Theory of Knowledge
The nature of knowledge, justification, and the sources of belief—grounded in minds designed for truth.
Sources of Knowledge
How do we acquire knowledge? Epistemology identifies several sources: perception, reason, memory, testimony, and perhaps intuition.
Each source has its proper domain. Perception gives us knowledge of the physical world; reason gives us logical and mathematical truths; testimony transmits knowledge from others.
- Perception: We know the world through our senses—but can we trust them? Theism grounds the reliability of perception in divine design.
- Reason: We know logical and mathematical truths through reason alone. A priori knowledge is possible because minds are made for truth.
- Testimony: Much of what we know comes from others—including religious testimony. Testimony is a basic source of knowledge, not reducible to inference.
- Intuition: Some truths are self-evident—known immediately without inference. Moral intuitions, logical axioms, and perhaps religious experience.
Theistic Epistemology
Theism provides a foundation for knowledge. If God designed our minds for truth, we can trust our cognitive faculties.
Plantinga's evolutionary argument against naturalism shows that naturalism undermines itself. If our minds evolved for survival, not truth, we have no reason to trust them—including our belief in naturalism.
- Reliability of Reason: If God designed our minds, we can trust them to track truth. The imago Dei grounds our cognitive reliability.
- Evolutionary Argument: Plantinga: naturalism undermines confidence in our cognitive faculties. Evolution selects for survival, not truth.
- Sensus Divinitatis: We may have a natural faculty for knowing God—like perception. Calvin's sensus divinitatis is a basic source of theistic belief.
- Reformed Epistemology: Belief in God can be properly basic—not based on argument but on immediate experience. Plantinga, Wolterstorff, and Alston develop this view.