Alvin Plantinga
• American philosopher.
• 15 November 1932.
• Defender of Malcolm, to some
extent!!
• Expressed a modal logic version of
the ontological argument.
Modal Logic
Definition offered by the Stanford
Encyclopaedia of Philosophy:
A modal is an expression (like ‘necessarily’
or ‘possibly’) that is used to qualify the
truth of a judgement. Modal logic is,
strictly speaking, the study of the
deductive behaviour of the expressions
‘it is necessary that’ and ‘it is possible
that’.
Alvin Plantinga
•
Argued that religious belief is foundational; i.e. it
does not stand in need of external justification.
•
Formulated a more complex OA in order to evade
the classic criticisms and show that belief can be
defended through the argument.
•
“…what I claim for this argument therefore, is that
it establishes not the truth of theism, but its
rational acceptability.”
Alvin Plantinga
• ‘Possible world’ analysis of statements
about possibility and necessity.
• Read Lacewing pp193-195.
Alvin Plantinga
See Lacewing pp195-197.
Two concepts used by Plantinga:
• Maximal excellence = having omnipotence,
omniscience, moral perfection. This is the
God of traditional theism.
• Maximal greatness = has maximal excellence
in every possible world.
If a being exhibits maximal greatness, it
exhibits maximal excellence in every possible
world.
Criticisms of Plantinga:
See Lacewing pp198.
• Appeals to a possible world to show that the
existence of a maximally excellent being is
logically necessary in this world.
• Has failed to show that the possible world
must be real.
• Mackie, ‘The Miracle of Theism’, accuses
Plantinga of “……subverting all the principles
of the understanding of so many intelligent
readers.”