Epistemology: The Justification of Belief

by David L. Wolfe

extremely rare,very good condition

Genres: Philosophy

92 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1982

Reviews

[Timothy Darling · Rating 3 out of 5]

I took way too many notes on this book to try to put them all here. Suffice it to say it raises two important points in my thinking. One, that I am decidedly philosophically ill equipped to judge this book. I have too weak a background in the language of epistimology to state an opinion on whether or not this is a good book. It is certainly a complicated book and requires more careful reading than I am currently accustomed to. I found myself retracing my steps two and sometimes three time in order to gain even a little understanding of what I was reading.

Second, it gives a reasonable set of parameters by which to judge whether a personally held belief is valid:
Consistency (internal freedom from contradiction)
Coherence (whether or not the internal statements of the belief system are inter-related)
Comprehensiveness (the applicabllity of the interpretive scheme to all experience)
Congruity (how appropriate is the system to the experience it proports to interpret?)

Once this set of tests are forwarded, the rest of the book relates back to them, building them into an epistemological juggernaut. Wolfe even shows how they are used by Jesus, Paul and Moses. Once he got to this point in his discussion it became helpful. The reader could see how to apply them to his own thinking.

Finally Wolfe relieves the reader of two serious sources of doubt. One is the idea that doubt is valid when the only alternative to rejecting the criticism is adopting the critic's own view wholesale. This is not an arguement against the epistemology of the belief holder but against faith itself, and the critic also holds faith whether he admits it or not. The second is the idea that hearing criticism is tantamount to expressing a lack of faith. On the contrary, it is an expression that the ideas we have faith in can stand scrutiny.

I do not recommend this book for just anyone. It will be terminally boring and inaccessible to many. In addition, some will not agree with the author's idea that we do not hold faith in terms of certain knowledge and ultimate truth, but in terms of probability and likelihood. He does clarify that in every day terms, the former ideas still apply, but he likes to maintain an attitude of humility ... that he could be wrong.

[Steven H · Rating 5 out of 5]

AN EVANGELICAL PRESENTATION OF THE "THEORY OF KNOWLEDGE"

In the Author's Preface to this 1982 book, David Wolfe wrote, "The basic outline of this book began to take shape about ten years ago when I agreed to teach a course in religious epistemology at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. After teaching it several times there, it received a new embodiment at Gordon College as an undergraduate course."

He states, "many thinkers have held that it is self-evident that all of our perceptions are private events occurring in the interior of the mind, that physical objects are logical fictions constructed out of such sense experiences. The realm of religious experience is an even more dramatic confusion. Every religion, primitive or worldwide, has its visions, changed lives and conversions. Each has its representatives who with serene confidence or rabid fervor appeal to their personal experiences which validate their religious claims." (Pg. 24)

He cautions, "Overcoming these difficulties involves swallowing two hard mental lumps. The first lump is a proposal I will make about criteria for evaluating interpretive schemes. If such criteria are not achievable, then relativism is unavoidable and beliefs cannot be warranted. The other lump will be to see warrant itself in a new way. To overcome the problems with verification we will have to take our old view of what a justified belief is and virtually turn it inside out." (Pg. 41)

He states, "I do not have it in for relativism. In many respects I find it a fascinating, even attractive, alternative. It engenders epistemological humility, defeats an arrogant pomposity of belief, even promotes a sort of democratic ideal in matters of knowledge. Perhaps its most comforting feature is that it requires no hard work at all in the matter of justifying beliefs." (Pg. 43)

He suggests, "Given that at a particular time more than one interpretive scheme may APPEAR adequate, I would like to suggest a strategy for this situation. Start where you are. Continue with ... the interpretive scheme which is personally most important or interesting to you and pursue it as long as it does not succumb to active criticism. There is a genuinely subjective element here. Why not go with the scheme that seems to you to offer the richest view, the greatest hope, the most powerful values? Why not search out the warrant of a subjectively interesting and momentous interpretive scheme before going on to less interesting ones? And if it withstands criticism, it could be profoundly important." (Pg. 68)

This is an excellent introduction to the subject from an evangelical perspective.

[Jess · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thoroughly interesting and well-constructed

[Milton Goodwin · Rating 4 out of 5]

this book did more, when I read it, than most of the books in my library to form my thoughts into coherent cohesive ideas. This sets the table to understand why we think about just about everything if not everything. It simply lead me to think this simple distillation: We are the sum of what we believe or think. OR as a much more famous and REAL author put it: as a man thinks so is he. The path of understanding one's own heart begins and may well end in one's epistemology. It is just that simple. I would commend it to anyone who wants to truly know themselves and why they think what they think. But be ready to find that your basis may be weak indeed and in need of a transplant of real Belief

[Jeffrey · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best introductions to epistemology including epistemic virtues.