Agnosticism: Explorations in Philosophy and Religious Thought

Cover
Agnosticism: Explorations in Philosophy and Religious Thought
Copyright
Dedication
Contents
List of Contributors
Introduction
	Bibliography
Chapter 1: The New Agnosticism
	I. The Rocket at the Bottom of the Garden
	II. Three Kinds of Agnosticism
	III. Is This a Game? Defining Religious Semantic Agnosticism
	IV. A Confused Amalgam? Defending Religious Semantic Agnosticism
	V. Return to the Bottom of the Garden
	Bibliography
Chapter 2: What is Wrong with Agnostic Belief?
	I. Second-order Agnosticism
	II. First Assumption: Agnostic Belief is Possible
	III. Second Assumption: Second-order Agnosticism Can Be Justified
	IV. First Answer: Agnostic Belief Goes Against Rational Requirement to Withhold Judgement
		(a) Is Agnostic Belief Really Unjustified?
		(b) Would It Matter That H Is Unjustified?
		(c) What Does Agnosticism Have to Do with It?
	V. Second Answer: Agnostic Belief is an Akratic State
	VI. Third Answer: Agnostic Belief Commits One to a Moore-paradoxical Judgement
		(a) Is a Moore-paradoxical Sentence Produced by Agnostic Belief Absurd?
		(b) Would the Absurdity of Judging the Conjunction Show What is Wrong with Agnostic Belief?
	VII. Conclusion: With Reservations and Concessions, Agnostic Belief Need Not Be Irrational
		(a) On the Partial, or Non-categorical Natureof the Agnostic’s Belief
		(b) What Else Should the Agnostic BelieverBelieve and Do?
	Bibliography
Chapter 3: If Agnosticism, Then What?
	I. Introduction
	II. Relating Agnosticism to Theism and Atheism
		(a) Compelling Grounds for Belief, Even Given Epistemological Agnosticism? Plantinga’s Basic Beliefs and Gutting’s Multiple Dimensions
		(b) Wager Arguments: Pascal, James, and Gutting
	III. Ambivalence over Indifference
		(a) Mystery
		(b) Case Study: Oscar Wilde
		(c) The Place of Belief
	IV. Conclusion: From Attitude to Practice—the Scope of Agnosticism
	Bibliography
	Further Reading
Chapter 4: ‘New Agnosticism’, Imaginative Challenge, and Religious Experience
	I. Introduction
	II. Schellenberg’s ‘New Agnosticism’: Ultimistic Non-doxastic Faith
	III. A Potential Challenge to Ultimism from Kantian-inspired Religious Pluralism
	IV. The Challenge to Ultimism from a Broader Religious Framework Proposition (Ietsism)
	V. Conclusion
	Bibliography
Chapter 5: Hegel, Wittgenstein, and the Question of Agnosticism
	I
	II
	III
	IV
	Bibliography
Chapter 6: Aquinas and Agnosticism
	I. Agnosticism
		(a) Insouciant Agnosticism
		(b) Sceptical Agnosticism
		(c) Fideistic Agnosticism
		(d) Apophatic Agnosticism
	II. Kenny’s Sceptical Agnosticism
	III. Aquinas’ Texts
		(a) Commentary on the Sentences
		(b) Commentary on Boethius’s De Trinitate
		(c) Summa Contra Gentiles
		(d) Summa Theologiae
	IV. Stating Aquinas’ Position
	V. Issues about Existence
	VI. The Purpose of the Apophatic Dimension
	VII. Conclusion
	Bibliography
Chapter 7: Redeeming Agnosticism: Richard Kearney’s Anatheistic Wager
	I. Introduction
	II. The Sources of Anatheism
	III. The Jewish Influence of Emmanuel Levinas
	IV. The Agnostic Influence of Virginia Woolf
	V. The Christian Influence of Dietrich Bonhoeffer
	VI. Eucharistic Agnosis
	VII. Individual Agnosis
	VIII. Redeeming Agnosticism: The Anatheistic Difference
	Bibliography
Index