists therefore refuse to support their faith with rational evidence.
• Fideism can be divided into two: moderate fideism and radical fideism.
• Moderate fideists claim that faith signifies something that goes beyond reason, but it does not contradict with reason. [Pascal, William James]
• Radical fideists claim that faith not only goes beyond reason, but also goes against it. [Tertullian, Kierkegaard]
CRITICISM OF FIDEISM
• By ignoring the rational justification, fideism seems to trivialize the question of truth in the case of faith.
• How are to differentiate betwee a true faith and an untrue faith?
• This question is relevant even if we suppose that faith involves some sort of a «leap»: which faith? Or which conception of God?
• Again, it is not clear that faith cannot be settled on rational grounds.
• The theistic arguments or non-theistic arguments may be found convicing or unconvincing, but this is far cry from saying that they all fail or are irrelevant to faith.
