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PLANTINGA'S BASICALISM

A TYPICAL CASE OF AMBIVALENCE BETWEEN FIDEISM AND EVIDENTIALISM

Abstract

In this paper, I seek to elaborate and critically examine Alvin Plantinga's narrative on the basicality of religious beliefs. Plantinga is a contemporary American Philosopher who is famous for his sharp philosophical analysis and logical skills he employs to defend the epistemic warrant of theistic beliefs. Though his epistemology is based on Calvinist reformed theology (a grand narrative in itself), he paradoxically insists that his position is rationally justified on the basis of Chisholm's epistemic insight. He claims to be Postmodernist in the sense that he rejects the idea that there must be some shared criteria of rationality which could lay claim to hold a lock on truth. For him there is no neutral ground and in the same way there is no objective framework for adjudication of conflicting truth - claims. Each group is entitled to live according its own standards. There is no need to conform to the views of those who follow Bertrand Russell and Madelyn Murray O'Hare. But despite this, Plantinga strongly holds that religious beliefs are on a par with beliefs based on cognitive faculties such as perception, memory and reasoning. This ambivalence persisting in Plantinga's position forms the core of our discourse in this' article

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